After the
Bourbon Restoration, de Chaumareys, like many other royalists, was thanked by the new King
Louis XVIII. In 1816 he was commissioned to lead a ship formation from Rochefort to
Saint-Louis, Senegal. On board the lead frigate , was the future governor of
Senegal,
Julien-Désiré Schmaltz, and his family, travelling to formally resume possession of the former French colony from the British garrison. The flotilla included the supply ship
Loire, the
brig and the corvette
Écho. The incompetence of de Chaumareys and impatience of governor Schmaltz were to prove a tragic combination. Schmaltz wanted to reach Saint-Louis as fast as possible, by the most direct route, though this would take the fleet dangerously close to the shore, where there were many sandbars and reefs. Experienced crews sailed further out.
Méduse was the fastest of the convoy and, disregarding his orders, Captain Chaumareys quickly lost contact with
Loire and
Argus.
Écho kept pace and attempted to guide
Méduse, but to no avail.
Écho then prudently moved further out to sea. Chaumareys had decided to involve one of the passengers, Richefort, in the navigation of the frigate. Richefort was a philosopher and a member of the Philanthropic Society of
Cape Verde, but had no qualification to guide ships. As she closed on the coast of Africa, the course of
Méduse became dangerous. Richefort apparently mistook a large cloud bank on the horizon for
Cape Blanco on the African coast, and so underestimated the proximity of the
Bank of Arguin off the coast of
Mauritania. ==Personal life==