Louis-Hyacinte de Cavelier, chevalier de Cuverville (Château de Cuverville, near

Le Havre Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very cl ...

, 1740 —

Quintin Quintin (; br, Kintin) is a commune in the Cotes-d'Armor department (Brittany region) in the northwest of France from Saint-Brieuc, the department capital. History The area around Quintin has been occupied since the Neolithic. Early Quintin ...

, 1819) was a French Navy officer.

Biography

Cuverville was born to an aristocratic family. He joined the Navy in 1755, was promoted to Ensign in 1761 and to Lieutenant in 1774. In 1778, he captained the frigate ''Inconstante''. Cuverville served in the Indian Ocean under Rear-Admiral Suffren. He was captain of the 56-gun ''Flamand'' at the

Battle of Sadras The Battle of Sadras was the first of five largely indecisive naval battles fought between a British fleet (under Admiral Sir Edward Hughes) and a French fleet (under Admiral Pierre Suffren) off the east coast of India during the Anglo-French ...

on 17 February 1782. Suffren ordered the 64-gun ''Ajax'', under René Joseph Bouvet de Précourt, and ''Flamand'', under Cuverville, to attack the British line to leeward. They both maneuvered to this effect, but then Tromelin, on ''Annibal'', countermanded the order by signaling ''Ajax'' and ''Flamand'' to return to their post in the

line of battle The line of battle is a tactic in naval warfare in which a fleet of ships forms a line end to end. The first example of its use as a tactic is disputed—it has been variously claimed for dates ranging from 1502 to 1652. Line-of-battle tacti ...

. While ''Ajax'' obeyed the order, ''Flamand'' sailed on and Saint-Félix, of ''Brillant'', requested permission to replace ''Ajax''. At the Battle of Negapatam, on 6 July 1782, he engaged the much stronger HMS ''Hero''. In July 1782, in the wake of the Battle of Negapatam, Suffren appointed Cuverville to the 64-gun ''Vengeur'' in replacement of her former captain, Forbin. Lieutenant Éléonor Jacques Marie Stanislas Perier de Salvert replaced Cuverville on ''Flamand''. Cuverville then captained ''Vengeur'' during the

Battle of Trincomalee A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

between 25 August and 3 September 1782, and during the Battle of Cuddalore on 20 June 1783. After the war, he was amongst the captains that Suffren recommended for promotion He received a 600-livre pension in recognition of his service. In 1791, he briefly commanded a squadron in Brest, before fleeing to

Essen Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and D ...

. At the Bourbon Restauration, he was made an honorary Rear-Admiral. He died in Quintin in 1819.

Sources and references

Notes References Bibliography * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint-Félix, Armand 1740 births 1819 deaths French Navy officers