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). 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 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 in the late eighteenth century. Francis Thurot briefly seized the port in 1759 after a diversionary attack. To the government at Versailles, the Captain next proposed a variant of the Portsmouth attack plan— making raids on less well-defended British coastal towns. This was seen as a good fit with plans for a full-scale invasion, serving as a very useful diversion. Beginning in spring 1759, a new squadron was prepared at Dunkirk, led again by the
Maréchal de Belle-Isle, with four other frigates:
Begon (Capt. Grieux),
Blonde (Capt. La Kayce),
Terpsichore (Capt. Defrauaudais) &
Faucon; a corvette,
Amarante; and a little reconnaissance vessel, the
Faucon. Simultaneously, large numbers of troop-carrying barges were prepared at both Dunkirk and Le Havre for the
main invasion, and a war fleet assembled at Brest. Recruiting was initially very slow, as the British had had a great deal of success against the Dunkirk privateers in the early years of the war; also Thurot had legal problems over money he owed in Holland. Intelligence reports suggested that the squadron was to attack the Hanoverian town of Stade and link with French forces pushing northward, but the latter were defeated at
Minden on 1 August. The plan then seems to have been changed, with a proposal that Thurot should ferry
Bonnie Prince Charlie to Scotland, to arouse a new Jacobite rebellion; it seems the Prince did not like this idea, and at one point it was suggested that an imitator could be sent instead. Finally, with news arriving that the fleet assembling at Le Havre was being bombarded to destruction by the British, and that the French Mediterranean fleet had been defeated by the Royal Navy at
Lagos Bay off the Portuguese coast, it was decided that any diversion from the main invasion in south-west England would be useful. In the last week of August, the squadron, with some 1300 infantry troops led by Brigadier General Flobert crammed in alongside the sailors, moved from the harbour at Dunkirk to stand just offshore, ready to sail at a few hours' notice. The British were most concerned with the main fleet at Brest, which they believed would now be used to invade Wales or western Scotland, but a Royal Navy squadron under Commodore William Boys was also blockading Dunkirk. On 5 September, the squadron was ordered to depart, but could not get past the blockade. This was not entirely unpleasant for François, as on 15 September his wife Henriette bore him a daughter, Cécile-Henriette, his only known child. Eventually, after a storm blew the British ships off-station, Thurot's squadron got away on 15 October and spent the next night at Ostend, dropping off a cheeky letter to the Belgian press, announcing that they were heading northward. Gale-force winds then drove the squadron rapidly northward, a fact which appeared to be confirmed by another letter published in the Brussels
Gazette, dated 21 October, allegedly from aboard the Belle-Isle. Royal Navy ships had already been diverted by Boys from the Dunkirk blockade to defend the Scottish coast. at some point the
Belle-Isle’s rudder was broken. To provide greater stability, some of the largest guns on the
Belle-Isle (ten or a dozen
18-pounders) were dismounted and moved into the bottom of the hold; four of the
Blonde's were thrown overboard. After mooring on 16 February in
Claggain Bay,
Islay, the squadron obtained desperately needed provisions, including oats and some cattle (possibly on French credit, rather than with cash—contemporary sources disagree). Here too, according to one account, Thurot was shown a news article about the
defeat of the French invasion fleet. After repairs had been made, the mission resumed on 19 February, with a day looking for potential prizes in the
Firth of Clyde, which brought at least one valuable success. Finally, on 21 February, the remaining troops—only about 600, because, in addition those lost on the missing ships, sickness had killed or disabled some 170 more—were landed at Kilroot near
Carrickfergus in northern Ireland. Against a very small defensive force with inadequate supplies of ammunition, they took control of Carrickfergus and its old
castle; during this action, Flobert was badly wounded, and had to stay ashore to recover. After demanding further provisions from
Belfast, taking what they could from Carrickfergus (including any clothing they could find to protect them from the bitter winter) and preying on shipping, they embarked again, with some local dignitaries as hostages, on the night of 25–26 February before the local militia could arrive. François did manage to get one decent meal, and a night in a comfortable bed, thanks to the hospitality of a local family. Because Carrickfergus lies within
Belfast Lough, they had to wait two days for a favourable wind to take them out to the open sea.
28 February 1760, the last battle between Captain Elliott and the French Captain Thurot Three British ships caught up with Thurot's squadron on 28 February 1760, anchored at the entrance of Luce Bay. To avoid being trapped in the bay, Thurot's squadron set sail for the south-east, towards the
Isle of Man. At about sunrise the leader of the British squadron,
Æolus caught up with the
Maréchal de Belle-Isle and battle began (within sight of the
Mull of Galloway and Jurby Head on Man). After the first broadsides, Thurot tried to grapple
Æolus so he could use his troops to board, but all he achieved was the loss of his
bowsprit, and of many men on deck from British small-arms fire. Next
Æolus fired a second broadside, and neatly fell back so that the other two Royal Navy vessels could also fire at the
Belle-Isle. Then
Æolus resumed the fight, while
Pallas and
Brilliant went to deal with the remaining French vessels, one of which,
Terpsichore attempted to escape but was easily caught by
Pallas. François was killed about the time of the second broadside, apparently by a musket-ball, and after a boarding party eventually got aboard, his crew surrendered. News reports claimed that aboard the
Belle-Isle was found a young woman from
Paddington, whom Thurot had met in
London a few years previously, and had accompanied him on all his subsequent adventures—presumably the origin of the story of Miss Smith. Within half a century, the grave marker was gone, but the site was remembered, and a new marker has since been provided. Having been so greatly feared in Britain, he was also mourned, and celebrations of his defeat paid him considerable respect. A widely circulated news report observed that "he had justly acquired, and has left behind him, the two most amiable Characteristicks of a Sailor or Soldier, intrepid Courage, and extensive Humanity", and a published letter from London reported that "most people here are sorry for his Death, as he on all Occasions behaved like a brave Officer, and a Gentleman." The artist,
Richard Wright, witnessed the battle and produced paintings showing the action and the aftermath, which were both made into engravings. Ballads were written about the Carrickfergus raid and the last battle, and a biography of Thurot by the Rev. John Francis Durand was in the shops by June, François' wife Henriette died in 1797, and in 1823 Cécile-Henriette, who had married one Pierre Garnier, gave to the Town Hall of Nuits Saint-Georges a portrait of her father in the uniform of a commodore, believed to be the basis of the engraving which illustrates this article. She died in 1830. == Principal source ==