ABSTRACT
He entered the navy in 1766; 1777, enseigne de vaisseau; 1781, lieutenant de vaisseau; 1792, capitaine de vaisseau; 1793, contre-amiral; 1809, vice-amiral.
His early fighting experience was on board the Vaillant, 64, under ESTAING in the West Indies and on the coasts of America. In 1783, towards the end of the war, he commanded a sloop, the Pygmée, captured by the British, and he was briefly a PoW. During the ten years of peace which followed, he served in the Baltic, introduced a new code of signals, and published a textbook on cargo-stowage.
