Captain Ramón Arnaud Vignon (1877–1916) was an officer in the Mexican Army

Mexican Army

The Mexican Army is the combined land and air branch and largest of the Mexican Military services; it also is known as the National Defense Army. It is famous for having been the first army to adopt and use an automatic rifle, , in 1899, and the first to issue automatic weapons as standard issue...

 and the last Mexican governor of Clipperton Island

Clipperton Island

Clipperton Island is an uninhabited nine-square-kilometre coral atoll in the eastern Pacific Ocean, southwest of Mexico and west of Central America, at...

.

Early years and military enlistment

Ramón Arnaud was born in Orizaba

Orizaba

Orizaba is a city and municipality in the Mexican state of Veracruz. It is located 20 km west of its sister city Córdoba, and is adjacent to Río Blanco and Ixtaczoquitlán, on Federal Highways 180 and 190. The city had a 2005 census population of 117,273 and is almost coextensive with its small...

, Veracruz

Veracruz

Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave , is one of the 31 states that, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided in 212 municipalities and its capital city is...

, in 1879, to Ángel Arnaud and Carlota Vignon, Mexicans of French origin who had settled in Veracruz in the aftermath of the 1862–1867 French Intervention

French intervention in Mexico

The French intervention in Mexico , also known as The Maximilian Affair, War of the French Intervention, and The Franco-Mexican War, was an invasion of Mexico by an expeditionary force sent by the Second French Empire, supported in the beginning by the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Spain...

. He completed his primary education in Orizaba and, influenced by a friend of his, the son of General Bernardo Reyes

Bernardo Reyes

Bernardo Reyes was a General in the army of Mexico under Porfirio Díaz. He served as governor of Nuevo León he helped in the modernization of that state. While governor of Nuevo León, Reyes approved a workers compensation law. He was the father of the writer Alfonso Reyes, and grandfather of the...

, decided to enlist in the Army. He was unable to secure entry to the Military Academy

Colégio Militar

Colégio Militar is a military school in Lisbon, Portugal. It was founded by General António Teixeira Rebelo in 1803. Its initial location was S. Julião da Barra Fort, in Oeiras...

 in Mexico City but, assisted by the influence of General Reyes, enrolled as a sergeant in the 7th Cavalry Regiment. Shortly after enlisting, however, he deserted; he was promptly tracked down, arrested, sent to the military prison in Tlatelolco

Tlatelolco (Mexico City)

Tlatelolco is an area in the Cuauhtémoc borough of Mexico City, centered on the Plaza de las Tres Culturas, a square surrounded on three sides by an excavated Aztec archaeological site, a 17th century church called Templo de Santiago, a former convent, and office complexes that used to belong to...

 for 5½ months, and demoted to a private in the 23rd Infantry Battalion. In the space of three short years, however, he had regained his earlier rank after fighting against Maya insurgents in the Caste War of Yucatán

Caste War of Yucatán

The Caste War of Yucatán began with the revolt of native Maya people of Yucatán, Mexico against the population of European descent, called Yucatecos, who held political and economic control of the region. A lengthy war ensued between the Yucateco forces in the north-west of the Yucatán and the...

. Shortly after that, he was posted to Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 in the company of Col. Abelardo Ávalos.

Governor of Clipperton

Upon his return from the Orient, the government of President

President of Mexico

The President of the United Mexican States is the head of state and government of Mexico. Under the Constitution, the president is also the Supreme Commander of the Mexican armed forces...

 Porfirio Díaz

Porfirio Díaz

José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori was a Mexican-American War volunteer and French intervention hero, an accomplished general and the President of Mexico continuously from 1876 to 1911, with the exception of a brief term in 1876 when he left Juan N...

 placed him in charge of the military garrison on Clipperton Island

Clipperton Island

Clipperton Island is an uninhabited nine-square-kilometre coral atoll in the eastern Pacific Ocean, southwest of Mexico and west of Central America, at...

: an atoll in the Pacific subject to a sovereignty dispute between Mexico and France.
At first he was reluctant, believing that this amounted to an exile from Mexico, but Col. Ávalos convinced him by telling him that President Díaz had personally chosen him to protect Mexico's interests in the international conflict with France, and that the fact that he spoke English, French, and Spanish would assist him in protecting Mexico's sovereignty over the territory.
He consequently accepted and arrived on Clipperton as governor in 1906.

By 1914, the situation on the island had turned difficult: with the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution

Mexican Revolution

The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...

 and the overthrow of Victoriano Huerta

Victoriano Huerta

José Victoriano Huerta Márquez was a Mexican military officer and president of Mexico. Huerta's supporters were known as Huertistas during the Mexican Revolution...

, the Mexican supply ship that sailed between Clipperton and Acapulco

Acapulco

Acapulco is a city, municipality and major sea port in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific coast of Mexico, southwest from Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semi-circular bay and has been a port since the early colonial period of Mexico’s history...

 had stopped coming. An American ship arrived, bringing provisions and rescuing a German, Gustav Schultz (the representative of the company which mined guano on Clipperton Island), who had lost his mind. The Americans also impressed upon Arnaud the seriousness of the problems which confronted Mexico (including the American occupation of Veracruz) and with the outbreak of the First World War, advising him to abandon the island. Nevertheless, the captain and the rest of the soldiers decided to remain, staying true to their duty even though their homeland had forgotten them.

Final days

In 1915, an outbreak of scurvy claimed many of the colonists' lives and in 1916, by now desperate and at the head of a colony that had no food, Arnaud set sail with three soldiers in a canoe in pursuit of a passing ship they had spied. They were unable to reach the ship, however, and the canoe sank while returning, drowning all four of its occupants.