Amiral Jean-Baptiste Philibert Willaumez.
(7 August 1763 – 17 May 1845)
He was a French sailor, Navy officer, and admiral of the First French Empire.
Willaumez joined the French Navy at the age of 14, and proved a competent sailor. Having risen to the rank of pilot, he started studying navigation, attracting the attention of his superiors up to Louis XVI himself. He became an officer and served under Antoine Bruni d'Entrecasteaux in his expedition to rescue Lapérouse and explore the Indian Ocean and Oceania (including Tasmania, also known as Van Diemen's Land).
At the French Revolution, Willaumez rose in rank and served in Saint-Domingue, where he led a brilliant defence of the frigate Poursuivante against the 74-gun HMS Hercule in the Action of 28 June 1803. He fought the Haitian Revolution, commanding the station of Saint-Domingue.
During the Empire, in 1806, Willaumez commanded a squadron in Atlantic campaign of 1806. He sailed to the Cape of Good Hope, Brazil and the Caribbean, disrupting British trade and harassing their forces. However, the insubordination of Prince Jérôme Bonaparte, who served as Captain of Vétéran in his squadron, forced him to miss a rich convoy. Later, a hurricane damaged and dispersed his ships, of which three were ultimately lost; the others limped back to France one by one.
In May 1808, he attempted to regroup the ships scattered in Brest, Lorient and Rochefort into an eighteen-strong fleet to support the French colonies of the Caribbean; adverse weather and the poor state of the squadron thwarted the plan and he ended being blockaded in Rochefort, leading to the Battle of the Basque Roads, and fell out of favour with Napoléon.
After the war, Willaumez served at the Council of Naval Constructions and as Pair de France. He authored a dictionary of naval terms and sponsored a collection of ship models! (Sounds familiar)
Rob.
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