Louis-François-Marie-Nicolas Le Goarant de Tromelin (January 11, 1786 in

Morbihan Morbihan ( , ; br, Mor-Bihan ) is a department in the administrative region of Brittany, situated in the northwest of France. It is named after the Morbihan (''small sea'' in Breton), the enclosed sea that is the principal feature of the coastl ...

, Gavrin – 1867), was a nineteenth-century French Naval admiral, sent to the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

on political and military missions, and credited with the discovery of Phoenix Island (Rawaki) in the

Phoenix group Phoenix Group Holdings plc (formerly Pearl Group plc) is a provider of insurance services based in London, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. History The company was founded in 1857 a ...

and

Fais Island Fais Island is a raised coral island in the eastern Caroline Islands in the Pacific Ocean, and forms a legislative district in Yap State in the Federated States of Micronesia. Fais Island is located approximately east of Ulithi and northeast o ...

in the Carolines.

Naval service

Tromelin joined the

French Navy The French Navy (french: Marine nationale, lit=National Navy), informally , is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in t ...

in 1800, and served on various ships during the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

, before gaining command of the corvette ''Bayonnaise'' in 1826 and on 21 December sailed from

Toulon Toulon (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Tolon , , ) is a city on the French Riviera and a large port on the Mediterranean coast, with a major naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, and the Provence province, Toulon is th ...

for

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, via the Hawaiian Islands, where he was to report on the political situation and ease the plight of French missionaries. He visited various islands of the Pacific en route, and returned to Toulon 19 March 1829.Dunmore, p 250 Attaining the rank of rear admiral, Tromelin returned to the Pacific in 1846 as commander of the French naval forces in the Pacific. In August 1849 he occupied the fort of Honolulu.

Island discoveries

Phoenix Island

While aboard the corvette ''Bayonnaise'', Tromelin came across Sydney Island and Phoenix Island, probably in 1828,Maude, p 131 although some sources state 1823 and 1826. Placing the island at 3°42'S, 189°17'E, Tromelin claimed it was already reported on Norie's map. A "Phenix", plus unnamed islands at similar coordinates feature in Jeremiah N. Reynolds's 1828 report to the American Navy, but the source of the name (and discoverer) remains contentious.

Fais Island

Tromelin is sometimes credited for the discovery of

, although that honour might also belong to Francisco de Castro, whose sixteenth century journey to the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

took him through the

Caroline Islands The Caroline Islands (or the Carolines) are a widely scattered archipelago of tiny islands in the western Pacific Ocean, to the north of New Guinea. Politically, they are divided between the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) in the ce ...

.Dunmore, pp 52 & 250

Notes

References

* Dunmore, John (1992); ''Who's Who in Pacific Navigation'', Australia:Melbourne University Press, * Maude, H.E., (1968) ''Of Islands and Men: Studies in Pacific History'', Melbourne:

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

. . * Sharp, Andrew (1960); ''The Discovery of the Pacific Islands'', Oxford:Oxford University Press, * Quanchi, Max & Robson, John, (2005); ''Historical Dictionary of the Discovery and Exploration of the Pacific Islands'', USA: Scarecrow Press, {{DEFAULTSORT:Tromelin, Louis 1786 births 1867 deaths French explorers of the Pacific French military personnel of the Napoleonic Wars French Navy admirals History of Kiribati