Departures of note

Shipwrecked in the Marquesas Islands in 1795, Joseph Kabris was tattooed head-to-toe by a local king, later displayed himself at European fairs, and died before he could return to his island family.

Kabris, a sailor from Bordeaux, was shipwrecked near Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas Islands in 1795. He integrated into the local society, married the king's daughter, and was personally tattooed over his entire body by the king, who named him 'Grand Judge of All Countries' and gave him a sun tattoo on each eyelid. When Captain Adam Johann von Krusenstern arrived in 1804, Kabris served as a guide, though he had nearly forgotten his native French and spoke English well.

In 1804, Kabris left the island on a Russian ship, eventually reaching Saint Petersburg, where he was presented as a curiosity to Czar Alexander I. He spent thirteen years as a swimming instructor at the Naval Academy of Kronstadt, marrying a French woman named Ariane. In 1817, he returned to France, was presented to Louis XVIII, and then earned a living by dressing as the king of Nuku Hiva, showing his tattoos at fairs, and selling pamphlets and engravings of his story.

Kabris hoped to buy tilling equipment and seed to bring back to Nuku Hiva and rejoin his family, but he fell ill and died on 23 September 1822 at the hospital in Valenciennes, at age 42. His accounts, along with those of fellow castaway Edward Robarts, were later recognized as the first ethnological observations of the Marquesas, including the first documentation of cannibalism among the islanders.