Nicolas Baudin
Born	(1754-02-17)17 February 1754 Saint-Martin-de-Ré, Île de Ré, France
Died	16 September 1803(1803-09-16) (aged 49) Isle de France
Occupations	Explorer cartographer naturalist hydrographer

Nicolas Thomas Baudin (17 February 1754 – 16 September 1803) was a French explorer, cartographer, naturalist and hydrographer. He is known for his explorations in Australia and the southern Pacific. He carried a few corms of Gros Michel banana from Southeast Asia, and planting them at a botanical garden on the Caribbean island of Martinique.

He was born in Saint-Martin-de-Ré on the Île de Ré on 17 February 1754,^[1]. Baudin became a sailor when he was 15 years old. He joined the French East India Company at the age of 20 on Flamand. He returned from India on L'Étoile and arrived at Lorient.

In 1778, he was to set sail from Nantes on Lion as second lieutenant. It was a ship equipped by his uncle, Jean Peltier Dudoyer, at the request of the Americans. The ship would become a privateer and be renamed Deane. The French and American crews on Lion did not work well together, and Baudin moved to Duc de Choiseul, another ship equipped by his uncle. Officially it was heading for Saint-Domingue, but in fact the destination was Nova Scotia. However the vessel was shipwrecked at Liverpool, Nova Scotia.

Baudin was wounded, taken prisoner by the British on 24 April 1778 and interned in Halifax, Canada. One month later he escaped with 10 other prisoners and hid among the friendly communities of Acadia. He was made captain of the transport vessel Amphitrite. The ship was sunk by the English 160 nautical miles (290 km) out to sea. Baudin was rescued in a rowing boat and made his way to Cape Cod and then Boston. He became captain of Revanche, 400 tons, with 30 men and 12 cannon. They were captured by the English outside Cap-Français, heading for Boston. He was taken to Jamaica as a prisoner, then exchanged at the request of the Comte d'Argout, the Governor of Saint-Domingue. He returned to France on board the frigate Minerve, under the command of Captain de Grimouard, who was later guillotined at Rochefort under the National Convention.

Back in France in March 1780, he was appointed captain to sail in merchant ships. He was named captain of Apollon, a ship of 1,100 tons and 42 cannon, again fitted out by his uncle. This was going to be part of the convoy which took the Legion of Luxembourg to strengthen the defence of the Dutch Cape Colony at the Cape of Good Hope. However, during a stopover in Brest, the Comte d'Hector decided he would appoint a man with more experience. Baudin returned to Nantes, where his uncle gave him command of Aimable Eugenie, a ship of 600 tons. He went to Saint-Domingue and then to the US. He went back to Bordeaux and left the Gironde on 9 December 1782 as part of a convoy of five ships. Three days later, in the Action of 12 December 1782, the convoy was attacked by an English ship, HMS Mediator. After a hard battle, Baudin escaped, but two other ships were captured.

Reaching Saint-Domingue, the ship sank on 23 March 1783 at Puerto Plata, but the cargo was saved. He purchased a ship Prince Royal and went back to Nantes on 23 April. In August he resold the boat, which he renamed Union des 6 Frères, to Robert Pitot, a shipbuilder from the Isle de France.

In April 1784, Baudin left once more for Saint-Domingue on Comte d'Angevillier, 1,000 tons with eight cannon. He was accompanied by his brother Alexandre Baudin as first mate. Baudin had a 25% stake in the voyage and they returned to Nantes on 8 December 1784.

In April 1785, he wrote to Benjamin Franklin asking to be made a member of the Society of the Cincinnati. He signed his letter 'Commander of the private frigate Comte d'Angevilliers.

In July 1785, the Baudin brothers bought Caroline, a ship of 200 tons. He was to take the last Acadians (French settlers) to Louisiana. He was a few months behind his brother Alexandre who was captain of Saint Remy, built his uncle. In La Nouvelle Orléans^[2] local merchants employed him to take a cargo of wood, salted meat, cod and flour to Isle de France (now Mauritius). He sailed in Josephine (also called Pepita), leaving New Orleans in July 1786 and arriving at Isle de France in March 1787.

During the voyage, Josephine had called at Cap‑Français in Haiti to arrange to take slaves there from Madagascar. In Haiti he met the Austrian botanist Franz Joseph Märter. Märter told him that another Austrian botanist, Franz Boos, was at the Cape of Good Hope awaiting a ship to take him to Mauritius. Josephine called at the Cape and took Boos on board.^[3] At Mauritius, Boos paid Baudin to transport him and his collection of plant specimens he had gathered there and at the Cape back to Europe. They arriving at Trieste on 18 June 1788.^[4] The Imperial government in Vienna was planning another natural-history expedition. Boos would take two ships to the Malabar (southwest coast of India) and Coromandel (south east coast of India) coasts of India, the Persian Gulf, Bengal, Ceylon, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Cochin China (now the southern part of Vietnam), Tongking (now the northern part of Vietnam, Japan, and China. Baudin hoped that he would be given command of the ships of this expedition.^[5]

Later in 1788, Baudin sailed from Trieste to Canton in Jardinière. He sailed under the US flag, probably to avoid the having his ship seized by the Chinese for payment of the debts owed them by the Imperial Asiatic Company of Trieste.^[6] From there, he sent Jardinière under her second captain on a fur-trading trip to the north-west coast of America, but the ship sank off Asuncion Island in the Northern Marianas Islands in late 1789.^[7]

Baudin made his way back to Mauritius, where he purchased a another ship, Jardinière II, but this vessel was wrecked in a cyclone that struck Port Louis on 15 December 1789. Baudin sailed on the Spanish Royal Philippines Company ship, Placeres, which sailed from Port Louis for Cadiz in August 1790. Placeres called at the Cape of Good Hope where it took on board plant and animal specimens collected in South Africa for the Imperial palace at Schönbrunn by Georg Scholl, the assistant of Franz Boos. Because of the poor condition of the ship, Placeres had to put in at the island of Trinidad in the West Indies, where Scholl's collection of specimens was deposited.^[8]

Baudin went to Martinique, and contacted the government in Vienna. He offered to take officials from Vienna to Canton where they could settle the debts of the Imperial Asiatic Company. This would enable the company to renew its trade with China. On its return voyage from Canton, he could call at the Cape of Good Hope to pick up Scholl and move his natural-history collection to Schönbrunn.

After returning to Vienna in September 1791, Baudin continued to asked to lead an expedition under the Imperial flag to the Indian Ocean and China. In January 1792 he was made a captain in the Imperial navy for this purpose. A ship, called Jardinière, was provided and the botanists Franz Bredemeyer and Joseph van der Schot appointed to the expedition.^[9] After delays caused by the outbreak of war between France and Austria (April 1792), Jardinière left the Spanish port of Málaga on 1 October 1792.^[10] From the Cape of Good Hope Jardinière sailed across the Indian Ocean to the coast of New Holland (Australia), but two cyclones forced Baudin to take the ship to Bombay for repairs.

From Bombay he sailed to the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and the east coast of Africa. They gathered botanical and zoological collections. The expedition came to an abrupt end in June 1794 when Jardinière went aground in a storm while attempting to enter Table Bay at the Cape of Good Hope. Baudin survived the wreck and made his way to the US, from where he went to France.^[11] As the Cape had been occupied by the English in June 1795, Baudin went back to New England. In November 1795, he set sail from New York as a passenger on board the American ship, Ocean. He arrived in Le Havre in December 1795. Baudin believed that he was expected and offered his services and his talents. He wrote to the Minister to give notice of his arrival in Paris. The Minister however was not expecting him and wrote a note on the letter: 'Could Bonneville please tell me if he knows Captain Baudin and for which mission he was responsible?' Baudin sent the cargo of natural history specimens to the island of Trinidad.

In Paris, Baudin visited Antoine de Jussieu at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris. He offered to lead an expedition in to the Caribbean, during which he would recover the collection of specimens he had left in Trinidad. The museum and the French government agreed, and Baudin was appointed commander of an expedition in Belle Angélique, with four assigned naturalists: René Maugé, André Pierre Ledru, Anselme Riedlé and Stanislas Levillain. They left Le Havre on 30 September 1796 for the Canary Islands, where the ship was discovered to be unseaworthy. The expedition sailed from the Canaries in a replacement vessel, Fanny, and reached Trinidad in April 1797. The British, who had just captured the island from the Spanish in February 1797, refused to allow Baudin to recover the collection of natural-history specimens. Baudin took Fanny to St. Thomas and St. Croix, and then to Puerto Rico, collecting new specimens in all three islands. At St Croix, Fanny was replaced by a newly purchased ship, renamed Belle Angelique.^[12] The expedition returned to France in June 1798 with a large collection of plants, birds and insects. These were included into Bonaparte's triumphal procession, on 27 July, celebrating his recent Italian victories.^[13] Baudin was rejoined the navy with the rank of Chief of Staff to Admiral Bruix. Baudin joined Bruix on Océan, on which Bruix was in charge of the squadron which resupplied Genoa.

In July 1798, Baudin spoke to the Assembly of Professors and Administrators of the National Museum of Natural History. He wanted to explore and map the South Seas. They would search for animals and plants that could be brought back to France. The expedition would promote French business interests in the area. He needed two well-equipped ships, with a team of astronomers, naturalists and scientific artists. Baudin would be commander with absolute authority. He would explore the coast of Chile, Peru and Mexico. The expedition would then go to the Pacific Ocean, visit Tahiti and the Society Island. He would then explored the south-west coast of New Holland (Australia).^[14] The French government only agreed to a survey of western and southern New Holland.

In October 1800, Baudin was selected by Bonaparte, whose wife Josephine was very interested in Australia, to lead an expedition to map the coast of New Holland. He was given two ships, the corvettes Géographe and Naturaliste, nine zoologists and botanists, including Jean Baptiste Leschenault de la Tour. Baudin left Le Havre on 19 October 1800, stopping at Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and then straight to the Ile de France. He arrived on 15 March 1801, 145 days later. They reached Australia in May 1801, and explored and mapped the western coast, and a part of the little-known southern coast. They discovered more than 2,500 new species. The French also met Aboriginal peoples and treated them with great respect.

In April 1802, Baudin met Matthew Flinders at Encounter Bay, South Australia. Flinders was making maps of the coast for the British. Baudin then stopped at the British colony at Sydney for supplies. The Naturaliste was sent back to France with all the pant and animal specimens. François Péron, the chief zoologist, wrote a report for Bonaparte on how the French could invade and capture the colony.^[15]

The Géographe was too big to enter the shallow waters along the Australian coast. Baudin bought a new small ship, Casuarina, named after the wood it was made from. The captain was Louis de Freycinet, who would, 15 years later, make his own circumnavigation of the world in the corvette l'Uranie. Baudin went back to Tasmania, before continuing to make maps of the southern and western coasts of Australia. When they reached Timor he was in very poor health, and decided to return home.

Baudin died of tuberculosis at Mauritius on 16 September 1803, at the age of 49. It is not known exactly where he is buried.^[16]

These were his last wishes:

"He gives and bequeaths to citizen Augustin Baudin, his brother, currently in India, his silver marine watch, his night telescope and an 'Oriental Neptune'. He gives and bequeaths to Citizen Ronsin, wife of Citizen Louis Peltier, his porcelain from Saxony and Chantilly, consisting of three services, one of twelve cups, one of six and one of two pieces plus his gold watch. He names as the Executor of his will Citizen Louis Peltier (brother of Jean Peltier Dudoyer), Judge of the Court of Appeal of this colony, to whom he entrusts the execution of the present document wishing and expecting that his goods be distrained in accordance with usual custom."

There are many monuments to Baudin around Australia, including eight in Western Australia.^[17]

In Western Australia, there are many places with names from the French ships, sponsors and crew of Baudin's 1801–04 voyage and Louis de Freycinet's voyage in 1802–3, including:

In South Australia, the following places have Baudin's name:

• Baudin Beach on Kangaroo Island
• Baudin Rocks on the south-east coast of the state
• Nicolas Baudin Island, on the west coast of Eyre Peninsula^[18]

In the Australian Capital Territory, there is Baudin Street in the suburb of Forrest.

Six animals are named in his honour:

• Calyptorhynchus baudinii Lear, 1832 – Baudin's black cockatoo
• Smilisca baudinii (A.M.C. Duméril & Bibron, 1841) – common Mexican tree frog (Hylidae)
• Emoia baudini (A.M.C. Duméril & Bibron, 1839) – Baudin's emo skink (Scincidae)^[19]
• Pseudemoia baudini (Greer, 1982) – Bight Coast skink (Scincidae)^[19]
• Zanclea baudini Gershwin & Zeidler, 2003 – a jellyfish (Zancleidae)^[20]
• Baudin pig – a feral pig that adapted to life on Kangaroo Island

The Nicholas Baudin Award,^[21] or Nicholas Baudin Prize,^[22] is awarded at the Antipodean Film Festival in Saint Tropez, France, each year.^[21]

Dunmore, John (1992). Who's Who in Pacific Navigation. Carlton, Victoria, Australia: Melbourne University Press. ISBN 0-522-84488-X.