René Duguay-Trouin

His family operated a shipping business in Saint Malo, a port favoured by corsairs.

He first went to sea as a volunteer aboard the privateer Trinité, under Captain Legoux, on the 16 December 1690. Trinité subsequently captured François Samuel and Seven Stars of Scotland. In 1692 his family provided him with command of his own vessel, a 14-gun lugger, Danycan.[2]

On 6 June 1692, King Louis XIV appointed Duguay-Truin to command of the forty-gun ship Hercule. He captured five ships at the entrance of the Channel.

Réné Duguay-Trouin telling King Louis XIV of his exploits.

In 1694 Louis XIV awarded Duguay-Trouin with a sword of honour, and made him a nobleman in 1709, with the motto Dedit haec insignia virtus ("Bravery awarded these honours"). At the time, he had captured 16 warships and over 300 merchantmen from the English and Dutch.

On 12 April 1694, Duguay-Trouin, aboard the ship Diligente, covered the escape of a convoy which he was escorting but was defeated by a six-ship squadron commanded by Admiral David Mitchell.[3] Diligente, barely afloat and having lost most of her men, was forced to strike her colours and surrender and Duguay-Truin was taken as a prisoner to Plymouth.[2]

The Admiralty, upon learning that Trouin had fired upon Prince of Orange while flying the English flag, threw Duguay-Trouin in jail. On 19 June 1694, he successfully escaped, by boarding a small boat that he had bought from a friendly Swedish captain whose ship was lying nearby. He was accompanied by Lieutenant Nicolas Thomas, surgeon Lhermite, Pierre Legendre and the quartermaster. After a series of raids on coastal towns in Ireland, Duguay-Truin returned to Saint-Malo.[2]

In 1697, the Treaty of Ryswick put a halt to the privateers and Duguay-Trouin spent his time in Saint-Malo. He was involved in a duel with a gentleman, Charles Cognetz, who had allegedly cheated in a game of cards. Both were taken to the police officer, M de Vauborel, who explicitly forbade any further violence.

Capture of Rio de Janeiro by Duguay-Trouin in 1711.

In 1702, as the War of the Spanish Succession broke out, Duguay-Trouin commanded Bellone and then Railleuse. He became an officer in the French Marine Royale. In 1704-1705 he commanded the ship Jason and captured the British ships of the line HMS Elizabeth and HMS Coventry.

On 21 October 1707, together with Claude de Forbin, he achieved his greatest victory against a British squadron, in the Battle at the Lizard.

In 1709 he captured the British ship of the line HMS Bristol.

On 21 September 1711, in an 11-day battle, he captured Rio de Janeiro, then believed impregnable, with twelve ships and 6,000 men, in spite of the defence consisting of seven ships of the line, five forts, and 12,000 men; he held the governor for ransom. Investors in this venture doubled their money, and Duguay-Trouin earned a promotion to Lieutenant général de la Marine.

In his late career, he commanded the fleet based in Saint-Malo, then the fleet based in Brest, the fleet for the East and eventually Toulon harbour. He died in 1736, after having written to Fleury to ask Louis XV to support his family.

About 1720-21, Duguay-Trouin wrote his memoirs for his family but had no intention of publishing them. Prepared for publication by Pierre Villepontoux, Pierre Mortier published the book in 1730 at Amsterdam.

• Memoires de M. du Gué-Trouin, chef d'escadre des armées de S.M.T.C. et grand-croix de l'Ordre militaire de S. Louis. Amsterdam: Chez Pierre Mortier, 1730. [Publiés par P. Villepontoux].
• Memoires de Mr. du Gué-Trouin, chef d'escadre des armées de S.M.T.C. et grand-croix de l'Ordre militaire de S. Louis. A Londres [i.e. Amsterdam: Chez P. du Barri & E. Belton at the bee-hive St. Martin's Lane. [i.e. Pierre Mortier], 1730.
• Memoires de M. du Gué-Trouin, chef d'escadre des armées de S.M.T.C. et grand-croix de l'Ordre militaire de S. Louis. Amsterdam: Chez Pierre Mortier, 1746.
• Mémoires de Monsieur Du Guay-Trouin : lieutenant-général des armées navales, ... Augmentés de son Eloge par M. Thomas. Amsterdam: Pierre Mortier, 1769.
• Mémoires de Monsieur Du Guay-Trouin: lieutenant général des armées navales de France et commandeur de l'Ordre royal & militaire de Saint Louis. Augmenté de Son Éloge par M. Thomas. Amsterdam: Pierre Mortier, 1773 (facsimile, 1974). "Complément aux mémoires de Duguay-Trouin." 17 pages inserted.
• Mémoires de Monsieur du Guay-Trouin, lieutenant-général des armées navales, commandeur de l'Ordre royal & militaire de Saint-Louis. Nouvelle Édition. Paris, 1774. Reprinted from the authorized edition: Paris?: P.-F. Godart de Beauchamps, M.DCC.XL.
• Mémoires de Monsieur Du Guay-Troui: lieutenant-général des armées navales, ... Augmentés de son Eloge par M. Thomas. Rouen, 1779. 750 copies conforming to the Amsterdam edition of 1769.
• Des Mémoirs Relatif a L'Histoire de France. Mémoires de Duguay-Trouin Paris: Foucault, 1829, pp. 294 ff.

Duguay-Trouin is mentioned in Volume II, "Within A Budding Grove", of Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time (previously published as Remembrance of Things Past). The reference occurs in an interlude section of the work entitled "Place Names: the Place" juxtaposed with other Impressionistic images. This reference specifically compares the brave image of the warrior's statue with the banal image of ordinary people eating sorbets in a bakery, illustrating that at the time, Duguay-Trouin's influence on French society was still so pervasive that statues of his form were commonplace.

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