René Duguay-Trouin
Encyclopedia
René Trouin, Sieur du Gué, usually called René Duguay-Trouin, (Saint Malo, 10 June 1673 - 1736) was a famous French
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...

 corsair
Corsair
Corsairs were privateers, authorized to conduct raids on shipping of a nation at war with France, on behalf of the French Crown. Seized vessels and cargo were sold at auction, with the corsair captain entitled to a portion of the proceeds...

 of Saint-Malo
Saint-Malo
Saint-Malo is a walled port city in Brittany in northwestern France on the English Channel. It is a sub-prefecture of the Ille-et-Vilaine.-Demographics:The population can increase to up to 200,000 in the summer tourist season...

. He had a brilliant privateering and naval career and eventually became "Lieutenant-General of the Naval Armies of the King" (i.e. admiral
Admiral
Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...

) (French:Lieutenant-Général des armées navales du roi), and a Commander in the Order of Saint-Louis. Ten ships
French ship Duguay-Trouin
Ten vessels of the French Navy have been named Duguay-Trouin in honour of René Duguay-Trouin; among them:* Duguay-Trouin , a 74-gun ship of the line...

 of the French Navy were named in his honour.

Early career

His family operated a shipping business in Saint Malo, a port favoured by corsairs
Privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship authorized by a government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping during wartime. Privateering was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend public money or commit naval officers...

.

He first went to sea as a volunteer aboard a privateer, the Trinité, under Captain Legoux, on the 16 December 1690. The Trinité subsequently captured the François Samuel and Seven Stars of Scotland. Duguay-Trouin displayed such bravery that he was handed command of the Danycan, soon after he turned 18.

On 6 June 1692, the King handed him command of a forty-gun ship, the Hercule. He captured five ships at the entrance of the Channel.

Nobility

Louis XIV
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...

 handed him a sword of honour in 1694, and made him a nobleman in 1709, with the motto Dedit haec insignia virtus ("Bravery awarded these honours"). At the time, he had captured 16 warships and over 300 merchantmen from the English and Dutch.

On 12 April 1694, Duguay-Trouin, aboard the ship Diligente, covered the escape of a convoy which he was escorting but was defeated by a six-ship squadron commanded by Admiral David Mitchell. The Diligente, barely afloat and having lost most of her men, was forced to strike her colours and surrender. He was taken as prisoner to Plymouth.

The English admiralty, upon learning that Trouin had fired upon the Prince of Orange while flying the English flag, had him locked in an iron room. On 19 June 1694, he made an adventurous escape, by capturing a small boat that he had bought from a friendly Swedish captain whose ship was lying nearby. He was accompanied by Lieutenant Nicolas Thomas, surgeon Lhermite, Pierre Legendre and the quartermaster. He landed in Brittany and returned to Saint-Malo.

In 1697, the treaty of Ryswick
Treaty of Ryswick
The Treaty of Ryswick or Ryswyck was signed on 20 September 1697 and named after Ryswick in the Dutch Republic. The treaty settled the Nine Years' War, which pitted France against the Grand Alliance of England, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire and the United Provinces.Negotiations started in May...

 put a halt to the privateers and Duguay-Trouin spent his time in Saint-Malo with women. He was involved in a duel with a gentleman, Charles Cognetz, who had allegedly cheated in a game of cards. Both were taken to the police officer, M de Vauborel, who explicitly forbade any further violence.

War of the Spanish Succession

In 1702, as the War of the Spanish Succession
War of the Spanish Succession
The War of the Spanish Succession was fought among several European powers, including a divided Spain, over the possible unification of the Kingdoms of Spain and France under one Bourbon monarch. As France and Spain were among the most powerful states of Europe, such a unification would have...

 broke out, Duguay-Trouin commanded the Bellone and the Railleuse. He became an officer in the French Marine Royale. In 1704-1705 he commanded the ship "Jason" and captured the British ships of the line HMS Elizabeth
HMS Elizabeth (1679)
HMS Elizabeth was a 70-gun third rate ship of the line of the English Royal Navy, launched at Deptford in 1679.Elizabeth was rebuilt as another 70-gun third rate at Portsmouth Dockyard in 1704, but was captured later that year....

 and HMS Coventry
HMS Coventry (1695)
HMS Coventry was a 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the English Royal Navy, launched at Deptford Dockyard in 1695.The French 54-gun Auguste, together with the 54-gun Jason, captured Coventry in September 1704....

.

On 21 October 1707, together with Claude de Forbin
Claude de Forbin
Claude, chevalier, then count de Forbin-Gardanne was a French naval commander. In 1685-1688 he was on a diplomatic mission to Siam...

, he achieved his greatest victory against a British squadron, in the Battle at the Lizard.

In 1709 he captured the British ship of the line HMS Bristol
HMS Bristol (1653)
HMS Bristol was a 44-gun fourth-rate frigate of the English Royal Navy, originally built for the navy of the Commonwealth of England at Portsmouth, and launched in 1653. She was the first ship of the Royal Navy to bear this name. By 1677 her armament had been increased to 48 guns...

.

On 21 September 1711, in an 11-day battle, he captured Rio de Janeiro
Battle of Rio de Janeiro
The Battle of Rio de Janeiro was a raid in September 1711 on the port of Rio de Janeiro in the War of Spanish Succession by a French squadron under René Duguay-Trouin...

, then believed impregnable, with twelve ships and 6 000 men, in spite of the defence consisting of seven ships of the line, five forts and 12 000 men; he held the governor for ransom. Investors in this venture doubled their money, and Duguay-Trouin earned a promotion to Lieutenant général de la Marine.

Late career

In his late career, he commanded the fleet based in Saint-Malo, then the fleet based in Brest
Brest, 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...

, the fleet for the East and eventually Toulon
Toulon
Toulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence....

 harbour. He died in 1736, after having written to Fleury to ask Louis XV to support his family.

Duguay-Trouin is mentioned in Volume II, "Within A Budding Grove", of Marcel Proust's early twentieth century Masterpiece of French Literature, "In Search of Lost Time" (previously published as "A Remembrance of Things Past"). The reference occurs in an interlude section of the work entitled "Place Names: the Place" juxtaposed with other Impressionistic images. This reference specifically compares the brave image of the warrior's statue with the banal image of ordinary people eating sorbets in a bakery, illustrating that at the time, Duguay-Trouin's influence on French society was still so pervasive that statues of his form were commonplace. These statues were easily identifiable and even taken for granted throughout France, and they were instantly recognizable to the French citizenry fully two hundred years after his death.

See also

  • France Antarctique
    France Antarctique
    France Antarctique was a French colony south of the Equator, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which existed between 1555 and 1567, and had control over the coast from Rio de Janeiro to Cabo Frio...

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