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''Méduse'' was a 40-gun
frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and maneuvera ...
of the
French Navy The French Navy (, , ), informally (, ), is the Navy, maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the four military service branches of History of France, France. It is among the largest and most powerful List of navies, naval forces i ...
, launched in 1810. She took part in the
Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...
during the late stages of the Mauritius campaign of 1809–1811 and in raids in the Caribbean. In 1816, following the Bourbon Restoration, ''Méduse'' was armed
en flûte ''En flûte'' (French: "as a fluyt") is a French naval expression of the Age of Sail to designate the use of a warship as a transport with reduced armament.Willaumez, p. 294 Some warships, ships of the line or frigates, were occasionally used wi ...
to ferry French officials to the port of Saint-Louis, in
Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...
, to formally re-establish French occupation of the colony under the terms of the First Peace of Paris. Through inept navigation by her captain, Hugues Duroy de Chaumareys, who had been given command after the Bourbon Restoration for political reasons and even though he had hardly sailed in 20 years, ''Méduse'' struck the Bank of Arguin off the coast of present-day
Mauritania Mauritania, officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a sovereign country in Maghreb, Northwest Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Western Sahara to Mauritania–Western Sahara border, the north and northwest, ...
and became a total loss. Most of the 400 passengers on board evacuated, with 146 men and 1 woman forced to take refuge on an improvised raft towed by the frigate's launches. The towing proved impractical, however, and the boats soon abandoned the raft and its passengers in the open ocean. Without any means of navigating to shore, the situation aboard the raft rapidly turned disastrous. Dozens were washed into the sea by a storm, while others, drunk from wine, rebelled and were killed by officers. When supplies ran low, several of the injured were thrown into the sea, and some of the survivors resorted to the
Custom of the Sea A custom of the sea is a custom said to be practiced by the officers and crew of ships and boats in the open sea, as distinguished from maritime law, which is a distinct and coherent body of law governing maritime questions and offenses. Among th ...
, engaging in
cannibalism Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is also well document ...
. After 13 days at sea, the raft was discovered with only 15 people still alive. News of the tragedy stirred considerable public emotion, making ''Méduse'' one of the most infamous
shipwreck A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. It results from the event of ''shipwrecking'', which may be intentional or unintentional. There were approximately thre ...
s of the
Age of Sail The Age of Sail is a period in European history that lasted at the latest from the mid-16th (or mid-15th) to the mid-19th centuries, in which the dominance of sailing ships in global trade and warfare culminated, particularly marked by the int ...
. Two survivors, a surgeon and an officer, wrote a widely read book about the incident, and the episode was immortalised when
Théodore Géricault Jean-Louis André Théodore Géricault (; 26 September 1791 – 26 January 1824) was a French painter and lithographer, whose best-known painting is '' The Raft of the Medusa''. Despite his short life, he was one of the pioneers of the Romanti ...
painted '' The Raft of the Medusa'', which became a notable artwork of French
Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...
.


Service

''Méduse'' was commissioned in
Nantes Nantes (, ; ; or ; ) is a city in the Loire-Atlantique department of France on the Loire, from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. The city is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, sixth largest in France, with a pop ...
on 26 September 1807.


Napoleonic Wars

In 1811, she was sent off to
Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...
with , in a frigate division under Joseph-François Raoul. On 2 September, the division arrived at
Surabaya Surabaya is the capital city of East Java Provinces of Indonesia, province and the List of Indonesian cities by population, second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. Located on the northeastern corner of Java island, on the Madura Strai ...
tailed by the 32-gun British frigate HMS ''Bucephalus''. Two days later, the British brig-sloop HMS ''Barracouta'' joined the chase but lost contact on 8 September. On 12 September, ''Méduse'' and ''Nymphe'' chased ''Bucephalus'', which escaped and broke contact the next day. ''Méduse'' was back in Brest on 22 December, and continued her service in the Atlantic. Between 27 and 29 December 1813, ''Méduse'', in concert with the frigate , captured seven British merchantmen at . The vessels captured were , ''Lady Caroline Barham'', and ''Potsdam'', all three coming from London and bound to Jamaica; ''Flora'', from London to Martinique; ''Brazil Packet'', from Madeira to ; and ''Rosario'' and ''Thetis'', from Cape Verde. The French burnt all the vessels they captured, except ''Prince George''. They put their prisoners into her and sent her off as a
cartel A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collaborate with each other as well as agreeing not to compete with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market. A cartel is an organization formed by producers ...
to Barbados, which ''Prince George'' arrived at on 10 January 1814.


Bourbon Restoration

With the restoration of the French monarchy in 1814,
Louis XVIII Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. Before his reign, he spent 23 y ...
decided to restore Royalist and nobility dominance of the senior ranks of both the
French Navy The French Navy (, , ), informally (, ), is the Navy, maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the four military service branches of History of France, France. It is among the largest and most powerful List of navies, naval forces i ...
and
Army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...
. Consequently, Hugues
Viscount A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status. The status and any domain held by a viscount is a viscounty. In the case of French viscounts, the title is ...
Duroy de Chaumareys was appointed '' Capitaine de frégate'' and given command of ''Méduse''; de Chaumareys had previous experience, but had been effectively retired for nearly 20 years.


Course to Senegal

On 17 June 1816, a convoy under the command of Hugues Duroy de Chaumareys on ''Méduse'' departed Rochefort accompanied by the storeship ''Loire'', the
brig A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square rig, square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the l ...
''Argus'' and the
corvette A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the sloo ...
''Écho'' to receive the British handover of the port of Saint-Louis in
Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...
. ''Méduse'', armed
en flûte ''En flûte'' (French: "as a fluyt") is a French naval expression of the Age of Sail to designate the use of a warship as a transport with reduced armament.Willaumez, p. 294 Some warships, ships of the line or frigates, were occasionally used wi ...
, carried many passengers, including the appointed French governor of
Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...
, Colonel Julien-Désiré Schmaltz, his wife Reine Schmaltz, and his secretary, Joseph Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Griffon du Bellay. ''Méduse''s complement totaled 400, including 160 crew plus a contingent of marine infantrymen intended to serve as the garrison of Saint-Louis. The ship reached the island of
Madeira Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...
on 27 June. Schmaltz then wanted to reach Saint-Louis as fast as possible, by the most direct route, although this would take the fleet dangerously close to the shore, where there were many sandbars and reefs. Experienced crews usually sailed further out. ''Méduse'' was the fastest of the convoy and, despite his orders to maintain the convoy, Captain Chaumareys quickly lost contact with ''Loire'' and ''Argus''. ''Écho'' kept pace and attempted to guide ''Méduse'', but to no avail; the smaller ship eventually gave up and moved further out. Chaumareys further compounded his poor decisions by allowing an inexperienced passenger named Richefort to serve as navigator. Richefort was a philosopher and a member of the Philanthropic Society of
Cape Verde Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about . These islands ...
; his appointment was a violation of naval service regulations. As ''Méduse'' neared the coast of Africa, Richefort apparently mistook a large cloud bank on the horizon for Cape Blanco on the African coast, and so underestimated the proximity of the Bank of Arguin off the coast of
Mauritania Mauritania, officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a sovereign country in Maghreb, Northwest Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Western Sahara to Mauritania–Western Sahara border, the north and northwest, ...
. On 2 July 1816, now more than off course, ''Méduse'' ran into increasingly shallow water, and neither the captain nor the navigator noticed dangerous signs such as the mud bottom starting to become visible. Eventually, First Lieutenant Maudet began taking soundings off the bow, and, measuring only , recognized the danger. Chaumareys ordered the ship brought up into the wind, but it was too late, and ''Méduse'' ran aground from the coast. The accident occurred at spring
high tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables ...
, making it dangerous to re-float the ship without massive flooding. The captain failed to jettison the ship's heavy 14 three-tonne cannons and so the ship soon lodged deep in the mud.


Raft

''Méduse'' was not carrying enough lifeboats to transport all of the passengers to safety in a single trip. Instead, it was proposed that the ship's launches should ferry the passengers and crew to shore, away, in two separate trips. Numerous ideas for lightening ''Méduse'' in an effort to lift her off the
reef A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral, or similar relatively stable material lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic component, abiotic (non-living) processes such as deposition (geol ...
were also proposed, such as building a raft so cargo could be safely removed. A raft measuring long and wide was soon constructed with salvaged wood planks and was nicknamed "''la Machine''" by the crew. On 5 July, a
gale A gale is a strong wind; the word is typically used as a descriptor in nautical contexts. The U.S. National Weather Service defines a gale as sustained surface wind moving at a speed between .
developed and ''Méduse''s battered hull began to break up. The passengers and crew panicked, and Chaumareys decided to evacuate the frigate immediately rather than enact the original plan to make two trips. The raft was hastily repurposed for moving passengers and the ''Méduse''s longboats were rigged to tow it behind them; this left 146 men and 1 woman on an improvised craft that struggled to hold their weight. The raft could carry few supplies, had no means of steering, no navigational tools, and took on water easily. Seventeen men, fearing disaster, chose to stay with the sinking ''Méduse'' and await rescue. The crew in the launches soon found that pulling the raft slowed them down considerably and became worried that the passengers might overwhelm them. After travelling only a few kilometers, they cut the tow line and abandoned the raft's occupants. The lifeboats, which carried the captain, Governor Schmaltz, and other high-ranking persons, were the first to reach the coast of Africa. Most of the boats' survivors made it to safety in French
Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...
, though some died as they travelled overland. On the raft, the situation deteriorated rapidly. Instead of water, only wine had been packed; drunken fights broke out between the officers and passengers on one hand, and the sailors and soldiers on the other. On the first night adrift, 20 men were killed or committed
suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...
. A storm then hit, and more survivors were either trampled to death in a panic or swept overboard to drown. Rations dwindled rapidly; by the fourth day there were only 67 people left alive on the raft, and some resorted to
cannibalism Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is also well document ...
(as part of the
custom of the sea A custom of the sea is a custom said to be practiced by the officers and crew of ships and boats in the open sea, as distinguished from maritime law, which is a distinct and coherent body of law governing maritime questions and offenses. Among th ...
) to survive. On the eighth day, the fittest decided to throw the weak and wounded overboard, leaving just 15 men remaining, all of whom survived another four days until their rescue on 17 July by the brig ''Argus'', which accidentally encountered them.


Aftermath

''Argus'' took the survivors of the raft to Saint-Louis to recover. Five of them, including Jean Charles, the last African crew member, died within days. Chaumareys decided to rescue the gold that was still on board ''Méduse'' and sent out a salvage crew, which discovered that ''Méduse'' was still largely intact. Only three of the 17 men who had decided to stay on ''Méduse'' were still alive 54 days later. British naval officers helped the survivors to return to France because aid from the French Minister of the Marine was not forthcoming. ''Méduse''s surviving surgeon, Henri Savigny, and the governor's secretary submitted their account of the tragedy to the authorities. It was leaked to an anti- Bourbon newspaper, the ''
Journal des débats The ''Journal des débats'' (, ''Journal of Debates'') was a French newspaper, published between 1789 and 1944 that changed title several times. Created shortly after the first meeting of the Estates-General of 1789, it was, after the outbreak ...
'', and was published on 13 September 1816. The incident quickly became a scandal in French politics and Bourbon officials tried to cover it up. At his
court-martial A court-martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the arme ...
at Port de Rochefort in 1817, Chaumareys was tried on five counts but acquitted of abandoning his squadron, of failing to re-float his ship and of abandoning the raft; however, he was found guilty of incompetent and complacent navigation and of abandoning ''Méduse'' before all her passengers had been taken off. Even though this verdict exposed him to the death penalty, Chaumareys was sentenced to only three years in jail. The court-martial was widely thought to be a "whitewash." The Gouvion de Saint-Cyr Law later ensured that promotions in the French military would thereafter be based on merit. Savigny and another survivor, the geographer-engineer Alexandre Corréard, subsequently wrote a book with their own account (''Naufrage de la frégate la Méduse'') of the incident, published in 1817. It went through five editions by 1821 and was also published with success in English, German, Dutch, Italian, and Korean translations. A revision of the text in later editions increased the political thrust of the work.


Shipwreck site

In 1980, a French marine archaeological expedition led by Jean-Yves Blot located the ''Méduse'' shipwreck site off the coast of modern-day
Mauritania Mauritania, officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a sovereign country in Maghreb, Northwest Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Western Sahara to Mauritania–Western Sahara border, the north and northwest, ...
. The primary search tool was a one-of-a-kind
magnetometer A magnetometer is a device that measures magnetic field or magnetic dipole moment. Different types of magnetometers measure the direction, strength, or relative change of a magnetic field at a particular location. A compass is one such device, ...
developed by the CEA. The search area was defined on the basis of the accounts of survivors of ''Méduse'' and, more importantly, on the records of an 1817 French coastal mapping expedition that found the vessel's remains still projecting above the waves. The background research proved to be so good that the expedition team located the shipwreck site on the first day of searching. They then recovered enough artifacts to identify the wreck positively and to mount an exhibit in the Marine Museum in Paris.


In popular culture


Géricault's painting

Impressed by accounts of the shipwreck, the 25-year-old artist
Théodore Géricault Jean-Louis André Théodore Géricault (; 26 September 1791 – 26 January 1824) was a French painter and lithographer, whose best-known painting is '' The Raft of the Medusa''. Despite his short life, he was one of the pioneers of the Romanti ...
decided to create an oil painting based on the incident and contacted the writers in 1818. His work depicts a moment recounted by one of the survivors: prior to their rescue, the passengers saw a ship on the horizon, which they tried to signal. She disappeared, and in the words of one of the surviving crew members, "From the delirium of joy, we fell into profound despondency and grief". The ship ''Argus'' reappeared two hours later and rescued those who remained. The painting, titled '' The Raft of the Medusa'', is considered an iconic work of the French
Romantic movement Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...
and Géricault's masterpiece. It is on display in the
Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...
.


Film

* '' Le Radeau de la Méduse'' (1994), directed by Iradj Azimi and starring
Jean Yanne Jean Yanne (; born Jean Roger Gouyé ; 18 July 1933 – 23 May 2003) was a French actor, screenwriter, producer, director and composer. In 1972, he won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor for his performance in the film '' We Won't ...
as Chaumareys, Daniel Mesguich as Coudein, Alain Macé as Henri Savigny, Claude Jade as Reine Schmaltz,
Philippe Laudenbach Philippe Laudenbach (31 January 1936 – 22 April 2024) was a French actor. He appeared in more than one hundred films from 1963. Career Philippe Laudenbach, the nephew of Pierre Fresnay (born Peter Laudenbach), was trained at the French Natio ...
as Julien Schmaltz, Michel Baumann as Alexandre Corréard and Laurent Terzieff as
Théodore Géricault Jean-Louis André Théodore Géricault (; 26 September 1791 – 26 January 1824) was a French painter and lithographer, whose best-known painting is '' The Raft of the Medusa''. Despite his short life, he was one of the pioneers of the Romanti ...


Music

* Friedrich von Flotow wrote the opera ''Le naufrage de la Méduse'' (1839), based on this sad case. *French songwriter and poet Georges Brassens alludes to the raft of ''Méduse'' in his song "Les copains d'abord" (1964). The song is a hymn to friendship, symbolised by the crew of a ship named "Les Copains d'Abord" ("Friends first"), and in the first verse it says that she was not "the raft of ''Méduse''". * German composer
Hans Werner Henze Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large List of compositions by Hans Werner Henze, oeuvre is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Igor Stravinsky, Stravinsky, Mu ...
wrote an
oratorio An oratorio () is a musical composition with dramatic or narrative text for choir, soloists and orchestra or other ensemble. Similar to opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguisha ...
, ''
Das Floß der Medusa ' (''The Raft of the Medusa'') is a 1967 secular oratorio by the German composer Hans Werner Henze. It is regarded as a seminal work in the composer's alignment with left-wing politics. Background Henze wrote it in 1967 to a text by Ernst Schnab ...
'', in 1968 in memory of
Che Guevara Ernesto "Che" Guevara (14th May 1928 – 9 October 1967) was an Argentines, Argentine Communist revolution, Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, Guerrilla warfare, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and Military theory, military theorist. A majo ...
* "Raft of the Medusa", a track from the 2012 album ''Static on the Airwaves'' by
Levellers The Levellers were a political movement active during the English Civil War who were committed to popular sovereignty, extended suffrage, equality before the law and religious tolerance. The hallmark of Leveller thought was its populism, as sh ...
* "Le Radeau de La Méduse", a track from the 2021 album ''A Dream of Wilderness'' by Aephanemer (Symphonic Melodic Death Metal band based in Toulouse, France) * "The Doom of Medusa", a track from the 2018 album ''Codex Epicus'' by Battleroar (Heavy Metal band based in Athens, Greece)


Literature

* ''Das Floß der Medusa'' (''The Raft of the Medusa''; 1940–1943), a play by German dramatist Georg Kaiser * ''Wreck of the Medusa'' by Alexander McKee, a narrative account of the final voyage, shipwreck and aftermath originally published in 1976 under the title '' Death Raft'' and reprinted in 2007. McKee draws upon multiple sources and provides analysis of the event in relation to similar maritime and aeronautical disasters. * The second volume of Peter Weiss's novel '' Die Ästhetik des Widerstands'' (''The Aesthetics of Resistance''), originally published in 1978, opens with a detailed historical account of ''Méduse'' and subsequently describes Géricault's painting * In '' A History of the World in 10½ Chapters'' (1989) by
Julian Barnes Julian Patrick Barnes (born 19 January 1946) is an English writer. He won the Man Booker Prize in 2011 with ''The Sense of an Ending'', having been shortlisted three times previously with ''Flaubert's Parrot'', ''England, England'', and ''Arthu ...
, a semi-fictional work that attempts to deglaze and satirise popular historical legends, the chapter "Shipwreck" is devoted to analysis of the Géricault painting, with the first half narrating the incidents leading to the shipwreck and the survival of the crew members. The second half of the chapter renders a dark platonic and satirical analysis of the painting itself, and Géricault's "softening" the impact of crude reality in order to preserve the aestheticism of the work. * '' Ocean Sea'' (1993), a novel by Alessandro Baricco. The "second book" describes the event from the point of view of ''Méduse''s surviving surgeon, Henri Savigny, and a sailor, both of them on the raft. * "Boot Mat (After Gericault's Raft of the Medusa)," a poem by Ken Babstock, published in his collection, ''Days into Flatspin''. * ''Das Floß der Medusa. Roman''. Paul Zsolnay Verlag, Wien 2017, , by Franzobel


Other references

* The rock group Great White used the Géricault painting as the cover art for their 1994 album '' Sail Away'' * Irish folk-rock group
The Pogues The Pogues are an English Celtic punk band founded in King's Cross, London, in 1982, by Shane MacGowan, Spider Stacy and Jem Finer. Originally named Pogue Mahone—an anglicisation of the Irish language, Irish phrase :wikt:póg mo thóin, ''p� ...
used the famous painting as the album cover for their second album '' Rum Sodomy & the Lash'' (1985), with the faces of the band members replacing those of the men on the raft. Also, on their album '' Hell's Ditch'' (1990), they pay tribute to the incident with the song "The Wake of the Medusa". * German funeral doom band
Ahab Ahab (; ; ; ; ) was a king of the Kingdom of Israel (Samaria), the son and successor of King Omri, and the husband of Jezebel of Sidon, according to the Hebrew Bible. He is depicted in the Bible as a Baal worshipper and is criticized for causi ...
used the Géricault painting as the cover for their album '' The Divinity of Oceans''. * The layout of the scene is copied in the French comic book '' Astérix Légionnaire'' ( Goscinny/
Uderzo Alberto Aleandro Uderzo (; 25 April 1927 – 24 March 2020), better known as Albert Uderzo (), was a French comic book artist and scriptwriter. He is best known as the co-creator and illustrator of the '' Astérix'' series in collaboration wit ...
, 1967) to depict yet another shipwreck of Astérix's recurring pirate enemies. The captain's comment is the
pun A pun, also known as a paronomasia in the context of linguistics, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from t ...
, "Je suis médusé" ("I am dumbfounded"). In their English translation, Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge replaced this pun with a different joke specifically relating to the painting, having the captain say, "We've been framed, by Jericho!" * In ''
The Adventures of Tintin ''The Adventures of Tintin'' ( ) is a series of 24 comic albums created by Belgians, Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, who wrote under the pen name Hergé. The series was one of the most popular European comics of the 20th century. By 2007, a c ...
'' comic ''
The Red Sea Sharks ''The Red Sea Sharks'' () is the nineteenth volume of ''The Adventures of Tintin'', the comic series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. The story was initially serialised weekly in Belgium's ''Tintin'' magazine from October 1956 to January 1958 b ...
'', while the protagonists are escaping on a raft, a wave washes
Captain Haddock Captain Archibald Haddock (French: ''Capitaine Archibald Haddock'') is a character in the comic book series ''The Adventures of Tintin''. He is Tintin (character), Tintin's best friend, a seafaring captain in the Merchant Navy or Merchant Mar ...
off; he climbs back on with a
jellyfish Jellyfish, also known as sea jellies or simply jellies, are the #Life cycle, medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, which is a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animal ...
on his head.
Tintin Tintin usually refers to: * ''The Adventures of Tintin'', the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé ** Tintin (character), the protagonist and titular character of the series Tintin or Tin Tin may also refer to: Material related to ''The A ...
asks him: "Do you think this is some raft of ''Méduse''?" ("Méduse" is the French word for "jellyfish") * In Arthur C. Clarke's '' 2061: Odyssey Three'' (1987), Dr. Heywood Floyd's friends give him a print of the painting as a tongue-in-cheek going-away present for his trip to Halley's comet. Their inscription reads, "Getting there is half the fun." * In the 1988 novel '' The Silence of the Lambs'' by
Thomas Harris William Thomas Harris III (born September 22, 1940) is an American writer. He is the author of a series of suspense novels about Hannibal Lecter. The majority of his works have been adapted into films and television, including '' The Silence o ...
, Dr. Lecter's mind wanders to Géricault's anatomical studies for ''The Raft of the Medusa'' while waiting for Senator Martin to focus on their conversation * In Episode 5 of the 2018 AMC series ''
The Terror The Reign of Terror (French: ''La Terreur'', literally "The Terror") was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to ...
'', "First Shot a Winner, Lads," Franklin Expedition commander Captain Francis Crozier, on seeing one of his non-commissioned officers approach with a party from HMS ''
Erebus In Greek mythology, Erebus (; ), or Erebos, is the personification of darkness. In Hesiod's ''Theogony'', he is the offspring of Chaos, and the father of Aether and Hemera (Day) by Nyx (Night); in other Greek cosmogonies, he is the father of A ...
'', quips, "Ah, Edward! How fares the Raft of the Medusa?" – clearly a black humor reference to the 1816 disaster, but also an ominous foreshadowing of his own expedition's ultimately tragic fate, which would also be marred by incidents of cannibalism in the face of starvation among the crew in their final months.


See also

* Lists of shipwrecks * List of French political scandals * '' R v Dudley and Stephens''


Notes


Citations


References

* * * * Rang, Sander (1946). ''Voyage au Sénégal Naufrage de La Méduse''. Paris: Éditions E.P.I. Illustrated by Philippe Ledoux. (Rang was a junior officer on the ''Méduse''. This is the published version of his MS account of her loss and his time in one of her boats after she was abandoned). * * * *


External links

Contains "The sufferings of the Picard family after the shipwreck of the Medusa, in the year 1816" by , Charlotte-Adélaïde Dard and
Jean Godin des Odonais Jean Godin des Odonais (5 July 1713 Saint-Amand-Montrond, France - 1 March 1792 Paris) was a French cartographer and naturalist. Biography Godin des Odonais had joined the world's first geodesy expedition to the equator, led by Charles Marie d ...

Entertaining article on the events surrounding the ''Méduse''s disastrous last voyage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meduse Age of Sail frigates of France Ships built in France Pallas-class frigates (1808) Maritime incidents in 1816 French Senegal Incidents of cannibalism International maritime incidents Shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean 1810 ships