Surcouf, Robert-Charles
December 12, 1773 (Saint-Malo) - July 8, 1827 (Saint-Servan)
Robert Surcouf (December 1773 in Saint-Malo - July 8, 1827) was a French privateer. An intrepid sailor, he harassed the English merchant and military navies, not only in the seas of Europe, but also in those of India. He actually acquired reputation and fortune by racing.
Youth
Born in the small village of Bénic, near Saint-Malo. He is the son of Charles-Ange Surcouf, Sieur de Boisgris and Rose-Julienne Truchot. He is notably the descendant of Duguay-Trouin through his mother. His parents, merchants, intended him for the priesthood, but he joined at the age of 15 as a volunteer on the Aurore bound for India. At twenty, he was already captain of La Créole, which trafficked in slaves.
For some, Surcouf was born in Saint-Malo, rue du Pélicot or rue de la Bertaudière. It would be in 1787 that he embarked as an apprentice sailor (future officer) on the Héron which left for cabotage.
A privateer in the service of France
Appointed captain at the age of twenty, he successively commanded the privateers Clarisse, Confiance and Le Revenant.
Surcouf was still sailing in the merchant navy when he fell in love with a young woman whose hand he wanted to obtain.
Surcouf went to try his luck in India in 1796. A bad little ship took him to the Ile de France. The race enriched in these parts those who devoted themselves to it with resolution. Surcouf did it.
Some young people from the Ile de France outfitted a small corsair for Surcouf, who sailed for the coasts of India, with a crew of Lascars (Indian sailors). At the mouth of the Bengal, where he first headed, he met a small convoy escorted by a pilot boat, armed for war; he boarded the pilot boat and took it; he then seized the English merchant ships, got rid of his prizes, his own ship, and passed on the schooner with only nineteen men.
But Robert Surcouf, the most famous of Saint-Malo shipowners, entered into legend at the age of twenty-three, in 1796 when, with a crew of 190 men, he boarded a large British ship, three times larger and more armed. than his own.
La Confiance (18 guns and 190 men) takes Kent (40 guns and 437 men). By Ambroise-Louis Garneray, then under the orders of Surcouf.
La Confiance (18 guns and 190 men) takes Kent (40 guns and 437 men). By Ambroise-Louis Garneray, then under the orders of Surcouf.
This first success emboldened Surcouf, who went to sea, running after all the buildings he saw, as an unauthorized corsair, because he left the island of France without these patent letters, which are called letters of marque. , which gave sea flight official legality.
Shortly after, with his boat, having only two guns, Robert Surcouf set sail for a large three-master:it was a vessel of the Compagnie des Indes, manned by 150 Europeans and armed with 26 12-guns; it was called the Triton. He owed his success to this stratagem. Indeed, how to lend the flank to such a strong enemy? Because the pilot boat had only two guns. Surcouf hides all his crew; the idea had occurred to him to pass himself off for a moment as one of the pilots of the Ganges. “I run after this fat Englishman,” he said to his people, “I come alongside him:at a signal I will give you, you will reappear on deck; we will do a volley of musketry to frighten the crew, we will jump on board and we will take the building. Things happened as he had said. The fight which begins on the deck of the Triton is terrible; the English captain and ten of his men were killed, fifty others were wounded, and Surcouf remained master of the vessel, having had only two wounded and one dead among his own. He had his prisoners signed an exchange cartel, sent them to Madras on his little schooner which he stripped of all his weapons and led his important capture to the Isle of France.
He put back to sea as soon as he could, to take advantage of the luck that seemed to be smiling on him, and this time it was with a slightly larger privateer.
Chased by three ships of the Company, he succeeded by means of a skilful maneuver in isolating them; then, attacking them separately, he abducts two, and forces the third to flee.
In 1799 the frigate La Preneuse, commanded by the intrepid Lhermite, had just been lost on the Ile de France. The crew was waiting for an opportunity to return or embark. Word is spreading that Confidence is going to race.
Two months had passed; six ships had been taken and sent to the colony
Surcouf's fortune began to grow. After several adventurous journeys, Robert Surcouf was about to be stripped of the fruit of his dangers because he had scoured the sea without letters of marque. She had fitted out without permission on her first cruise; also when he landed with the Triton, his catch was confiscated.
However, the authorities of the Ile de France consulted the Directory which, wishing to reward the bravery of the young corsair, proposed to the Legislative Body to award him, as a national gift, the value of his catches which had been sold for the benefit of the colony; he received 700,000 francs.
His last years
In 1801, he retired to Saint-Malo, married and enjoyed his fortune. Surcouf, rich and considered, did not remain idle for long.
Surcouf is considered one of the best sailors France has ever had. Fearsome, untenable on all sides, it is thanks to him that many British ships were diverted in favor of the Monarchy, the Republic, the Directory, the Consulate and the Empire. He managed in just five years to attack fifty British and Portuguese ships then allied.
Subsequently, other corsairs will take to the sea under his service. Robert Surcouf is famous for his activities as a corsair (including the feat of arms that constituted the taking of Kent on October 7, 1800 in the Bay of Bengal) and for his conception of the war at sea against Great Britain[11] , more oriented towards the war of attrition than the confrontation of squadrons. For him, it is more effective to undermine the economy of the adversary than to destroy his armed ships. He himself financed the fitting out of many light warships:the Auguste, the Dorade, the Biscayenne, the Edouard, the Espadon, the Ville-de-Caen, the Adolphe and the Renard.
The name of the intrepid corsair had become the terror of English commerce in the Indian waters, and the English government had thought it necessary to reinforce its station in these seas with several frigates; but, in 1813, Surcouf was commissioned to take to France the Charles, an old frigate, which he had purchased from the government and armed with a flute. She was carrying a very rich load. He escaped by his composure and the skill of his maneuvers from the English cruisers and almost got lost on entering Saint-Malo; but his brother, an excellent sailor and his second in command, saved the ship.
Captain Surcouf's brother, Nicolas Surcouf, an intrepid sailor like him, was his second in command for nearly 15 years, and contributed to his success.
His fleet captured Havana, the only time that city fell.
Napoleon will travel in person in 1803 to convince him to accept a captain's commission (of a ship) and the command of a squadron, which Surcouf will refuse; we must admit that he did not have much sense of discipline. Arguing for the attack on the lines of communication, perhaps on the contrary he was able to convince his interlocutor, since two years later Napoleon would establish an economic blockade against Great Britain; but, after Trafalgar, he could do nothing else. However, no offense to Surcouf, the history of the war at sea shows that the race and the blockade have never prevailed against the dominant squadrons; guerrilla warfare is only good on land.
With the Empire defeated, Surcouf accomplishes one last feat. Saint-Malo being occupied by the Prussians, our hero took a quarrel with them and challenged all the officers of the regiment concerned to a duel. The Prussians, considering themselves saber experts, took up the offer very recklessly:Surcouf gutted the first 15 in a row but let the last go (who was the youngest and was probably somewhat demoralized by the spectacle he had witnessed ) so that he could testify that everything had happened in the rules. After disappearing for some time, Surcouf quietly returned home to spend the rest of his life among his family, as happy as Ulysses.
Surcouf devoted the last part of his life to commercial speculation, which was a new source of wealth for him. It is believed that he left in death more than 3 million fortune.
Surcouf died of cancer on July 8, 1827 in a country house he owned near Saint-Servan, and was buried in Saint-Malo.
He is also considered the inventor of a night trick (which can be found in the adventures of Redbeard in comics or in the film Master and Commander, where the English tell how they would have liked to end it with Surcouf) which consists of making a small raft on which lanterns are hung so as to make his pursuers believe that the ship is in another place.
Quote
The following dialogue took place during the capture of Kent:
Officer from Kent:"We English fight for honour, and you French fight for money!" »
Surcouf:“Everyone fights for what they lack. »