Pierre-Paulin Gourrège (9 June 1749 in

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

— 27 October 1805 near Cadiz) was a French Navy officer and captain.

Career

Gourrège started his career in the merchant Navy in 1749, rising to assistant pilot the next year, to lieutenant in 1772 and earning his commission of captain in 1777. In 1791, he became captain in the

National Guard National Guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards. Nat ...

, and was appointed Lieutenant in the Navy on 1 July 1792, taking command of the frigate '' Fraternité'' on 13 November 1793.Quintin, p. 157 With ''Fraternité'', he cruised from Brest off Southern Spain before transferring on ''

Brutus Marcus Junius Brutus (; ; 85 BC – 23 October 42 BC), often referred to simply as Brutus, was a Roman politician, orator, and the most famous of the assassins of Julius Caesar. After being adopted by a relative, he used the name Quintus Serv ...

''. On 21 March 1796, Gourrège was promoted to Commander, and to Captain on 22 September. On 10 November, he was appointed to '' Coquille'', supervised the commissioning of ''

Indienne ''Indienne'' (, ; , ), was a type of printed or painted textile manufactured in Europe between the 17th and the 19th centuries, inspired by similar textile originally made in India (hence the name). They received various other names in French s ...

'' at the Havre from 20 October 1797, and took command of ''

Créole Creole may refer to: Anthropology * Creole peoples, ethnic groups which originated from linguistic, cultural, and often racial mixing of colonial-era emigrants from Europe with non-European peoples * Criollo people, the historic name of people ...

'' on 12 April 1799. After taking part in an abortive sortie with the division under ''contre-amiral''

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, where ''Créole'' sustained some damage in a collision with '' Fidèle'', Gourrège took part in

Ganteaume's expeditions of 1801 Ganteaume's expeditions of 1801 were three connected major French Navy operations of the spring of 1801 during the French Revolutionary Wars. A French naval squadron from Brest under ''Contre-amiral'' Honoré Ganteaume, seeking to reinforce the ...

. During the cruise,Troude (p.228) lists Gourrège as captain of ''Indivisible'' at the departure of the fleet on 27 January, probably mistakenly. he was appointed to the 80-gun '' Indivisible'', which he commanded during the

action of 24 June 1801 The action of 24 June 1801 was a minor naval engagement during the French Revolutionary Wars. A British ship of the line, HMS ''Swiftsure'' under Captain Benjamin Hallowell was passing westwards through the Southern Mediterranean near Cape De ...

, where she and '' Dix-Août'' captured HMS ''Swiftsure''. Gourrège commanded the ''

Jean Bart Jean Bart (; ; 21 October 1650 – 27 April 1702) was a French Admiral, naval commander and privateer. Early life Jean Bart was born in Dunkirk, France, Dunkirk in 1650 to a seafaring family, the son of Jean-Cornil Bart (c. 1619-1668) who has b ...

'' from 5 September 1801, and the ''

Aigle , neighboring_municipalities= Vaud: Yvorne, Leysin, Ormont-Dessous, Ollon; Valais: Vouvry, Collombey-Muraz , twintowns = L'Aigle (France), Tübingen (Germany), Bassersdorf (Switzerland) } Aigle (French language, French for "eagle", ; frp, ...

'' from 28 November 1802. In 1803, he served off

Santo Domingo , total_type = Total , population_density_km2 = auto , timezone = AST (UTC −4) , area_code_type = Area codes , area_code = 809, 829, 849 , postal_code_type = Postal codes , postal_code = 10100–10699 (Distrito Nacional) , websi ...

, ferrying troops from

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to Cap-Français and performing an amphibious landing at

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, before returning to Cadiz. On 5 February 1804, he was made a Knight in the order of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon, ...

, and promoted to Officer on 14 June. On ''Aigle'', he reinforced the Franco-Spanish fleet during the Trafalgar Campaign and took part in the Battle of Cape Finisterre and in the

Battle of Trafalgar The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) was a naval engagement between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies during the War of the Third Coalition (August–December 1805) of the Napoleonic Wars (180 ...

, where he was mortally wounded at the outbreak of the fight possibly by mistake by fire from '' Principe de Asturias''.LE 67e DE LIGNE A TRAFALGAR
/ref> ''Aigle'' was captured during the battle, recaptured afterwards by her own crew mutined against the British, but ultimately wrecked near Cadiz. Gourrège died of his injuries six days after the battle.

Sources and references

Notes

References

Bibliography

* *
GOURREGE (Pierre-Paulin) (1749 – 1805)
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gourrege 1749 births 1805 deaths French Navy officers French military personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars French naval commanders of the Napoleonic Wars