The Battle of the Basque Roads.

[Bligh]

Captain Charles-Nicolas Lacaille.





Born: 3 April 1754.
Entered naval service either commercial or military position:1776
Captain de vaisseau 2nd class: 29 January 1794.
1795 L'Heureux (74), as Commanding Officer.

1795/03/14. Action off Genoa.
Captain de vaisseau 1st class: 19 June 1796
Captain de de vaisseau 2nd class: 23 September 1800
Member of the Legion d’Honneur: 5 February 1804
Officer of the Legion d’Honneur:14 June 1804.

1809/04/11. Action of Aix Roads.

Wounds received while in the service of France: None.

Died: 14 August 1817.

[Bligh]

Captain Charles-Helene Le Bozec.

Born: 25 January 1758
Entered naval service either commercial or military position: 1777
Captain de vaisseau 3rd class: 15 August 1795
Captain de vaisseau 2nd class: 21 March 1796
Captain de de vaisseau 1st class: 1 January 1809
Officer of the Legion d’Honneur: 14 June 1804
Wounds recieved while in the service of France: None
Died: 12 February 1837

[Bligh]

Captain Nicolas Clément de la Roncière.



Born: 19 July 1753.
Entered naval service either commercial or military position: 1772.
Captain de fregate: 21 March 1796.
Captain de vaisseau 2nd class: 22 September 1796.
Member of the Legion d’Honneur: 5 February 1804.
Officer of the Legion d’Honneur: 14 June 1804.
1809/04/11. Action of Aix Roads.
Wounds received while in the service of France: 1795.
Died: 10 March 1815.

[Bligh]

Captain Jacques-Remy Maingon.





Born: 18 March 1765.
Entered naval service either commercial or military position: 1782.
Captain de fregate: 9 November 1798.
Captain de vaisseau 2nd class: 24 September 1804.
Officer of the Legion d’Honneur: 14 June 1804.
Wounds received while in the service of France: None.
Died: 13 April 1809 (Killed in action) at the Battle of the Aix Roads.

[Bligh]

Captain Jean Jacques Etienne Lucas.



Born in Marennes, he joined the French Navy at the age of 14. From 1779 to 1782 he sailed on the Hermione. During this period, he fought at the battle off Cape Breton (21 July 1781), part of the American Revolutionary War.

The Battle of Trafalgar.

He is primarily remembered for his role in the Battle of Trafalgar. By 1805, Lucas was a capitaine de vaisseau, the French title for captain. He commanded the French ship of the line Redoutable.

On 21 October 1805, at Trafalgar, Redoutable was located just off the port side of the Bucentaure, flagship of Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve. As a result of this positioning, Lucas and his crew found themselves between the two columns of British ships commanded by Nelson and in the heat of battle from very early on in the conflict. They engaged HMS Victory, Nelson's flagship, and through use of heavy artillery they came astern of Victory and sought to board her.The battle aboard Victory was bloody, costing both sides many lives and ultimately resulting in stalemate. Admiral Nelson himself was mortally wounded by a musket shot fired from atop one of the masts of the Redoutable, but before the boarding was successful, HMS Temeraire intervened and opened fire on the starboard side of Redoutable, resulting in the deaths of over two hundred French sailors.

At 2:30 p.m., Redoutable surrendered to Temeraire after having lost 522 men out of their total 643. Of this number, 300 were killed and 222 were wounded. Lucas himself was injured, and the ship had suffered damage which had led to the hold taking on several feet of water. The masts had been broken and there was substantial damage to the rest of the ship, including the artillery.
HMS Swiftsure sent a party to take Lucas and two other officers off the ship into captivity the following morning. Redoutable, however, was still taking on water, and despite the efforts of rescue boats sent over the course of the day, only 119 crewmen were saved before the ship sank with the dead and wounded still on board.
Lucas was received in England with great courtesy.

After his release from capture, he was personally awarded the rank of Commandeur of the Legion of Honour by Napoleon for his role during the battle.

Battle of the Basque Roads.

In 1809, he was in command of Régulus, a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line part of admiral Zacharie Allemand's squadron. The French squadron was at first blockaded, and then attacked on 11 April 1809 by a British fleet, near Île-d'Aix, in what would become known as the Battle of the Basque Roads.

After breaching the boom that defended the anchored French fleet, the British sent in fireships, Régulus being the first to be hit. The French ship cut its anchor cables and managed to escape from one of the fireships, after a half-hour struggle. Régulus ran aground and it was in danger of capsizing. Trying to save his ship, Lucas had to throw overboard most of his cannons, keeping only 16 of them, together with ammunition and supplies for one month. He managed to refloat his ship, but it ran aground a second time, on the shoals of Les Palles. On 13 April, several smaller British ships tried to destroy the grounded French vessel, as they had done to several others, but after a six-hour fight Lucas repelled them. On 20 April, the British tried again, only to be repulsed a second time. During the next fight, on 24 April, not being able to bear his guns on the enemy because of Régulus ' list, Lucas cut new portholes in the hull for six of his cannons and managed to drive away the British vessels after an 8½ hours fight.

After being grounded for two weeks, repelling four attacks, being bombarded and firing almost 1,400 cannon shots, Régulus was in a bad shape, but on the night of 25 April the British retreated after having destroyed four ships of the line, one frigate and severely damaged the other French ships.Four days later, on 29 April, Lucas managed to patch and refloat his ship, which entered Rochefort to the cheers of the population.

Later life and death.

During the Hundred Days, Lucas sided with Napoleon. After the second Restoration of the Bourbons, Lucas retired from the Navy, in 1816, and died on 6 November 1819, in Brest.

[Bligh]

Captain Gilbert-Amable Faure.



Born the son of Jean-Baptiste Faure, of Fournoux, and Marguerite Rochon, Faure-Conac volunteered for naval service in 1778, serving for three campaigns on Argus, the corvette Sylphide and the frigate Pourvoyeuse, and became sub-lieutenant under Admiral Suffren in the squadron sent to operate against British India during the American Revolutionary War.

He later became naval commander at Pontarion, and after the French Revolution the administrator for Creuse. On 7 September 1792 he was elected by plurality as the alternate deputy to represent Creuse at the National Convention. After the death of Jean-François Guyès, he took his seat on 25 frimaire an II (15 December 1793), where he was occupied exclusively with naval issues, voting to postpone the indictment against Minister of the Navy Jean de Lacoste. By the decree of 30 thermidor an II (17 August 1794), Faure-Conac was sent on a mission with Bernard Thomas Tréhouart to the ports of Brest and Lorient, for which the committee of inspectors allocated 6000 livres on (18 August 1794).

During this mission, they learned from the authorities of Bergen in Norway that French sailors had helped to extinguish a major fire in the city. On 20 frimaire an III (10 December 1794), with his colleague, Faure-Conac sent to the Committee of Public Safety, the 171 decrees made during their trip, which were then redistributed to other committees. Recalled by the degree of 2 ventôse an III (20 February 1795), he was replaced by Julien-François Palasne de Champeaux and Jean-Nicolas Topsent
At the Convention, he opposed the plan by Marie-Benoît-Louis Gouly regarding the reorganisation of naval artillery.
Elected by the same department for the Conseil des Cinq-Cents on 21 vendémiaire an IV (13 October 1795) by 151 votes from 218 voters, Faure-Conac was promoted to captain on 22 September 1796, as commander of the frigate Bravoure. On 8 ventôse an V (26 February 1797) he resigned his political position to serve in the Navy. Between 1799 and 1809, he commanded Indivisible, Bravoure, Constitution, and finally Cassard at the battle of the Basque Roads.

On 4 January 1811, he was named commandant of the École de marine de Brest,on board the school-ship Tourville until 1814.

He was made an honorary contre-amiral on 1 January 1816 and retired to Chénérailles.

He was made an officier of the Légion d'honneur and a chevalier de Saint-Louis.

He died on the 31st December 1812.

[Bligh]

Captain Jean-Michel Mahé.





Mahé started his career in the merchant Navy in 1789, and became an Midshipman in the Navy on 16 April 1794. He served on the fluyt Duras before embarking on Montagne, flagship of Villaret-Joyeuse on which he took part in the Glorious First of June.
From October 1794, he served on the frigate Fraternité, on which he took part in the Battle of Groix on 23 June 1795 under Lieutenant Florinville. He then served on the brig-aviso Impatient, the lugger Titus and the felucca Fort.
On 7 July 1797, he was promoted to Ensign and given command of the schooner Gentille, escorting convoys off Bretagne. He served twice on the corvette Réolaise, captained the gunboat Caroline in the summer of 1800, and returned on Impatient from October 1800 to January 1801.

In February, he embarked on the frigate Chiffone and took part in the capture of the Portuguese frigate Hirondelle on 16 May 1801. On 16 June, Chiffone captured the East Indiaman Bellona on her way from Bengal to London. Mahé was given command of the captured ship, and a prize crew took Bellona to Mauritius where she arrived a month later. Mahé then returned to France on the merchantman Aventure.

On his return, Mahé was given command of the aviso Vigie, and promoted to Lieutenant on 5 March 1803. On 9 November 1804, he was promoted to Commander and became first officer on Bucentaure in December 1804. On 23 February, he was given command of the frigate Hermione, on which he took part in the capture of HMS Cyane, the Battle of Cape Finisterre, in the Battle of Trafalgar and in Lamellerie's expedition. In late 1807, he took part in a division under Rear-Admiral Baudin, ferrying troops to Martinique, before decommissioning Hermione on 26 May 1808.

Mahé then served on Patriote as adjudant-commandant of the squadron before being promoted to Captain on 12 July 1808. He successively commanded Ville de Varsovie and Patriote in Rochefort. He took part in the Battle of the Basque Roads, where Patriote ran aground and Mahé ordered her artillery thrown overboard to refloat her; on the 12th, Patriote came under fire from the British squadron and Mahé sent his sick and his wounded ashore to prepare his crew for the evacuation of his ship, but she refloated in the night of the 13th and washed to safety under Fort Lupin.

Mahé then commanded Annibal in Toulon. On 18 November 1812, he took command of the 74-gun Borée, which he captained during the Action of 5 November 1813 and until she was decommissioned on 13 June 1814. He eventually retired on 1 January 1816.

[Bligh]

Captain Jean-Baptiste Lafon.





Born: 3 April 1760
Entered naval service either commercial or military position:1786
Captain de vaisseau 2nd class: 16 March 1795
Wounds received while in the service of France: None
At the Battle of the Basque Roads his ship the Calcutta was driven ashore and badly damaged on 11 April. Captured and destroyed by British prize crew. Lafon was later court-martialed and shot for cowardice on the deck of the Ocean at 4.pm.
Died: 9 September 1809 (Executed for deriliction of duty)

[Bligh]

Captain Jacques Francois Bellenger.






Born: 7 January 1760
Entered naval service either commercial or military position: 1773
Captain de fregate: 24 September 1803

Captain of the fregate Elbe at the Battle of the Basque Roads
The ship grounded on the 11th April. Reached safety on 12th.
Captain de vaisseau 2nd class: 19 May 1811
Member of the Legion d’Honneur: 14 June 1804
Wounds recieved while in the service of France: 1780
Died: 5 May 1831