Claude Louis Deschiens de Kerulvay (February 1745 in
Lorient
Lorient (; ) is a town (''Communes of France, commune'') and Port, seaport in the Morbihan Departments of France, department of Brittany (administrative region), Brittany in western France.
History
Prehistory and classical antiquity
Beginn ...
– 10 September 1796,
''Modeste'', Indian Ocean) was a French slave trader and privateer. His ships included the ''Boufonne'', ''Philippine'' and
''Modeste''.
[Henri Maurel]
Career
Born Claude Louis Deschiens to Jean Deschiens and Marie Beauvoir, a merchant family, Deschiens appears in public records with his baptism at Lorient on 21 February 1745. From the age of 11, he began sailing as an apprentice, first on the cargo ''Rouillé'' from 1754, and then on ''Fidèle''.
[Auguste Toussaint]
By 1774, Deschiens had achieved command in the merchant navy and the authorities of
ĂŽle de France gave him command of the schooner ''Cheval-Marin'' to reconnoitre the
Chagos Archipelago
The Chagos Archipelago () or Chagos Islands (formerly the Bassas de Chagas, and later the Oil Islands) is a group of seven atolls comprising more than 60 islands in the Indian Ocean about 500 kilometres (310 mi) south of the Maldives archi ...
. In 1776, he was commander of ''Bouffonne'', a 150-ton ship funded by his widowed mother; he departed Lorient on 28 May 1776 and arrived at ĂŽle de France on 25 November.
At the outbreak of 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 ...
, ''Bouffonne'' obtained a
letter of marque[''en guerre et en marchandises'', i.e. as an armed merchantman] and Deschiens set out on 5 June 1779, with 4 guns and 25 men, to engage in the
slave trade
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
and to purchase rice.
Notes and references
Notes
Citations
References
''Le corsaire lorientais Claude Deschiens de Kerulvay'' Auguste Toussaint, in: Annales de Bretagne et des pays de l'Ouest. Tome 82, numéro 3, 1975. pp. 317–336.
Claude DESCHIENS de KERULVAY geneanet.org
Henri Maurel
* ''L'armateur préféré de Beaumarchais Jean Peltier Dudoyer, de Nantes à l'Isle de France'', Tugdual de Langlais, Éd. Coiffard, 2015, 340 p. ().
* ''Marie-Étienne Peltier, Capitaine corsaire de la République'', Tugdual de Langlais, Éd. Coiffard, 2017, 240 p. ().
* ''Claude Louis Deschiens'', biographie de L. Noël Regnard, DBM (Dictionnaire de Biographie Mauricienne), janvier 1975, p 1032.
1745 births
1796 deaths
French privateers
Military personnel from Lorient
French slave traders
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