A most unlikely event happened from 1766 to 1775. A woman sailed around the world, partly as a botanical assistant on a scientific expedition. She did so, at least part of the way, disguised as a man, as such things simply were not done by women in the Eighteenth Century, especially in the French Navy! The woman was Jeanne Baret and she was held in such high regard that she was given a substantial pension in 1785 by decree of the captain of the expedition, despite the discovery during the Pacific crossing that she was female.
Little is known about the early history of Jeanne Baret, other than parish records showing her legitimate birth in Burgundy to a laborer and his wife. Her schooling is also unknown, although she could apparently read and write (or at least sign her name). She became a housekeeper for Philibert Commerçon, a botanist, and possibly his wife, although some accounts say that he hired her after his wife's death. In any case Baret (or Baré as it is sometimes written) soon became Commerçon's mistress. When the botanist was appointed to the expedition of Louis-Antoine, Comte de Bougainville to the Pacific Ocean, Baret went along as Commerçon's assistant. She had to be disguised as a man and Commerçon must have certainly been involved in the deception, which was discovered by the time the expedition reached Tahiti (some say by the Tahitians calling out that "Jean" was female.) This was highly illegal and placed Bougainville in a bad position. Still she was apparently liked by the captain and served both as a nurse (Commerçon was in ill health and constantly sea sick) and as a good scientific assistant. She assisted Commerçon in the discovery of the genus that the botanist named Bougainvillea and Commerçon also tried to name a genus Baretia, but it turned out to have been previously described. One plant, Solanum baretiae was named after the seafaring woman.
A prolonged stopover in Mauritius for desperately needed supplies provided an opportunity for Bougainville to get rid of the problem. The governor, who was also a botanist, may have "ordered" or perhaps persuaded them to stay on the island, and the expedition sailed back without them. Unfortunately Commerçon died and Baret was left alone and without resources. She took on work as a tavern keeper and then married. Apparently sometime in 1775 she and her husband made it back to France by ship, officially making her the first woman to circumnavigate the globe. In France she found that Commerçon had left some money to her in his will (she probably knew about this as he had re-witten the will just before they left) and Bougainville, for his part, provided her with a standard pension through the French Navy starting in 1785.
Thus a poor girl from Burgundy became the first European woman to explore the Pacific islands in search of plants and the first woman to travel completely around the planet! Because a lot of information about her is missing there has been some tendency to romanticize her life, including details that are uncertain at best. Still, Jeanne Baret was a remarkable woman and a survivor of the first order!
Literature References:
Ridley, Glynis. 2010. The Discovery of Jeanne Baret: A Story of Science, the High Seas, and the First Woman to Circumnavigate the Globe. Crown.
Internet References:
Krulwich, Robert. NPR The First Woman To Go 'Round The World Did It As A Man
http://www.npr.org/...
Jeanne Baré http://en.wikipedia.org/...