Bougainvillea Expedition - A Female Explorer Discovered On The High Seas

[Pluvious]

The things we never learn in High School.

(Warning, some disturbing descriptions included, human history can be harsh)

(Posted on npr.org Dec. 2010)

The first European to describe these plants was Philibert Commerçon, a botanist accompanying French Navy admiral Louis Antoine de Bougainville during his voyage of circumnavigation of the Earth, and first published by Antoine Laurent de Jussieu in 1789.

It is possible that the first European to observe these plants was Jeanne Baré, Commerçon's lover and assistant who was an expert in botany. Because she was not allowed on ship as a woman, she disguised herself as a man in order to make the journey (and thus became the first woman to circumnavigate the globe).

https://www.npr.org/2010/12/26/132265308/a-female-explorer-discovered-on-the-high-seas

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. She had a fascinating story!

The link is definitely worth reading.

[appalachiablue]

2. Tx fascinating, Baret is new, but I've seen PLUMERIA all over the tropics. Luv it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Baret



Imagined portrait of Jeanne Baret (1740-1807) dressed as a sailor 1817, after her death.

[UpInArms]

3. Thank you for that lovely piece of history

It was fascinating

[abqtommy]

4. It's told that during the American Revolution a woman disguised as a man

(actually there were many such women during the Revolution and Civil wars) see link...
Anyway the woman that I mention bound her breasts and joined the US Navy. In one battle she sat on the end of a yardarm and finally managed to drop a grenade into the hold of the British ship.
What a country! What a people!
...link https://duckduckgo.com/?q=woman+disguised+as+a+man+who+fought+in+the+American+Revolution&t=ffnt&ia=web

[FailureToCommunicate]

5. Ah, the legends of female sailors...

Here a favorite song of the genre, by Triona ni Dhomhnaill, of the Bothy Band...