Name Marie-Louise Girardin | ||
Marie-Louise Victoire Girardin (1754 -18 December 1794) was a French ship's steward and cross-dresser. She is known for having served on the La Recherche in 1792-93, during the expedition of Bruny d'Entrecasteaux in the South Pacific Sea, in search of Jean-François de La Pérouse. She served dressed as a male, and is known as the first known white European woman to have set foot in the Van Diemen's Land (23 April 1792), New Caledonia and several other places around the Australian Archipelago. Her gender was an open secret on the ship, and she had a love affair with a colleague, ensign Mérite, during the journey, but she was not officially exposed: when she was, at one occasion, openly accused of being female by a colleague, she fought a duel with him. She was finally exposed after death by the ship's surgeon on her way back to Europe.
Her story was told in La Motte du Portail journal.