Story 1: A Lost French Sailor

Thomas Timothy Vasse was an unfortunate French sailor who was lost overboard from a longboat which capsized in the surf near Busselton, in Western Australia in 1801. Despite a wide search by seamen from the Geographe and the Naturaliste (the two ships were conducting a geographical survey of the coast), he was never seen again.

The French Connection

For more than fifty years after Captain Cook claimed New South Wales for Britain, the western half of the Australian continent was the subject of great interest to the French government. Five successful scientific expeditions were conducted to survey and map the coast, assess the mineral wealth, identify flora and fauna and generally increase the skimpy knowledge that existed about the land, its inhabitants and its potential. Numerous land features around the WA coast bear French names today, a testimony to the extensive survey and mapping that was carried out during this period. Nicolas Baudin led the most extensive survey expedition between 1801 and 1803, mapping the coast clockwise from Tasmania and Victoria round to Melville Island.


Beach at Wonnerup Inlet, WA, where Thomas Timothy Vasse was lost.
Source: Pat Baker, WA Maritime Museum

The loss of Vasse

On 5 June 1801, Baudin's two vessels, the corvettes Geographe and Naturaliste had reached the area now known as Busselton, WA. In threatening weather he sent the Geographe's chaloupe (a large boat with several sails, usually translated as 'longboat') ashore with a party of about nineteen men, scientists and sailors. The chaloupe reached the beach in the heavy seas, but was swamped during the landing and sank in the shallows, half-filled with sand. All the party survived. During the next two days the rescue of the party and the salvage of the chaloupe was the major occupation of the expedition. The weather gradually deteriorated, boats moved back and forth between the shore and the two corvettes, rescuing men and equipment. By 8 June, the wind was howling from the north and the surf was said to be frightening. A dinghy from the Naturaliste capsized adjacent to the chaloupe and was swept out to sea, leaving a number of sailors (including Thomas Timothy Vasse from Dieppe) stranded on the shore. The original shore party had been rescued and taken back to the corvettes earlier that day. Finally, late in the day, the cutter from the Naturaliste arrived to rescue the latest castaways. During the difficult rescue operation, Vasse was swept away in the strong surf and disappeared from view. Various accounts of the time say he was drowned, dumped, or carried way by a wave. Finally, all the men returned to the two corvettes and without further ado, Baudin packed up and headed north, leaving the area the next morning.

The stories

In 1804, after Baudin's expedition returned home, stories appeared in French newspapers claiming that Vasse was alive. He was said to have been washed ashore, walked south for 300 miles, picked up by an American whaler and taken as far as the English Channel, where he was arrested by an English ship and thrown into an English prison. French official enquiries at the time concluded this story was a complete fabrication. In 1838, the Western Australian Advocate-General, George Fletcher Moore published an account of the Vasse incident in the Perth Gazette. Moore, a friend of the Bussells, and interested in the local Wardandi Aboriginal language, claimed to have 'gleaned the following particulars' from a recent visit to that part of the coast: “Poor Vasse did escape from the waves but enfeebled as he was with the sickness and exhaustion by his struggles, exposed to the fury of the storm unsheltered and apparently abandoned among the savages, perhaps he would have thought death a preferable lot. But the savages appear to have commiserated his misfortunes; they treated him kindly and relieved his wants to the extent of their power by giving him fish and other food. Thus he continued to live for some time, but for what length of time I have not yet been able to ascertain. He seems to have remained most constantly on the beach looking out for the return of his own ship, or the chance arrival of some other. He pined away gradually in anxiety, becoming daily, as the natives express it, weril weril (thin thin). At last they were absent for some time on a hunting expedition and on their return they found him lying on the beach, within a stone's throw of the waters edge...” Moved by this story, we wrote the song 'The Exile', which appears on our CD 'Strangers on the Shore'

© 2002 Lesley Silvester and Mike Murray

This webpage © 2002 Simply Australia