Jean Baptiste, marquis de Traversay
Jean Baptiste, marquis de Traversay | |
---|---|
Born | 24 July 1754 |
Died | 19 May 1831 (aged 76) |
Occupation | Admiral |
Jean Baptiste Prevost de Sansac,
Traversay is commemorated internationally in the name of the Traversay Islands and in the sarcastic Russian name for the shallow Neva Bay - the Marquis Puddle (Russian: Маркизова лужа).[2]
Biography
Early years
Jean-Baptiste Prevost de Sansac de Traversay was born in the French
Jean-Baptiste was five years old when he arrived in France in 1759. His father first placed him in a
Traversay was commissioned an
American Revolutionary War
In May 1778, when France and the United States signed the
On 14 December 1778, Iphigénie captured
In March 1781 Traversay assumed command of Aigrette,[4] a fast 26-gun frigate assigned to the fleet of admiral de Grasse. Aigrette's tasks in this campaign ranged from screening Rodney's movements to running shipments of gold from Havana (Spain was subsidizing the French campaign in West Indies).
On 30 August 1781 the French fleet arrived at Chesapeake Bay. French troops disembarked to encircle the British force of general Corwallis. Aigrette, stationed at Cape Henry, seized two sloops, a brig, and a 20-gun corvette. In the morning of 5 September, Aigrette was the first French ship to detect the approaching fleet of admiral Graves. The subsequent Battle of the Chesapeake was a strategic defeat for the British. Soon after the battle, Aigrette seized HMS Iris, a 34-gun frigate (originally the USS Hancock, which the British had captured in 1777). Traversay assumed command of Iris, leaving Aigrette in the hands of her first officer.
In the last months of the war Iris took part in the
Traversay was honored with the French Order of Saint Louis (awarded before the defeat at the Saintes), and a membership in the American Society of the Cincinnati. He became captain of the first rank in 1786, at the age of only 32.
Russian Baltic Fleet
At the outbreak of French Revolution Traversay was stationed in his home Martinique as captain of Active. When news of the fall of the Bastille reached the island, local French troops revolted and were repatriated to Lorient on Traversay's Active. Back in France, the French Navy was falling apart too; Traversay took a long leave, sending his family to a safe place in Switzerland.
In 1790 empress
This commission did not last long, due to strong anti-French feelings among Russians committed to following the model of the British
After two years with the émigrée forces, in July 1793 he returned to Russia with his family. In 1795 Traversay was appointed commander of a flotilla based in Rochensalm (present-day Kotka in Finland); from 1797 he was also the military governor of Rochensalm, responsible for building and managing this naval fortress, recently annexed from Sweden. Emperor Paul I valued Traversay's service, and, unlike many contemporary soldiers, Traversay enjoyed Paul's good disposition throughout his short reign. Paul's successor, Alexander I, too valued Traversay.
Black Sea Fleet
In 1802, Alexander promoted Traversay to full admiral and appointed him commander-in-chief of the
Traversay's only combat operation of this period, the last in his life, was the siege and destruction of Anapa in April 1807 (see Russo-Turkish War (1806–1812)). A force of four ships-of-the-line (all that was left n home waters), under the command of admiral Pustoshkin, with Traversay on board, fired on the rebel fortress at point-blank range. After the rebels abandoned Anapa without fighting, Russian infantry razed the fortress to the ground. A second similar operation, against Trabzon, was detected early by the Turks and was cancelled before the first shots could be fired.
In July 1809 Traversay received orders to transfer command of the Black Sea fleet to
Between 1809 and 1812, Traversay's main tasks were improving shipbuilding and coastal defences in the Baltic Sea. He reorganized the Baltic fleet structure (over 32 000 men), creating the system of permanent regiment-sized units (fleet crews, Russian: флотские экипажи) that supplied manpower to ships and ground forces. This system proved itself during the War of 1812 and subsequent campaigns against Napoleon, and survived until the fall of the House of Romanov.
At the end of the
In 1815-1821 Traversay sponsored long-range expeditions into the Arctic and
In 1821, after the death of his second wife, the aging Traversay tried to resign for the first time. Tsar Alexander did not let him go; instead, he honored Traversay with the Order of St. Andrew. Alexander also allowed Traversay to move from the city to his country home in Romanshchina (near Luga, 120 kilometers from Saint Petersburg), and to run the Navy operations from there. For the next 7 years, the Navy Ministry operated far away from any naval base. The tsar himself regularly visited Traversay in his country office, with the last meeting in Romanshchina occurring in September 1825, four weeks before Alexander's death at Taganrog.
At about the same time Traversay suffered his first ischemia seizures. During the first three years of the reign of Nicholas I, Traversay continued rebuilding the Baltic fleet after the disastrous flood of 1824, gradually passing his duties to younger officers. In 1828 Traversay finally retired, with an honorary award of Order of St. George, 4th class. He died in Romanschina in 1831.
Private life
Traversay married his first wife, Marie Madeleine, daughter of admiral Jean-Joseph de Riouffe, in Rochefort in 1783. Two of their children born in France and Switzerland, Claire (1785–1842) and Jean-Francois (future Alexander Ivanovich de Traversay, Sr.), lived long enough to acquire Russian citizenship. Marie Madeleine died while giving birth in 1796 but the newborn boy, Alexander, survived. Alexander's godmother in his orthodox baptism, the empress Catherine, generously awarded the baby with a naval officer's commission. Traversay, however, feared that the newborn would perish, too, and asked the empress to transfer her gift to Jean-Francois, who was renamed Alexander to retain the commission. Baby Alexander survived as well, so the family had two Alexanders: Alexander Sr. (1791–1850) and Alexander Jr. (1796–1866). Both eventually joined the Russian Navy.
Four years later, Traversay married Louise Ulrica de Bruine (Loviisa Ulriikka Bruun), herself 27 years younger than her new husband. She was the daughter of Elisabeth Fabritius and her husband burgher Kaarle Bruun, a rich merchant and businessman in Hamina, Old Finland, the nearest chartered town to Traversay's command, the fortification on the Kymi River. Elisabeth and Kaarle Bruun owned Oravala manor of Valkeala. This marriage produced two children - Fyodor = Frederic (b. 1803, a civil servant in the Navy), and Marie (1807–1871). Louise Ulrica died in 1821. Later, Louise Ulrica's nephew Theodor Bruun became the Minister State Secretary of Finland and was created a baron.
Traversay accepted Russian citizenship in 1811, when he registered as a resident landlord of
).Notes
- ^ His tomb in Romanshchina is marked Admiral marquis Ivan Ivanovich de Traversay (Russian: Адмиралъ маркизъ Иванъ Ивановичъ де Траверсе)
- ^ Encyclopedia of Saint Petersburg
- ^ Roche (2005), p. 104.
- ^ Roche (2005), p. 26.
- ^ Karl Heinrich Otto, prince Nassau-Siegen, was a Frenchman by blood and a French subject. He belonged to the Dutch branch of Nassau that adhered to Catholic faith.
Sources
Printed:
- (in French) Madeleine Du Chatenet. L'amiral Jean-Baptiste de Traversay, un Français, Ministre de la marine des tsars. Tallandier, 1 novembre 1996. ISBN 978-2-235-02159-3
- (in Russian) Мадлен дю Шатне. Жан Батист де Траверсе министр флота Российского. - М., Наука, 2003. ISBN 5-02-008874-9
- Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours. Vol. 1. Group Retozel-Maury Millau. OCLC 165892922. (1671-1870)
Online: