Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand Linois
Encyclopedia
Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand, Comte de Linois (27 January 1761 - 2 December 1848) was a French
admiral during the time of Napoleon Bonaparte. He won a victory over the British at the Battle of Algeciras in 1801 and was reasonably successful in a campaign against British trade in the Indian Ocean
and South China Sea
in 1803.
, Linois joined the French Navy in 1776, serving in the English Channel
and Spanish
waters, followed by voyages to Ile de France (Mauritius)
and Réunion
and the French West Indies. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1789 before being posted to the Indian Ocean. After his return to France in 1794, he was based in Brest. Linois was captured by the Royal Navy
at the Action of 7 May 1794
while his ship was protecting a convoy of wheat from the United States. He was exchanged and promoted to captain, taking command of the 74-gun Formidable
. The following year he was captured again at the battle of Groix
, where he was twice wounded and lost an eye; he was again exchanged. In 1796 he took part in the Expédition d'Irlande
as a chief of division, leading a 3-ship of the line and 4-frigate squadron, with his flag on Nestor
. Arrived in Bantry Bay
, the generals opposed a landing, and the squadron headed back to Brest, taking three prizes on the way.
On 12 April 1796 he was captain of the Unité
when captured her. Revolutionnaire had no casualties because the French had fired high, aiming for her rigging; the British fired into their quarry with the result that Unité suffered nine men killed and 11 wounded.
In 1799 he was promoted to Rear-Admiral (contre-amiral) and sent to the Mediterranean
under Admiral Bruix
. As second in command of the squadron under Admiral Ganteaume
, he attacked Elba
in 1801. Then in command of a small squadron based in Cadiz
, he fought a larger British squadron under Sir James Saumarez
in the Battle of Algeciras. His squadron prevailed during the first part of the battle, capturing HMS Hannibal, but on the return to Cadiz, two Spanish ships who had joined him were fooled into firing on each other by a British night attack and were lost.
In 1803 Napoleon Bonaparte
appointed him to command the French forces in the Indian Ocean and, flying his flag aboard the 74-gun-ship Marengo, he harried British merchant ships across the ocean and into the China Seas. One embarrassing incident was the Battle of Pulo Aura
in 1804 when a squadron of French naval ships commanded by Linois encountered the British China Fleet which consisted of lightly armed merchant ships. The British ships outnumbered Linois and they manoeuvred as though would fight to defend themselves and some of the ships flew naval ensigns. The tactics of the convoy commodore Nathaniel Dance
convinced Linois that the fleet was defended by a number of naval escorts and so he retired instead of attacking the virtually defenceless fleet.
However, on his return to France he ran into a large British squadron under Admiral Warren off Cape Verde at the Action of 13 March 1806
. He was wounded and captured again but this time as Napoleon had stopped the practice of exchanging officers he was held until Napoleon fell in 1814. He was appointed comte de Linois in 1810 by Napoleon.
Following the Bourbon restoration, Louis XVIII
named him to be Governor of Guadeloupe
but as Linois supported Napoleon during the Hundred Days
he was forced to resign after the battle of Waterloo
. He was court martialled but acquitted in 1816. However, he was placed in retirement and never served again, although he was appointed as an honorary Vice-Admiral (vice-amiral) in 1825.
He lived in Versailles, where he died in 1848.
by Patrick O'Brian
. The Battle of Pulo Aura
is also described in Newton Forster, or The Merchant Service, written in 1832 by Frederick Marryat
.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
admiral during the time of Napoleon Bonaparte. He won a victory over the British at the Battle of Algeciras in 1801 and was reasonably successful in a campaign against British trade in the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
and South China Sea
South China Sea
The South China Sea is a marginal sea that is part of the Pacific Ocean, encompassing an area from the Singapore and Malacca Straits to the Strait of Taiwan of around...
in 1803.
Biography
Born in BrestBrest, France
Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon...
, Linois joined the French Navy in 1776, serving in the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
and Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
waters, followed by voyages to Ile de France (Mauritius)
Mauritius
Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...
and Réunion
Réunion
Réunion is a French island with a population of about 800,000 located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, about south west of Mauritius, the nearest island.Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France...
and the French West Indies. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1789 before being posted to the Indian Ocean. After his return to France in 1794, he was based in Brest. Linois was captured by the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
at the Action of 7 May 1794
Action of 7 May 1794
The Action of 7 May 1794 was a minor naval action fought between a British ship of the line and a French frigate early in the French Revolutionary Wars. The French Navy sought to disrupt British trade by intercepting and capturing merchant ships with roving frigates, a strategy countered by...
while his ship was protecting a convoy of wheat from the United States. He was exchanged and promoted to captain, taking command of the 74-gun Formidable
HMS Belleisle (1795)
Lion was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the French Navy, which later served in the Royal Navy. She was built at Rochefort. She was later renamed Marat and then Formidable, with the changing fortunes of the French Revolution....
. The following year he was captured again at the battle of Groix
Battle of Groix
The Second Battle of Groix was a naval engagement that took place on 23 June 1795 during the French Revolutionary War off the west coast of France....
, where he was twice wounded and lost an eye; he was again exchanged. In 1796 he took part in the Expédition d'Irlande
Expédition d'Irlande
The Expédition d'Irlande was an unsuccessful attempt by the First French Republic during the French Revolutionary Wars to assist the outlawed Society of United Irishmen, a popular rebel Irish republican group, in their planned rebellion against British rule...
as a chief of division, leading a 3-ship of the line and 4-frigate squadron, with his flag on Nestor
French ship Nestor (1793)
The Nestor was a 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.In the night of the 30th December 1794, Nestor was dismasted due to the poor quality of her masts, and had to return to Brest for repairs. On her journey back, the Nestor met a British frigate under a false flag...
. Arrived in Bantry Bay
Bantry Bay
Bantry Bay is a bay located in County Cork, southwest Ireland. The bay runs approximately from northeast to southwest into the Atlantic Ocean. It is approximately 3-to-4 km wide at the head and wide at the entrance....
, the generals opposed a landing, and the squadron headed back to Brest, taking three prizes on the way.
On 12 April 1796 he was captain of the Unité
French frigate Gracieuse (1788)
The Gracieuse was a 32-gun Charmante class frigate of the French Navy. Renamed to Unité, she took part in the French Revolutionary Wars...
when captured her. Revolutionnaire had no casualties because the French had fired high, aiming for her rigging; the British fired into their quarry with the result that Unité suffered nine men killed and 11 wounded.
In 1799 he was promoted to Rear-Admiral (contre-amiral) and sent to the Mediterranean
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
under Admiral Bruix
Étienne Eustache Bruix
Étienne Eustache Bruix was a French sailor.-Life:From a distinguished family originating from Béarn, he embarked as a volunteer on a slaving vessel commanded by captain Jean-François Landolphe...
. As second in command of the squadron under Admiral Ganteaume
Honoré Joseph Antoine Ganteaume
Count Honoré Joseph Antoine Ganteaume was a French admiral.Ganteaume was born to a family of merchant sailors, and sailed on a dozen commercial cruises in his youth...
, he attacked Elba
Elba
Elba is a Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, from the coastal town of Piombino. The largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago, Elba is also part of the National Park of the Tuscan Archipelago and the third largest island in Italy after Sicily and Sardinia...
in 1801. Then in command of a small squadron based in Cadiz
Cádiz
Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
, he fought a larger British squadron under Sir James Saumarez
James Saumarez, 1st Baron de Saumarez
Admiral James Saumarez, 1st Baron de Saumarez , GCB was an admiral of the British Royal Navy, notable for his victory at the Battle of Algeciras.-Early life:...
in the Battle of Algeciras. His squadron prevailed during the first part of the battle, capturing HMS Hannibal, but on the return to Cadiz, two Spanish ships who had joined him were fooled into firing on each other by a British night attack and were lost.
In 1803 Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
appointed him to command the French forces in the Indian Ocean and, flying his flag aboard the 74-gun-ship Marengo, he harried British merchant ships across the ocean and into the China Seas. One embarrassing incident was the Battle of Pulo Aura
Battle of Pulo Aura
The Battle of Pulo Aura was a minor naval engagement of the Napoleonic Wars, fought on 14 February 1804, in which a large squadron of Honourable East India Company East Indiamen, powerful and well armed merchant ships, intimidated, drove off and chased a powerful French naval squadron...
in 1804 when a squadron of French naval ships commanded by Linois encountered the British China Fleet which consisted of lightly armed merchant ships. The British ships outnumbered Linois and they manoeuvred as though would fight to defend themselves and some of the ships flew naval ensigns. The tactics of the convoy commodore Nathaniel Dance
Nathaniel Dance
Sir Nathaniel Dance was an officer of the Honourable East India Company who had a long and varied career on merchant vessels, making numerous voyages to India and back with the fleets of East Indiamen...
convinced Linois that the fleet was defended by a number of naval escorts and so he retired instead of attacking the virtually defenceless fleet.
However, on his return to France he ran into a large British squadron under Admiral Warren off Cape Verde at the Action of 13 March 1806
Action of 13 March 1806
The Action of 13 March 1806 was a naval engagement of the Napoleonic Wars, fought when a British and a French squadron met unexpectedly in the mid-Atlantic. Neither force was aware of the presence of the other prior to the encounter and were participating in separate campaigns...
. He was wounded and captured again but this time as Napoleon had stopped the practice of exchanging officers he was held until Napoleon fell in 1814. He was appointed comte de Linois in 1810 by Napoleon.
Following the Bourbon restoration, Louis XVIII
Louis XVIII of France
Louis XVIII , known as "the Unavoidable", was King of France and of Navarre from 1814 to 1824, omitting the Hundred Days in 1815...
named him to be Governor of Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe is an archipelago located in the Leeward Islands, in the Lesser Antilles, with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres and a population of 400,000. It is the first overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. As with the other overseas departments, Guadeloupe...
but as Linois supported Napoleon during the Hundred Days
Hundred Days
The Hundred Days, sometimes known as the Hundred Days of Napoleon or Napoleon's Hundred Days for specificity, marked the period between Emperor Napoleon I of France's return from exile on Elba to Paris on 20 March 1815 and the second restoration of King Louis XVIII on 8 July 1815...
he was forced to resign after the battle of Waterloo
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...
. He was court martialled but acquitted in 1816. However, he was placed in retirement and never served again, although he was appointed as an honorary Vice-Admiral (vice-amiral) in 1825.
He lived in Versailles, where he died in 1848.
Honours
- Name inscribed on the Arc de TriompheArc de Triomphe-The design:The astylar design is by Jean Chalgrin , in the Neoclassical version of ancient Roman architecture . Major academic sculptors of France are represented in the sculpture of the Arc de Triomphe: Jean-Pierre Cortot; François Rude; Antoine Étex; James Pradier and Philippe Joseph Henri Lemaire...
In fiction
Linois is a minor recurring character in the Aubrey–Maturin seriesAubrey–Maturin series
The Aubrey–Maturin series is a sequence of nautical historical novels—20 completed and one unfinished—by Patrick O'Brian, set during the Napoleonic Wars and centering on the friendship between Captain Jack Aubrey of the Royal Navy and his ship's surgeon Stephen Maturin, who is also a physician,...
by Patrick O'Brian
Patrick O'Brian
Patrick O'Brian, CBE , born Richard Patrick Russ, was an English novelist and translator, best known for his Aubrey–Maturin series of novels set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars and centred on the friendship of English Naval Captain Jack Aubrey and the Irish–Catalan physician Stephen...
. The Battle of Pulo Aura
Battle of Pulo Aura
The Battle of Pulo Aura was a minor naval engagement of the Napoleonic Wars, fought on 14 February 1804, in which a large squadron of Honourable East India Company East Indiamen, powerful and well armed merchant ships, intimidated, drove off and chased a powerful French naval squadron...
is also described in Newton Forster, or The Merchant Service, written in 1832 by Frederick Marryat
Frederick Marryat
Captain Frederick Marryat was an English Royal Navy officer, novelist, and a contemporary and acquaintance of Charles Dickens, noted today as an early pioneer of the sea story...
.
External links
- Admiral Linois National Library of Australia, Newspaper Digitisation Project.