Case file · High strangeness
Lapérouse sails from Botany Bay
On 10 March 1788 the French expedition of Jean-François de Lapérouse left Botany Bay, days after the First Fleet's arrival, and was never seen again.
1788 CE · -33.99, 151.24 · status: explained
The account
For forty years his fate was a mystery that inspired legends of castaways. In 1826–28 Peter Dillon and Dumont d'Urville found wreckage at Vanikoro in the Solomon Islands, confirming both ships were wrecked there.