Astrolabe was originally a horse-transport barge converted into an exploration ship of the French Navy. Originally named Coquille, she is famous for her travels with Jules Dumont d'Urville. The name derives from an early navigational instrument, the astrolabe, a precursor to the sextant. Career Voyage under the command of Louis Isidore Duperrey Louis-Isidore Duperrey commanded Coquille on its circumnavigation of the earth (1822–1825) with Jules Dumont d'Urville as second. René-Primevère Lesson also travelled on Coquille as a naval doctor and naturalist. On their return in March 1825, Lesson and Dumont brought back to France an imposing collection of animals and plants collected on the Falkland Islands, on the coasts of Chile and Peru, in the archipelagos of the Pacific and New Zealand, New Guinea and Australia. During the voyage the ship spent two weeks in the Bay of Islands in the north of New Zealand in 1824. The vessel arrived in Kosrae where Duperrey and his crew visited for ten days. On the return voyage to France the ship sailed through the Ellice Islands (now known as Tuvalu). First Voyage under the command of Jules Dumont d'Urville Coquille was renamed Astrolabe in honour of one of the ships of La Pérouse. She sailed from Toulon on 22 April 1826, towards the Pacific Ocean, for a circumnavigation of the world that was destined to last nearly three years. Astrolabe explored parts of New Zealand. In January 1827, the French explorer Dumont d'Urville arrived in Tasman Bay / Te Tai-o-Aorere in the north of the South Island. A number of landmarks around Tasman Bay were named by d'Urville and his crew including d'Urville Island, French Pass and Torrent Bay. Dumont then sailed along the east coast of the North Island. On 12 March 1827 Astrolabe entered the Bay of Islands. On 19 December 1827 Astrolabe came into Hobart to repair, refresh, and seek out information relative to the wreck and remains of La Pérouse's shipwreck. Astrolabe then visited Fiji, after which Jules Dumont d'Urville executed the first relief maps of the Loyalty Islands (part of French New Caledonia) and explored the coasts of New Guinea. He confirmed the site of La Pérouse's shipwreck in Vanikoro (one of the Santa Cruz Islands, part of the archipelago of the Solomon Islands) and collected numerous remains of his boats. The voyage continued with the mapping of part of the Caroline Islands and the Moluccas. The