François Thurot (22 July 1727 – 28 February 1760) was a French Navy officer, privateer and sea captain who served in the War of the Austrian Succession and Seven Years' War.
Early life
He may have been the son of the postmaster at Nuits-St-GeorgesThurot family tree by Danièle Calder , accessed 2007-12-04 or his grandfather was Captain O'Farrell from Ireland who had served in the French Royal Army's Irish Brigade. As a teenager Thurot rebelled against a Jesuit education, and was apprenticed in 1743 to a surgeon in Dijon. His father had died in 1739, and to help pay his mother's debts he pawned some silver he found at his aunt's house. It did not belong to his aunt, and he decided to leave Dijon to keep out of the way of the angry owner, a town councillor.
Since March of that year, 1744, France and Britain had been on opposite sides in the War of the Austrian Succession, and François enrolled as surgeon aboard the Le Havre privateer Cerf Volant. In August, on its first cruise, the Cerf Volant was captured by the British. After some months in British captivity, during which he acquired an excellent grasp of the English language, Thurot met fellow prisoner Charles Louis Auguste Fouquet, Duke of Belle-Isle. Fouquet had been captured in Hanover, but was released in exchange for British prisoners of war captured on 11 May 1745 at the battle of Fontenoy. Many French army and navy personnel were also released in the same prisoner exchange during that summer, but privateers were not eligible.
In August, Thurot, who was being held aboard a prison hulk at Dover, escaped, stole a small boat, and crossed to France. Joining another privateer as a common sailor, he swiftly proved his skills, and at the age of twenty became captain first of that vessel and then a new, very well-armed privateer operating out of Dunkirk, in which he captured a large number of enemy merchant ships before the war was ended by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. For a time he worked as a merchant captain, beginning with a little six-ton lugger, the Levrette. Some biographers claim that about 1750 he married a Miss Sarah Smith, daughter of a London apothecary, but there is no surviving evidence of this. It seems that François also acquired a reputation as a skilful smuggler who repeatedly evaded HM Customs officers. In July 1753, while he was moored off the well-known smuggling coast near Baltimore, Ireland, customs officers boarded his cargo vessel, Argonaute, and seized it. Although there was insufficient evidence to charge him, the vessel was impounded, and Thurot spent over two years unsuccessfully trying to get it released.
Seven Years' War
Friponne
According to the 1791 biography which is the principal source for this article, the vengeful François went back into privateering in 1755, after France and Britain had again come into conflict over their colonies in America; this may be untrue, as the war was confined to the west side of the Atlantic until May 1756. In that month, thanks to Fouquet's influence, Thurot was appointed captain of the French Navy corvette Friponne, and by the time he returned to port in September for repairs, is said to have captured or sunk some sixty British vessels.
Maréchal de Belle-Isle, first mission, 1757–59
HMS Southampton
Although a plan he proposed to attack the Royal Navy's facilities at Portsmouth was rejected, in 1757 he was promoted to captain of a 44-gun frigate, named after his patron, the Maréchal de Belle-Isle (hereafter Belle-Isle for short). At the head of a small squadron including another frigate, the Chauvelin (Capt. Desages), and two corvettes, Bastien and Gros Thomas, he sailed from St. Malo on 16 July, and renewed his campaign against British shipping, with the ultimate aim of disrupting a convoy from Russia as it passed the Orkney Islands in early autumn. Very early in the cruise, Bastien was captured; shortly afterwards, on 25 July, while still in the English Channel, the remaining vessels, with a small prize in company, met the brand-new British frigate (Capt. James Gilchrist). Thurot engaged Southampton in a half-hour gun battle, then his consorts came up and made several attempts to board. After those attempts failed, the French tried to sink the British vessel, but eventually they abandoned the attack, as larger ships were seen approaching. Southampton, though leaking badly, and with 24 of the crew dead or mortally wounded, managed to reach Weymouth and was soon back at sea. About 14 of the Belle-Isle'''s crew also died in the action.
Autumn 1757: the dwindling squadron Before the Belle-Isle could be properly repaired, a storm broke two of the weakened masts. Shortly afterwards, the British caught up with them, and a battle ensued, from which the French barely escaped into the Dutch port of Flushing, where they stayed some time, making repairs. Chauvelin and Gros Thomas went out on raids, but on their second such excursion they met two large British frigates, and Gros Thomas was captured. Belle-Isle and Chauvelin continued the mission, maintaining uncertainty about their position by never accepting a ransom for ships they captured; any which were not sent for sale were sunk. It seems that the French vessels visited Gothenburg in Sweden during this period, for it is claimed that in 1757 François was introduced there to Carl Björnberg, then the only member in Sweden of the mariners' society called the Order of Coldin—of which Thurot happened to be a senior member, so he was able to promote Friherr Björnberg to a higher grade, which permitted him to recruit new members (the Order was still operating in Sweden in 2007).- accessed 2007-12-04 On 5 October, under British flags, they even sheltered from bad weather at Findhorn in the Moray Firth. The shelter proved inadequate, and Chauvelin's mooring cables snapped. Driven out to sea, Captain Desages never managed to rejoin his commodore, for when he set out in pursuit the next day, Thurot met the full force of the storm and Belle-Isle was once again dismasted, then driven north, almost unsteerable, to the Shetland Isles. Adopting the Dutch flag on this occasion, Thurot fired guns to call for assistance, and pilots came to help the crippled frigate into "Connestienne" (Lunnasting, north east coast of the main island—often just called VIdlin today, after its harbour, Vidlin-voe, where Thurot landed) bay. After staying a few days for repairs, and learning that the convoy from Russia had passed weeks earlier, François headed for Bergen. On 19 October, Belle-Isle encountered a 26-gun frigate flying the English flag, so Thurot pretended that he was also British, until he was in a perfect position to attack, firing great guns and small arms simultaneously (naval historian John Knox Laughton made it very clear that this easy capture, oddly unnamed in biographies of Thurot, was not a Royal Navy vessel, but presumably a British privateer). Arriving at Bergen on 30 October, he attempted unsuccessfully to obtain a second vessel to replace the Chauvelin, and tried to avoid diplomatic problems, while simultaneously talking-up the morale of his tired crew.
Early 1758: battle off the Firth of Forth The Belle-Isle put to sea, fully repaired, on 25 December, and ran straight into another storm. Dismasted again, the frigate was driven far to the north, finally finding calm weather in the vicinity of Iceland. With the crew on short rations, Belle-Isle struggled back to Norway, but the Captain, fearing mass desertion, avoided Bergen and pressed on to Gothenburg, which he reached on 1 February 1758. Repairs took over three months, and the cruise resumed on 11 May. Off the north-east coast of England, the revitalised crew captured several coal ships, then gradually headed north again. On 21 May, word of Thurot's activities reached the port of Leith in the Firth of Forth. Two Royal Navy sloops of war there, (24 guns, Capt. Benjamin Marlow) and (20 guns, Capt. Robert Craig), accompanied by two small reconnaissance vessels, went out to track down the intruder, catching sight of the Belle-Isle off Red Head (between Arbroath and Montrose) early on the morning of 27 May. They were some distance apart, and Thurot at first thought they were merchant vessels, so he went to engage the Dolphin. As the Belle-Isle easily outgunned the British vessel, he continued the attack even after discovering the true nature of his opponent, and action commenced about 8 a.m. Dolphin fought alone for about an hour and a half, suffering considerable damage; and when Solebay arrived, Marlow was no longer able to offer much help. Casualties aboard Solebay were heavier than aboard Dolphin- including a serious wound to Captain Craig's throat. In the end, though, Thurot could not force either of the Royal Navy vessels to surrender, so the battle ended about noon with both sides limping away. Nineteen men were dead, and thirty-four wounded aboard the Belle-Isle, while Dolphin and Solebay reported six killed and twenty-eight wounded between them. Captain Craig's wound did not heal well, and he retired on 25 January 1759;The Men who sailed with Captain James Cook website - accessed 2007-12-03 Captain Marlow went on to a successful career, and became an admiral in 1779–80.
Spring 1758: preying on the Baltic trade On 30 May, Thurot captured a small sloop, which he took to Mandal in southern Norway; hearing that some merchant ships were in the area, he hastily armed this vessel, renamed it Houmar and sent it out to find them, with another small French armed vessel, the Emérillon, which happened to be in the harbour. Remarkably, they captured two merchant vessels on their own, which Emérillon took to Christiansand to be sold. From 4 June, Thurot and the newly promoted Captain Payen in Houmar roamed the Kattegat, between Denmark and Sweden, taking numerous British merchant vessels. Rejoined by Emérillon, and a schooner, the Coureur, from 12 June Thurot got in among British vessels gathering to form a protected convoy, and captured several of them by pretending to be Danish, before the convoy escorts chased him away.
Late 1758: diversion to Ireland, and home After a relatively quiet period following the convoy's departure, in mid-July Thurot headed westward into the Skagerrak, where he encountered a flotilla of 17 small British armed vessels. By his officers' advice, Belle-Isle went right in among them, and the British began a concerted artillery attack. Eventually, having studied their tactics, the Captain made an effective counter-attack and scattered them, capturing one before bad weather obscured visibility. By this time, Royal Navy vessels had been sent out specifically to stop the Belle-Isle, but by taking advantage of winds and mists he avoided four potentially lethal encounters, and headed northward in late August. Revisiting Shetland, François learned of the scale of the forces sent out against him, and headed for the Faroe Islands to replenish his supplies, before sailing southward round the west of the British Isles. Near Ireland, Belle-Isle sprang a leak, so, pausing only to take a couple of brigantines off Tory Island, Thurot hastened to the shelter of Lough Swilly, County Donegal. Repairs were completed on 31 August, and a very short new campaign began, taking British merchant vessels in the channels leading to the River Clyde and the Irish Sea. Having given the Royal Navy time to hear of his new exploits, Thurot then returned to Bergen via the Faroes, arriving on 13 September. After a couple of months' shore time, Belle-Isle set sail again on 25 November, and headed south, taking more prizes on the way. Thurot spent most of December at Ostend selling the various prizes, and finally reached Dunkirk at the beginning of January 1759.
Maréchal de Belle-Isle, second mission, 1759–60
Preparation and departure