La Perouse in Lituya Bay.
1786

Watercolor 14" x 21"


The French were anxious to capture some of the prestige James Cook had gained from his three voyages and selected Jean-Francois Galaup, Compte de la Perouse to command a round-the-world voyage. He was to determine the true positions of the Aleutians, the Kurils and areas of the Northwest Coast of America not surveyed by Cook. Two frigates were provided, the BOUSSOLE and ASTROLABE, and eleven scientists and artists were recruited for for what was intended to be a significant scientific voyage. The two ships sailed from Brest in August 1785, made an easy passage round the Horn, called at Easter Island and Hawaii, and on June 23, 1786 they sighted the snowcapped coastal mountains of southeastern Alaska in the vicinity of Mount St. Elias. For the next week they followed the coast to the southeastward, trying to match what they were seeing with their copy of Cook’s chart. On July 2nd. they were off the very narrow entrance to a large inlet which La Perouse entered with trepidation the next day.

The inlet, which they called Port des Francais, is today known as Lituya Bay. It is a deep, majestic “T” shaped fiord with a very narrow and dangerous outlet. Five glaciers hang on the steep sides of the mountains. Ice dislodged by frequent earthquakes create massive waves which have kept the lowest two hundred feet of the shores denuded of all vegetation, and the constricted entrance creates dangerous tidal overfalls which may only be attempted near slack water. A boat and a surveying party of twenty-one sailors were lost in the narrows while sounding the entrance.

The expedition stayed several weeks, made extensive notes and traded with the natives, took observations of their position, surveyed the bay, and made a wonderful chart and sketches. They sailed on July 30th. for Monterey, making a running survey of the coast on the way.