Jean-Baptiste Philibert Willaumez | |
|---|---|
_-_Jean-Baptiste_Philibert_Willaumez_(1763-1865),_vice-amiral.jpg) A portrait of Willaumez by Pierre-Louis Delaval | |
| Born | 7 August 1763 Le Palais, Belle Île |
| Died | 17 May 1845 (aged 81) Suresnes, Île-de-France |
| Allegiance | France |
| Service | French Navy |
| Rank | Vice admiral |
| Battles / wars | |
| Relations | Étienne-Joseph Willaumez (brother)[1] |
Jean-Baptiste Philibert Willaumez (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ batist filibɛʁ wilome]; 7 August 1763 – 17 May 1845) was a French Navy officer and nobleman who served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Willaumez joined the French navy at the age of 14, and proved to be a competent sailor. Having risen to the rank of pilot, he started studying navigation, attracting the attention of his superiors up to Louis XVI himself. Willaumez eventually became an officer and served under Antoine Bruni d'Entrecasteaux in his expedition to rescue Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse and explore the Indian Ocean and Oceania.
After the French Revolution, Willaumez rose in rank and served in Saint-Domingue during the Haitian Revolution, where he commanded the frigate Poursuivante against the Royal Navy during the action of 28 June 1803. In 1806, Willaumez led a French squadron in the Atlantic campaign of 1806, sailing to Brazil and the West Indies and attacking British merchant shipping. However, the insubordination of Prince Jérôme Bonaparte led to Willaumez missing the chance to attack a valuable British convoy. Eventually, the 1806 Great Coastal hurricane damaged and dispersed his squadron, which was either sunk or limped back to France.
In May 1808, Willaumez attempted to regroup warships scattered in Brest, Lorient and Rochefort into an eighteen-ship squadron to defend the French West Indies; adverse weather and the poor state of the squadron thwarted the plan and he ended up being blockaded in Rochefort, leading to a catastrophic defeat at the Battle of the Basque Roads and falling out of favour with Napoleon. After the Napoelonic Wars, Willaumez served at the Council of Naval Constructions and was made a member of the peerage of France. He authored a dictionary of naval terms, sponsored a collection of ship models and commissioned the Roux family to paint portraits of all the ships on which he had served, a collection known as the Album de Willaumez.
- ^ Quintin, p. 367