Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte
Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet, Comte de la Motte (called La Motte Picquet; born November 1, 1720 in Rennes , † June 10, 1791 in Brest ) was a French admiral .
career
La Motte Picquet entered the French Navy at the age of 15 and served off Morocco , the Baltic Sea , the Caribbean and India . In 1762 he was promoted to capitaine de vaisseau and appointed commander of the Diadème and then of La Malicieuse , with whom he fought against the corsairs of Salé in 1764 . In 1772 he took over Cerf Volant . In 1775 he was ordered to Paris to assist the Navy Secretary of State Antoine de Sartine in the reorganization of the Navy. After that, he commanded the Solitaire and then the Robust . On July 27, 1778, he took part on the ship of the line Saint-Esprit in the two naval battles at Ouessant against the Royal Navy and then patrolled the British coast, where he brought up 13 ships within a month.
During the American War of Independence he distinguished himself with the l'Annibal under Admiral Charles Henri d'Estaing in June 1779 near Martinique and on July 6, 1779 in the naval battle of Grenada , as well as in the unsuccessful American-French attempt from September to October 1779 to retake the British-occupied city of Savannah in the American state of Georgia .
On December 18, 1779, La Motte Picquet attacked a British squadron of 13 ships under the command of Admiral Hyde Parker , which tried to stop a French convoy, off Fort Royal ( Martinique ) with only three ships . Hyde Parker was so impressed by his successful actions in this action known as the Naval Battle of Martinique that he sent a letter of congratulations to Picquet de la Motte, in which he wrote:
- The conduct of your Excellency in the affair of the 18th of this month fully justifies the reputation which you enjoy among us, and I assure you that I could not witness without envy the skill you showed on that occasion. Our enmity is transient, depending upon our masters; but your merit has stamped upon my heart the greatest admiration for yourself.
On May 1, 1781, La Motte Picquet commanded three frigates and six smaller ships and intercepted with these a squadron of the British Admiral George Rodney , which was on the way to the island of Sint Eustatius . 29 British ships were captured. Picquet de la Motte was then appointed lieutenant general of the marine infantry in January 1782 .
On October 20, 1782 he commanded the eleven French ships of the line in the naval battle of Cape Spartel , at the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, on the Invincible (110 cannons) . In this battle a British fleet under Admiral Richard Howe succeeded in forcing the Spanish-French fleet under the command of Spanish Admiral Luis de Córdova y Córdova to end the blockade of Gibraltar .
La Motte Picquet died after 52 years of naval service and six wounds in 1791.
Honors
The French Navy named four ships after him, including the Aviso Lamotte-Picquet , the light cruiser La Motte-Picquet and the frigate La Motte-Picquet . In Paris , a street and a metro station are named after him.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sometimes also "de la Mothe".
- ^ Alfred T. Mahan: Major Operations of the Navies in the War of American Independence (1912), pp. 129-130.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Picquet de la Motte, Toussaint-Guillaume |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet, Comte de la Motte; la Motte Picquet, Toussaint-Guillaume |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French admiral |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 1, 1720 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Rennes |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 10, 1791 |
| Place of death | Brest |