Antoine René Thévenard (1766 –
1 August 1798, on the
''Aquilon'', in
Aboukir) was a French Navy officer. His name is written "Henri-Alexandre Thévenard" in some English sources.
Biography
Antoine René Thévenard was born to
Antoine-Jean-Marie Thévenard
Antoine Jean Marie Thévenard (7 December 1733, in Saint-MaloCunat, p.387 – 9 February 1815, in ParisCunat, p.389) was a French politician and vice admiral. He served in the French ruling regimes of Louis XVI, those of the Revolution, Napoleo ...
, then a captain of the
French East India Company
The French East India Company (french: Compagnie française pour le commerce des Indes orientales) was a colonial commercial enterprise, founded on 1 September 1664 to compete with the English (later British) and Dutch trading companies in the ...
. He was killed on 1 August 1798 during the
Battle of the Nile
The Battle of the Nile (also known as the Battle of Aboukir Bay; french: Bataille d'Aboukir) was a major naval battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the Navy of the French Republic at Aboukir Bay on the Mediterranean coast off the ...
.
In early 1793, he captained the frigate
''Insurgente'' with the rank of Lieutenant, and escorted a convoy from Nantes to Brest. He was promoted to Captain in the summer of the same year and appointed to the frigate . He took part in the
action of 21 October 1794, where a squadron under
Sir Edward Pellew captured ''Révolutionnaire''.
In 1794, Thévenard captained the
razée frigate ''Brave'', on which he sailed between Brest and Cancale, cruised off
Ouessant and
Guernesey, and returned to Brest. He was then tasked with leading a division in the
Kattegat and the
North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...
, his flag on ''Brave'' and with the frigates
''Spartiate'' and
''Proserpine'', under Villemadrin and Daugier respectively. Thévenard also took part in the
Biscay campaign of June 1795 on ''Brave''.
In 1795, Thévenard was appointed to command of the 74-gun
''Wattignies'', on which he sailed from Lorient to
ÃŽle-d'Aix
Île-d'Aix () is a commune and an island in the Charente-Maritime department, region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine (before 2015: Poitou-Charentes), off the west coast of France. It occupies the territory of the small Isle of Aix (''île d'Aix''), in the ...
.
In 1796, Thévenard led the naval division of Saint-Domingue, with his flag on ''Wattignies''; he was promoted to
''chef de division'' in the same year. In December, he took part in the
Expédition d'Irlande.
Thévenard commanded the 74-gun
''Aquilon'' at the battle of the Nile. Early in the battle he used the spring on his anchor cable to angle his broadside into a raking position across the bow of
Nelson's flagship,
HMS ''Vanguard'', which consequently suffered over 100 casualties, including Nelson, wounded by a piece of shot in the forehead.
Thévenard was killed on the first day of the battle; captured ''Aquilon''.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Thevenard, Antoine Rene
French Navy officers
1766 births
1798 deaths
French Republican military leaders killed in the French Revolutionary Wars