The Coquille cruises five days off Chuuk’s reef without entering, producing the first European chart of the lagoon.

What happened

Duperrey took aboard islanders from an islet on the northern reef and matched the place names they gave with a 1722 Spanish map, confirming this was the “Hogoleu” of old charts. His officers’ charts replaced that map and were copied by British mapmakers for about 50 years.