Nevers-born Jacquinot served with Jules Dumont d'Urville in the Mediterranean, and as an ensign on Louis Isidore Duperrey's 1822–1825 scientific circumnavigation in the Coquille.
[2] In 1826–1829 he sailed again with d'Urville, this time on the Astrolabe (the Coquille renamed), in a circumnavigation that visited New Zealand, Tonga, Fiji and other islands in the Pacific, and he participated in the recovery of relics of the lost expedition of Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse from the Santa Cruz Islands.
[3][4] The ships departed from Toulon in September 1837 on a mission to survey the Straits of Magellan, then head to the Weddell Sea.
[5] After d'Urvilles death, he compiled and edited much the 24 volume "Voyage au Pole Sud et dans Oceane", the official account of the expedition,[2] working together with Clément Adrien Vincendon-Dumoulin.
Jacquinot was eventually appointed Vice Admiral, and was in command at Piraeus, Greece from 1854 and 1855, during the Crimean War.