Louise Seguin

{{Short description|French explorer}}

Louise Seguin (also known as Marie-Louise Seguin) was one of the first women to travel to the Antarctic region.{{Cite book |last1=Howkins |first1=Adrian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zZy8EAAAQBAJ&dq=Louise+Seguin&pg=PT288 |title=The Cambridge History of the Polar Regions |last2=Roberts |first2=Peder |date=2023-05-11 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-62795-5 |language=en}} Beginning at the age of around 14-16 (accounts vary), she disguised herself as a boy in order to travel on the 1772–1773 voyage of Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen.{{Cite book |last=Chipman |first=Elizabeth |author-link=Elizabeth Chipman |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2G0KAQAAIAAJ&q=louise+seguin+kerguelen |title=Women on the Ice: A History of Women in the Far South |date=1986 |publisher=Melbourne University Press |isbn=978-0-522-84324-8 |language=en}} It has been suggested that she and Kerguelen were lovers, or that she was his mistress. During the voyage she was often referred to by the nickname Louison.{{Cite book |last=Croix |first=Robert de La |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S9eNchf2gW4C&dq=Louise+Seguin&pg=PA89 |title=Histoire secrète des océans |date=1998-05-22 |publisher=Ancre de Marine Editions |isbn=978-2-84141-120-7 |language=fr}} She explored the Kerguelen Islands with the crew of the Roland, and later her presence was used to discredit Kerguelen.{{Cite journal|last1=Hulbe|first1=Christina L.|last2=Wang|first2=Weili|last3=Ommanney|first3=Simon|date=2010-12-01|title=Women in glaciology, a historical perspective|journal=Journal of Glaciology|volume=56|issue=200|pages=944–964|doi=10.3189/002214311796406202|bibcode=2010JGlac..56..944H|doi-access=free|url=https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1016&context=geology_fac}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DUFXAQAAQBAJ|title=A History of Antarctica|last=Martin|first=Stephen|date=2013-02-01|publisher=Rosenberg Publishing|isbn=9781922013729|language=en}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.anta.canterbury.ac.nz/documents/PCAS_13/PCAS_13_Roldan_G_Review.pdf|title=Literature review: Changes in the contributions of Women in Antarctic National Programmes|last=Roldan|first=Gabriela|date=December 2010|website=PCAS 13|access-date=|archive-date=2017-04-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170407135652/http://www.anta.canterbury.ac.nz/documents/PCAS_13/PCAS_13_Roldan_G_Review.pdf|url-status=dead}}

Eventually, it was discovered that Louise was a woman, and the situation was said to have contributed to his 1776 court-martial.