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Updated: June 19, 2025
Putting together what I gathered from these various individuals, and what I collected elsewhere, I believe the exact truth concerning the episode in question to be as follows: Towards the end of the fight, after having grappled for a long time, at close quarters, with the British warship the Brunswick, the Vengeur, riddled with shot on every side, and utterly dismasted, was shipping water through her ports with every roll of the sea.
The killed on board the enemy's ships that were captured amounted to 690, and 580 wounded, exclusive of 320 lost in Le Vengeur when she sank, the greater number of whom were wounded.
All was silent then with the stillness of a coming storm; now the walls re-echo with a stir of unhallowed feet, and the spring sunshine streams in at the open window accompanied by whiffs from the garden below, while a distant cry reaches us from the street beyond of "Le Vengeur," "Le Cri du Peuple," "Le dernier ordre du Comité du Salut Public," and we detect curls of smoke about the Arch of Triumph, which remind us that the bombardment still goes on.
I questioned my two old sailor friends eagerly concerning this incident of the struggle wherein they had both played their part. On another occasion I made personal inquiries of one of the last survivors of the Vengeur, to whom I had been commissioned to convey the Cross of the Legion of Honour.
Those of our comrades who remained on board the Vengeur du Peuple, with hands raised to heaven, implored, with lamentable cries, the help for which they could no longer hope. Soon disappeared the ship and the unhappy victims it contained. In the midst of the horror with which this scene inspired us all, we could not avoid a feeling of admiration mingled with our grief.
Being prevented from passing between the Achille and Vengeur, in consequence of the latter shooting ahead and filling up the intervening space, she ran foul of the Vengeur, her own starboard anchors hooking on the Frenchman's larboard foreshrouds and fore-channels. "Shall we cut away the anchor, sir?" inquired the master, Mr Stewart, of the Captain. "No, no.
I also have the honor to state that I hold a warrant for your arrest, on certain charges specified therein, and for sending you back to France for trial in the Vengeur, on her return voyage." Cazeneau listened to this with a pallid face. "Impossible!" he faltered.
After being for some three hours entangled, the two ships separated, the Vengeur tearing away the Brunswick’s anchor. As they drifted apart, some well-aimed shots from the Brunswick smashed her enemy’s rudder-post and knocked a large hole in the counter. At this moment the Ramillies, sailing up, opened fire at forty yards’ distance at this particular hole.
I had Cambronne clutching his cocked hat and uttering the immortal la Garde meurt et ne se rend pas. I had the "Vengeur" going down, and all the crew hurraying like madmen. What man who has been before the public at all has not heard similar wonderful anecdotes regarding himself and his own history? In these humble essaykins I have taken leave to egotize.
It was the beginning of that long series of fights at sea, in which the French were so often successful in single combat, and so often defeated in general actions. They lost the day, but not the object for which they fought, as the supplies of American grain were brought safely into port. That substantial success and the opportune legend of the Vengeur saved the government from reproach.
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