Étienne-Joseph de Saint-Germain d'Apchon (1724 — ) was a French Navy officer. He served in the

War of American Independence The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, and became a member of the Society of the Cincinnati.

Biography

Apchon was born to a family from Forez. He joined the Navy as a

Garde-Marine In France, under the Ancien Régime, the Gardes de la Marine (Guards of the Navy), or Gardes-Marine were young gentlemen undergoing training to be naval officers. The training program was established by Cardinal Richelieu in 1670 and lasted until A ...

in 1740, and was promoted to Lieutenant in 1756. He captained the 24-gun frigate ''Gracieuse'' in the squadron under Du Chaffault for the

Larache expedition The Expedition of Larache occurred in June 1765 when French Navy troops attempted to invade the Moroccan city of Larache following a bombardment of Salé and Rabat. It is an example of the sporadic failure of Western arms against local forces in co ...

in 1765. the year after, he transferred on the 32-gun frigate ''Pléïade''. In 1770, Apchon was promoted to Captain. The year after, he was in command of the 40-gun frigate ''Atalante'', which he sailed to Toulon, Tunis and Malta. In 1773, he captained the 80-gun ''Languedoc''. In 1778, he was captain of the

74-gun The "seventy-four" was a type of two- decked sailing ship of the line, which nominally carried 74 guns. It was developed by the French navy in the 1740s, replacing earlier classes of 60- and 62-gun ships, as a larger complement to the recently-de ...

''Protecteur'', part of the squadron under Vice-amiral d'Estaing. He took part in the

Battle of St. Lucia The Battle of St. Lucia or the Battle of the Cul de Sac was a naval battle fought off the island of St. Lucia in the West Indies during the American Revolutionary War on 15 December 1778, between the British Royal Navy and the French Navy. Ba ...

on 15 December 1778. In 1780, he took part in the joint French-Spanish fleet under Córdova. Later that year, he was appointed governor of Fort Lupin, a position he held until 1783. In 1783, Apchon was part in the inquiry into the events of the

Battle of the Saintes The Battle of the Saintes (known to the French as the Bataille de la Dominique), also known as the Battle of Dominica, was an important naval battle in the Caribbean between the British and the French that took place 9–12 April 1782. The Brit ...

Sources and references

Notes References Bibliography * * * * External links * {{DEFAULTSORT:Raimondis, Louis French Navy officers