Jean Jacques Etienne Lucas
Encyclopedia
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Navy
French Navy
The French Navy, officially the Marine nationale and often called La Royale is the maritime arm of the French military. It includes a full range of fighting vessels, from patrol boats to a nuclear powered aircraft carrier and 10 nuclear-powered submarines, four of which are capable of launching...
officer, famous for his role in the Battle of Trafalgar
Battle of Trafalgar
The Battle of Trafalgar was a sea battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French Navy and Spanish Navy, during the War of the Third Coalition of the Napoleonic Wars ....
.
Career
Born in MarennesMarennes, Charente-Maritime
Marennes is a commune in the Charente-Maritime department in southwestern France.For a long time it was one of the most prosperous cities of the Saintonge due to its location in the middle of the salt-water marshes at a time where salt was a valuable commodity.Marennes is a center for oyster...
, he joined the French Navy
French Navy
The French Navy, officially the Marine nationale and often called La Royale is the maritime arm of the French military. It includes a full range of fighting vessels, from patrol boats to a nuclear powered aircraft carrier and 10 nuclear-powered submarines, four of which are capable of launching...
at the age of 15. From 1779 to 1782 he sailed on the Hermione
French frigate Hermione (1779)
The Hermione was a 12-pounder Concorde class frigate of the French Navy. She became famous when she ferried General Lafayette to the United States in 1780 to allow him to join the American side in the American Revolutionary War.- History :...
. During this period, he fought at the battle off Cape Breton
Naval battle off Cape Breton
The Battle off Spanish River took place during the American Revolution between two French Navy frigates and a convoy of 18 British ships under protection of the Royal Navy off the harbour of Spanish River, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia...
(July 21, 1781), part of the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
.
The Battle of Trafalgar
He is primarily remembered for his role in the Battle of TrafalgarBattle of Trafalgar
The Battle of Trafalgar was a sea battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French Navy and Spanish Navy, during the War of the Third Coalition of the Napoleonic Wars ....
. By 1805, Lucas was a capitaine de vaisseau, the French title for captain
Captain (naval)
Captain is the name most often given in English-speaking navies to the rank corresponding to command of the largest ships. The NATO rank code is OF-5, equivalent to an army full colonel....
. He commanded the French ship of the line
Ship of the line
A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed from the 17th through the mid-19th century to take part in the naval tactic known as the line of battle, in which two columns of opposing warships would manoeuvre to bring the greatest weight of broadside guns to bear...
Redoutable
French ship Redoutable (1791)
The Redoutable was a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. She is known for her duel with HMS Victory during the Battle of Trafalgar and for killing Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson during the action.- Early career :...
.
French ship Bucentaure (1804)
Bucentaure was a 80-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, lead ship of her class. She was the flagship of Vice-Admiral Latouche Tréville, who died on board on 18 August 1804....
, the command ship of Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve
Pierre-Charles Villeneuve
Pierre-Charles-Jean-Baptiste-Silvestre de Villeneuve was a French naval officer during the Napoleonic Wars. He was in command of the French and Spanish fleets defeated by Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar....
. As a result of this positioning, Lucas and his crew found themselves between the two columns of British ships commanded by Admiral Nelson
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté, KB was a flag officer famous for his service in the Royal Navy, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. He was noted for his inspirational leadership and superb grasp of strategy and unconventional tactics, which resulted in a number of...
and in the heat of battle from very early on in the conflict. They engaged HMS Victory
HMS Victory
HMS Victory is a 104-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, laid down in 1759 and launched in 1765. She is most famous as Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805....
, Nelson's ship, and through use of heavy artillery they came astern of HMS Victory and sought to board her.
The conflict aboard the Victory was bloody, costing both sides many lives and ultimately resulting in stalemate. Admiral Nelson himself was mortally wounded by a musket shot fired from atop one of the masts of the Redoutable, but before the boarding was successful, HMS Temeraire
HMS Temeraire (1798)
HMS Temeraire was a 98-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. Launched in 1798, she served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, mostly on blockades or convoy escort duties...
intervened and opened fire on the Redoutable starboard side, resulting in the deaths of over two hundred French marines.
At 2:30 p.m., the Redoutable surrendered to HMS Temeraire after having lost 522 men out of their total 643. Of this number, 300 were killed and 222 were wounded. Lucas himself was injured, and the ship had suffered damage which had led to the hold taking on several feet of water. The masts had been broken and there was substantial damage to the rest of the ship, including the artillery.
HMS Swiftsure
HMS Swiftsure (1804)
HMS Swiftsure was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched from Bucklers Hard on 23 July 1804. She fought at Trafalgar.The French 74-gun ship Swiftsure also took part in the battle...
sent a party to take Lucas and two other officers off the ship into captivity the following morning. The Redoutable, however, was still taking on water, and despite the efforts of rescue boats sent over the course of the day, only 119 marines were saved before the ship sank with the dead and wounded still on board.
Battle of the Basque Roads
Upon his release from captivity and return to France, Lucas was personally awarded the cross of the Légion d'honneurLégion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
by Napoleon
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
in recognition of his ship's service.
French ship Régulus (1805)
The Régulus was a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.From 25 May 1801, her armament was upgraded to sport between 80 and 86 guns....
, a Téméraire class
Téméraire class ship of the line
The Téméraire class ships of the line was a class of 107 74-gun ships of the line built between 1782 and 1813 for the French navy. The type was and remains the most numerous class of capital ship ever built....
74-gun ship of the line part of admiral Zacharie Allemand's
Zacharie Allemand
Zacharie Jacques Théodore Allemand, was a French admiral.- Early career :Allemand was born to a captain of the East Indian Company. Orphaned at an early age, he started his sailing career at 12 as an apprentice on Superbe, an East Indiaman...
squadron. The French squadron was at first blockaded, and then attacked on April 11, 1809 by a British fleet, near Île-d'Aix
Île-d'Aix
Île-d'Aix is a commune in the Charente-Maritime department off the west coast of France. It occupies the territory of small island of Île d'Aix in the Atlantic. It is a popular place for tourist day-trips during the summer months.-Location:...
, in what would become known as the battle of the Basque Roads
Battle of the Basque Roads
The Battle of the Basque Roads, also Battle of Aix Roads was a naval battle during the Napoleonic Wars off the Island of Aix...
.
After breaching the boom that defended the anchored French fleet, the British sent in fireships, the Régulus being the first to be hit. The French ship cut its anchor cables and managed to escape from one of the fireships, after a half-hour struggle. The Régulus ran aground and it was in danger of capsizing. Trying to save his ship, Lucas had to throw overboard most of his cannons, keeping only 16 of them, together with ammunition and supplies for one month. He managed to refloat his ship, but it ran aground a second time, on the shoals of Les Palles. On April 13, several smaller British ships tried to destroy the grounded French vessel, as they had done to several others, but after a six-hour fight Lucas repelled them. On the 20th, the British tried again, only to be repulsed a second time. During the next fight, on April 24, not being able to bear his guns on the enemy because of the Régulus' list, Lucas cut new portholes in the hull for six of his cannons and managed to drive away the British vessels after an 8 and a half hours fight.
After being grounded for two weeks, repelling four attacks, being bombarded and firing almost 1.400 cannon shots, the Régulus was in a bad shape, but on the night of April 25 the British retreated after having destroyed four ships of the line, one frigate and severely damaged the other French ships.
Four days later, on the 29th of April, Lucas managed to patch and refloat his ship, which entered in Rochefort to the cheers of the Frenchmen.
Later life and death
During the Hundred Days, he was faithful to Napoleon. After the second Restoration of the BourbonsBourbon Restoration
The Bourbon Restoration is the name given to the period following the successive events of the French Revolution , the end of the First Republic , and then the forcible end of the First French Empire under Napoleon – when a coalition of European powers restored by arms the monarchy to the...
, Lucas retired from the Navy, in 1816, and died on 29 May 1819, in Brest
Brest, France
Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon...
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