Antoine Groignard
Antoine Groignard (from 1781 with the addition you Justin , * 4. February 1727 in Sollies-Pont , † 26. July 1799 in Paris ) was a high-ranking French Navy - engineer and shipbuilder.
Life
Groignard was born as the son of pilot Arnaud Groignard (1680–1750) and entered the École des ingénieurs-constructeurs des vaisseaux royaux in Paris as a cadet student . In 1747 he became a sous-constructor in Brest and in 1749 in Rochefort . Ingénieur-constructeur since 1754 , he dealt extensively with questions of roll stability and solidity of ship hulls. During the Seven Years' War he helped defend the port of Le Havre against a British attack on July 3-5, 1759 through the floating batteries he constructed . In the same year he shared a prize from the Académie des Sciences with Leonhard Euler for a paper on the stability of ships.
On April 1, 1765 he received the rank of engineer-constructor en chef . Seconded to the East India Company , he was henceforth responsible for the construction of naval structures for trade and war purposes. His main work was the large dry dock in the arsenal of Toulon , which he constructed and whose construction he directed from May 1, 1774 to September 25, 1778. On January 1, 1779, he was also raised to the rank of ingénieur-géneral with the rank and dignity of a ship's captain in the Navy and promoted to full captaincy on September 15.
From 1781–1783, Groignard expanded the dry dock at Brest and received the ennoblement during this time in 1781, and from then on bore the title du Justin as an addition to his name. On September 15, 1782, he was appointed directeur des constructions navales . On April 16, 1793, he was transferred from Toulon to the position of ordonnateur , that is, the highest state officer. In this capacity he secured the loyalty of the city to the Directory in 1796 and was responsible for the preparations for Napoleon Bonaparte's Egyptian campaign . Since 1779 he was a member of the Académie des Sciences.
Overall, Groignard was in addition to various large structures in the course of his career designer of 39 civil sailing ships, 18 frigates and 280 smaller structures.
In the literature
The German writer Stefan Andres wrote the short story The Dry Dock in 1936 , in which he took up the person of Groignard and the construction of the dry dock at Toulon. However, Andres took considerable liberties:
In the narrative, Groignard - there spelled Grognard incorrectly throughout - is witness of a launch in the arsenal of Toulon, in which, as usual, a convict has to knock down the last support beam from under the hull . If the convict manages to get to safety from the torso, which is then set in motion, he is pardoned. But so far nobody has succeeded; Groignard has to watch as the man is ground up by the ship sliding into the water. Thereupon he campaigns for the construction of a dry dock designed by him to make these cruel launching superfluous and to put an end to the deaths of the convicts. At the completion of the dock, however, he is beaten to death by an angry convict with a hammer because he has robbed him and all other convicts of the illusion of being able to achieve freedom.
This almost entirely fictitious representation can be found in numerous school books to this day, without any reference to its ahistoricality or to the fact that Groignard actually died of natural causes at the age of 72.
swell
- Bruno de Dinechin: Duhamel du Monceau. Connaissance et mémoires européennes , 1999 ( ISBN 2-919911-11-2 )
- Jean Mascart: La vie et les travaux du chevalier Jean-Charles de Borda, 1733–1799 . Presses Paris Sorbonne, ISBN 2840501732
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ List of members since 1666: Letter G. Académie des sciences, accessed on November 20, 2019 (French).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Groignard, Antoine |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Groignard du Justib, Antoine |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French marine engineer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 4, 1727 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Solliès-Pont |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 26, 1799 |
| Place of death | Paris |