Benoît Barbotin, éléve de 1ère classe sur "La Méduse"

Jean-Louis Tanchoux

Le témoignage du jeune élève officier rochefortais sur les conditions de l’échouement de la frégate, de l’abandon du radeau et du ralliement du grand canot à Saint-Louis ne bouleverse pas le récit désormais assez connu du déroulement de la catastrophe. Mais il apporte des précisions sur certains points décisifs et confirme la solidarité de corps des officiers de marine. 

Benoît BARBOTIN, First-Class Cadet on board frigate Méduse

In his account of the tragedy whch followed the grounding of the flagship Méduse on a huge sandbank off the coast of Senegal in 1816, a junior naval officer named Benoît Barbotin  relates the circumstances of what turned out to be a major disaster in which 135 passengers lost their lives  and only 15 miraculously survived.  Although Cadet Barbotin's account of the shipwreck and of  the ensuing chaotic evacuation on a makeshift raft says nothing new about the catastrophe itself, it reveals interesting details on the relations between an aged  incompetent  Captain and the other  officers whose loyalty never faltered after  Méduse's misadventure. Captain Chaumareys was given a relatively mild sentence and his officers' career did not in the least  suffer from this naval disaster.

Thème : marine