1741-1788

French Navigator

Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse, was a military hero and one of the greatest French explorers of the Pacific Ocean. While he made a number of significant discoveries, he is best known for his exploration of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands and his discovery of the Tatar and La Pérouse straits, on either side of the island of Sakhalin.

La Pérouse was born in 1741 near Albi, in France. Little is known of his childhood until age 15, when he joined the French Navy to fight the British in the Seven Years' War, later serving the French in North America, China, and India. He became famous in 1782 with his capture of two English forts along the Hudson Bay, and, shortly afterwards...