François-Gilles Montfort (

Saint-Malo Saint-Malo (, , ; Gallo: ; ) is a historic French port in Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany, on the English Channel coast. The walled city had a long history of piracy, earning much wealth from local extortion and overseas adventures. In 1944, the Alli ...

, 16 January 1769 -

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

, 25 March 1826) was a French naval officer.

Career

In 1803 ''lieutenant de vaisseau'' François-Gilles Montfort was captain of the gunbrig ''Venteux''. On 27 June boats from HMS ''Loire'' captured ''Venteux'' at the

Île de Batz The Île de Batz ( br, Enez Vaz) is an island off Roscoff in Brittany, France. Administratively, it is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in north-western France. Climate Île de Batz has a oceanic climate (Köppen climate class ...

, where she was sheltering under the guns of shore batteries. The British boarded her, and though outnumbered, in a fierce 10-minute struggle succeeded in taking her over. British casualties were six men wounded, one seriously and two mortally. French casualties were three men killed, one of them her second captain. ''Venteux'' also had Montfort, her four remaining officers, and eight seamen wounded. As captain of the 44-gun frigate ''Pauline'', Montfort took part in the

action of 27 February 1809 The action of 27 February 1809 was a minor naval engagement during the French Revolutionary Wars. Two 44-gun frigates, ''Pénélope'' and ''Pauline'', sortied from Toulon harbour to chase a British frigate, HMS ''Proserpine'', which was conduc ...

. In 1811, Montfort was put in charge of a frigate squadron comprising ''Pauline'', ''Pomone'' and ''Persanne'', with his flag on ''Pauline''. The ships were to ferry artillery equipment from

Corfu Corfu (, ) or Kerkyra ( el, Κέρκυρα, Kérkyra, , ; ; la, Corcyra.) is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the margin of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The isl ...

Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into provi ...

. The squadron met with a British squadron under

Murray Maxwell Captain Sir Murray Maxwell, CB, FRS (10 September 1775 – 26 June 1831) was a British Royal Navy officer who served with distinction in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, particularly during the French Revolutionary and Napo ...

, resulting in the

action of 29 November 1811 The action of 29 November 1811 was a minor naval engagement fought between two frigate squadrons in the Adriatic Sea during the Adriatic campaign of the Napoleonic Wars. The action was one of a series of operations conducted by the British Roy ...

in which ''Pomone'' and ''Persanne'' were captured. Montfort underwent court-martial for the loss of the two ships under his command. For his failure to support these ships, his conduct was deemed cowardly, and he was relieved of command.Roche, vol.1 p.344

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Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Montfort, Francois-Gilles French Navy officers from Saint-Malo 1769 births French naval commanders of the Napoleonic Wars 1826 deaths