French privateer, Louise Antonini (1771 – 1861) then enlisted in the army and distinguished herself there until reaching the rank of sergeant. A fighter present in all battles, she leads an eventful and incredible existence.
A privateer named Louis
Born in Ajaccio on May 30, 1771, Louise Antonini is the daughter of a former officer of the Corsican admiral Pascal Paoli. Nothing is known of her childhood, except that she was orphaned at the age of ten.
Under the identity of a man and taking the name of Louis Antonini, Louise is hired as a sailor on the brig (two-masted sailboat) Revanche . Her boat was shipwrecked in May 1790 and Louise then boarded the frigate Cornelie, which set sail for the West Indies. In a context of wars of conquest of the American islands between France and England, Louise becomes a French corsair and participates, like the others, in the battles.
Engagement in the army
Wounded and captured by the English during a battle at Les Saintes in 1802, Louise Antonini was taken to Plymouth and imprisoned in a floating pontoon for 18 months. Released, during an exchange of prisoners or when her secret was discovered, she returned to France and joined the French army in the 70 e infantry regiment.
As when she was a corsair, Louise took part in the battles and distinguished herself there. She rose through the ranks and became a corporal, then a sergeant. In August 1808, she took part in the Battle of Roliça in Portugal, but was hit by a gunshot and seriously injured in the head. Treated, she must leave the army.
A precarious existence
Deprived of means of subsistence, Louise Antonini knows thereafter a precarious existence and whose details are not known. She worked for twenty years in a brickyard in Brest, before ending her life in Nantes. She died at the Hotel Dieu in Nantes in June 1861, at the age of 90.
Useful links and references
Wikipedia page of Louise Antonini
History of Piracy by Robert De La Croix
AUBIN G., BERNARD M., BRICHAUX Ch., Sailors and corsairs of the Nantes region , Academic Society of Nantes, 1955.
GAUTIER Georges, Three women sailors , Notebook of the Salorges, 1964.