Jeanne Baret, the first woman to circumnavigate the world

French botanist Jeanne Baret became the first woman to circumnavigate the globe after a feat of years in which she decided to pass herself off as a man to embark on the first French expedition to circumnavigate the globe between 1766 and 1769.

Captain Louis Antoine de Bougainville received permission from Louis XV in 1765 to circumnavigate the globe with the ships Boudeuse and Etoile. The expedition had a scientific team including the naturalist and botanist Philibert Commerson who, due to his precarious health, was accompanied by an assistant, who was none other than his lover, the young Jeanne Beret, who decided to pass herself off as a man and become "Jean" in order to embark on the expedition.

From a young age, Baret was knowledgeable about numerous medicinal plants and she likely met the botanist Commerson in the field collecting plants. Soon after, when he was appointed as official botanist of the French court, she would move into his Paris apartment as housekeeper and nurse, to assist him in his work as a botanist and to care for him, as the naturalist's health had always been very precarious.

When Commerson decided to join Bougainville's expedition in 1765, the young couple faced a royal ordinance prohibiting the presence of women on French Navy ships. Baret, therefore, decided to wrap her chest in bandages and introduce herself at 26 years of age as "Jean Baret". During the voyage, the couple occupied a cabin on the warehouse ship "Etoile", which was loaded with goods and food for the expedition.

In Brazil, Commerson was said to be afflicted with persistent leg infections. It was then that Baret went into the jungle to look for plant specimens and discovered a dense climbing vine of brightly colored bougainvillea. She probably plucked some of these flowers when she learned of their antiseptic power to ameliorate her companion Commerson's infection. Although the botanist originally baptized the plant under the genus Baretia, she ended up naming it Bougainvillea in honor of her captain.

Although some sailors were suspicious of Jeanne's true identity, it was not until she arrived in Tahiti that all was discovered. It is said that even Jeanne was cornered and raped and Captain Bougainville, who could not risk returning to France with a woman on board, decided to abandon her and Commerson in Mauritius.

Jeanne and Philibert lived in Mauritius, from where they made several trips to Madagascar until the naturalist died in 1773. Baret married a French non-commissioned officer in Mauritius and returned to France in 1775, thus completing her circumnavigation of the world.

On her return to France, Jeanne brought back Commerson's botanical specimens, 30 boxes containing just over 5,000 species, including 3,000 described as new. Once in France, she learned that Commerson had made her heiress to his entire fortune.

Years later, she received recognition from the French government for being the first woman to be part of the first French expedition to circumnavigate the globe. Jeanne Baret died in 1807, at the age of 67. Despite her scientific contributions, history kept her from being recognized for her work for centuries and she was only remembered as Commerson's lover.