Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand Linois
Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand Linois | |
---|---|
Versailles | |
Allegiance | French First Republic |
Service/ | French Navy |
Rank | Admiral |
Battles/wars |
Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand, Comte de Linois (27 January 1761 – 2 December 1848) was a
Biography
Born in
Service in the Indian Ocean
In March 1784, Linois joined the storeship Barbeau, carrying supplies and despatches to the Isle de France (now Mauritius). He left Barbeau in January 1785 and in March sailed for the Caribbean on the 64-gun Réfléchi where he remained for the next two years. Arriving at Saint-Domingue on 23 April, Linois spent eight months on the frigate, Danaé before rejoining Réfléchi.[2] In May 1786, he took a land-based post as sous-lieutenant de port at Port-au-Prince, returning to sea aboard the frigate, Proserpine in December 1786. This was a short-lived appointment; on 1 March 1787, Linois left for home on the same storeship that had conveyed him to the Isle de France two years earlier.[3]
Another position ashore, as lieutenant de port at Brest, ended a period of unemployment that had lasted until 1 May 1789 and was followed, on 12 October 1790, by a posting to the ship-of-the-line, Victoire.
The Brest Fleet
While acting as a decoy for an important convoy of wheat from the United States, Linois was captured by the
Linois was exchanged and returned home in March 1795.
Admiral
In 1799 Linois was promoted to
Linois did not join Ganteaume in the unsuccessful attempt to bolster the
Both sides were still effecting repairs when, on 9 July, the French were joined by five Spanish ships-of-the-line from Cadiz. This combined fleet left for Cadiz at dawn on 12 July and Saumarez, who had been reinforced by
Superb was first into the action, engaging Real Carlos. Some of the shot was high and passed through her rigging, hitting the ship to her larboard, San Hermenegildo. Thinking the shot came from Real Carlos and that she was an enemy, San Hermenegildo fired into her. In about ten minutes the Real Carlos was on fire. When San Hermenegildo crossed her stern to deliver a
Early in 1802, Linois participated in an expedition to Saint-Domingue to depose the governor, Toussaint Louverture and reassert French control there. Louverture was a former slave who was suspected of trying to gain independence for the colony. In January Linois took command of a squadron of troopships, comprising three ships-of-the-line and three frigates, and sailed out to reinforce the 20,000 troops already there.[14][15] The campaign was ultimately unsuccessful and Linois returned to France on 31 May.[14]
Napoleonic wars
In 1803
Linois received news that the war had resumed when he was joined by the 22-gun corvette, Berceau in September.[14] Leaving half the troops to defend the Ile de France, Linois left with the remainder and his squadron for Batavia on 8 October; raiding a British trading station on Sumatra on the way, capturing eight merchant vessels, destroying three others and setting light to three stocked warehouses.[16] Arriving at Batavia on 10 December, Linois was appraised of a British convoy returning from China. After dropping off the soldiers and adding the 16 gun brig-corvette, Adventurier, to his force, set sail on 28 December.[17]
The Battle of Pulo Aura occurred on 14 February 1804 when Linois' squadron encountered the British China Fleet. Although lightly armed, the British merchant ships outnumbered Linois' forces and manoeuvred as though preparing to defend themselves. Some of the larger indiamen, with gun ports painted on and flying naval ensigns, formed a mock line of battle. With these tactics, the convoy commodore, Nathaniel Dance, fooled Linois into believing that the British fleet was defended by naval escorts and the French retired without attacking the virtually defenceless British.[17]
In June, Linois embarked on a second cruise, this time minus the 40-gun
In May 1805, while Atalante and Semilante were attending to other duties, Linois took Marengo and Belle Poule into the
Having spent 17 weeks at sea, on 13 September, Linois' ships entered
On the return journey to France, Marengo and Belle Poule encountered a large British squadron under
Both Marengo and Belle Poule had been severely battered in the rigging and were finding it increasingly difficult to manoeuvre. Marengo could not avoid London's continuing fire nor the cannonade from Amazon as she passed in pursuit of Belle Poule.[22] London too had been heavily damaged and was beginning to drift astern but the appearance of Foudroyant, and HMS Repulse at 10:25 and HMS Ramillies at 11:00, left the French ships with no option but to surrender.[23]
Linois had been wounded and was captured again. Napoleon had ended the practice of exchanging officers and Linois remained a prisoner of war until Napoleon fell in 1814. In 1810, while held by the British, Linois was named Comte de Linois by Napoleon.[20]
Following the
In fiction
Linois is a minor, but highly respected, character in the Aubrey–Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian. Frederick Marryat describes the Battle of Pulo Aura in his 1832 novel Newton Forster.
Citations
- ^ a b c d Piat pp. 195–196
- ^ a b c d Humble p. 115
- ^ a b c d Humble p. 116
- ^ Humble pp. 116-117
- ^ James (Vol. I) p. 204
- ^ James (Vol. I) pp. 204-205
- ^ Clowes (Vol. III) p. 485
- ^ a b c d e Humble p. 117
- ^ Humble pp. 117-118
- ^ a b c Humble p. 118
- ^ Humble p. 119
- ^ a b Humble p. 120
- ^ James (Vol. III) p. 129
- ^ a b c d e Humble p. 121
- )
- ^ Humble pp. 121-122
- ^ a b c d Humble p. 122
- ^ Humble pp. 122-123
- ^ a b c d e Humble p. 123
- ^ a b c d Humble p. 124
- ^ Clowes (Vol. V) pp. 373-374
- ^ a b Woodman p. 29
- ^ Clowes (Vol. V) p. 374
- ^ Humble pp. 124-125
References
- Clowes, William Laird (1996) [1900]. The Royal Navy, A History from the Earliest Times to 1900, Volume III. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 1-86176-012-4.
- Clowes, William Laird (1997) [1900]. The Royal Navy, A History from the Earliest Times to 1900, Volume V. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 1-86176-014-0.
- Gardiner, Robert (2002). The Campaign of Trafalgar 1803-1805. Nottingham: Caxton. ISBN 978-1840673586.
- Humble, Richard (2019). Napoleon's Admirals: Flag Officers of the Arc de Triomphe, 1789-1815. Oxford: Casemate. ISBN 978-1-61200-808-0.
- OCLC 634321885.
- James, William (1827). The Naval History of Great Britain, Volume III, 1800–1805. London: ISBN 0-85177-907-7.
- Piat, Denis (2010). Mauritius on the Spice Route, 1598-1810. Editions Didier Millet. ISBN 978-9814260312.
- Woodman, Richard (2003). The Victory of Seapower, 1806-14. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1861760388.