Dozens were washed into the sea by a storm, while others, drunk from wine, rebelled and were killed by officers. Without any means of navigating to shore, the situation aboard the raft rapidly turned disastrous. The towing proved impractical, however, and the boats soon abandoned the raft and its passengers in the open ocean. Most of the 400 passengers on board evacuated, with 146 men and 1 woman forced to take refuge on an improvised raft towed by the frigate's launches. Through inept navigation by her captain, Hugues Duroy de Chaumareys, who had been given command after the Bourbon Restoration for political reasons and even though he had hardly sailed in 20 years, Méduse struck the Bank of Arguin off the coast of present-day Mauritania and became a total loss. In 1816, following the Bourbon Restoration, Méduse was armed en flûte to ferry French officials to the port of Saint-Louis, in Senegal, to formally re-establish French occupation of the colony under the terms of the First Peace of Paris. She took part in the Napoleonic Wars during the late stages of the Mauritius campaign of 1809–1811 and in raids in the Caribbean. Méduse was a 40-gun Pallas-class frigate of the French Navy, launched in 1810. 8 × 36-pounder carronades or 12 × 18-pounder carronades.
In practice carried either 44 or 46 guns:.Méduse sailing close-hauled with brigs in the background
0 kommentar(er)
