Hugues Duroy de Chaumareys

The raft of the Medusa , painting by Théodore Géricault . The shipwreck happened because de Chaumareys failed to meet his responsibilities as captain

Hugues Duroy de Chaumareys (* December 20, 1763 , † November 23, 1841 ) was the captain responsible for the catastrophe of the French ship Méduse , one of the most famous ship accidents during the sailing ship era.

Life

Among his ancestors on the maternal side was Louis Guillouet, comte d'Orvilliers , one of the most important admirals under Louis XVI . De Chaumareys completed part of his training under his older relative and made a career not least because of this relationship. During his last assignment before the French Revolution, he was the captain of a transport ship. After the French Revolution, however, the French nobleman did not command a ship for a long time. He left France first in 1790 and was allegedly involved in an attempt at a royalist invasion in June 1795. However, this failed. He avoided an execution by cleverly lying and was only imprisoned. A little later, however, thanks to the Breton Sophie de Kerdu, he managed to escape to England, where he was awarded the Ordre royal et militaire de Saint-Louis on February 21, 1796 . De Chaumareys published a widespread account of his exploits.

After the Bourbons had regained power, de Chaumareys, like many other royalists, was thanked for being given demanding tasks regardless of their competence. In 1816 the Bourbon government commissioned de Chaumareys to lead a ship formation from Rochefort to Saint Louis . De Chaumareys was on board the frigate Méduse, as was the future governor of Senegal, Julien-Desiré Schmaltz , and his family. The association also included the Loire supply ship , the Argus brig and the Echo corvette . Due to the incompetence of de Chaumareys, the Medusa lost contact with the other ships of the association, and after serious navigation errors by the master, the frigate ran into a sandbank off the West African coast. Since the lifeboats were not enough, a makeshift raft was built for about a third of the passengers and crew members on board, which should be pulled by the lifeboats moving towards the African coast. Shortly after the evacuation, however, the connecting line from the lifeboats to the raft was cut. The incapable of maneuvering, inadequately stocked with water and food, floated helplessly for several days at sea. Only 15 of the people on it survived. Some of the crew remained on the stranded ship. De Chaumareys was arrested on his return and tried before a military tribunal. With only three years in prison, he received a comparatively mild sentence. A captain who left his ship even though there were still crew and passengers on it could have been punished with death.

literature

• Jonathan Miles: The wreck of the Medusa. Grove Press, New York 2007, ISBN 978-0-8021-4392-1 .