Translation © Donald E. Pusch 2008, Some Rights Reserved.

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4
D’Oisy to Minister, Brest, November 15, 1762; A.N., Marine B 104, fol. 228–32v; microfilm,
Archives nationales. D’Oisy describes the events surrounding the wreck and loss of the frigate
Opale off the island of Mogane (Mayaguana) in July 1762.1 Translated from the original French
by Donald E. Pusch, August 2007.
[fol. 228:]
2
[Marginal note:]
Campaign Journals
Loss of the frigate
Opale
42
1. Copy of the letter from Monsieur d’Oisy3
4
2. commanding the Calypso
3. Brest, November 15, 1762
4. Monseigneur,
5
5. I got under way from the roadstead of the Cap July 15 with
6. the Diadème6 and the Brillant7 in consequence of the order
7. that I received from Monsieur de Blénac.8 This sortie had
8. as its objective the departure of some merchant
9. ships, which we escorted. The 21st, at 4 o’clock
10. in the evening, we were near Grand Caique.9 I was
11. in the lead seeking to discover [the enemy], and I was alerted to
12. 16 sails, which I signaled. And, at the same time,
13. I reported this to Monsieur, the Chevalier Fouquet.10 [With] the two
14. fleets heading to meet each other, the enemy [ships]
15. found themselves well within range of us to be
16. recognized. Their usual confidence put them in no condition
17. to escape once they had realized their error. The frigate
18. that was escorting them had a superior speed and, with the
19. help of darkness, escaped us. I was ordered to head
20. after the fleet, and I captured two ships loaded with
21. troops. During the night, I rallied with the Diadème
22. with my two prizes, which we finished manning
23. the following morning, the 22nd. When this action was
24. accomplished, we deployed sail and continued our
25. route up until sunset. At that time, Monsieur de
26. Fouquet signaled the fleet, which was in
27. good sailing order, to continue its route, and we came
28. about in order to regain Grand Caique and to reenter the channel
29. at dawn.11 We were, according to our estimate, 15
30. leagues to the north northeast of the island of Mogane.12 We
31. reckoned the route to be south and south by southeast, and we
32. planned to pass at least five or six leagues windward
33. of this island.13 We coursed under reduced sail, fair
34. weather, very little wind, and pleasant seas. We made at most
35. ten leagues from that time up until 3 o’clock in the morning,
36. when I was awakened by a violent jolt. At the
37. time that the Diadème, which had just sighted
38. land, was making the signal to come about, I was
39. windward of her a half league and on the port
40. quarter, which had been designated for me by Monsieur the Chevalier
41. Fouquet. The land could not be seen from
42. the position I was in, the reef extending
[fol. 228v:]
1. to more than a league seaward in this area from the northeast
2. of the island, where the land is very low and, this
3. night, very dark. In an instant, I got out of my
4. quarters and onto the deck. I had cannon shots
5. fired in order to warn the warships of the danger that
6. I was in, and I signaled them of it. Immediately,
7. the pumps were rigged, and a moment later
8. the master caulker came to report that the Opale
9. was breached, that water was rising visibly in
10. the hold, and a half hour later she was
11. full up to the hatchways. When I saw the peril,
12. with no remedy, I set about, with the means I
13. could employ, to save the men, and I
14. was quite happy to inspire confidence during
15. the first moments. I avoided, by that, the disorder and confusion
16. that are usually the disastrous consequences of
17. such an event. I put all the boats
18. to sea and I put an officer in each one with orders
19. to press toward the open sea, to not let anyone
20. embark on them, and to return aboard only when I
21. would recall them. This precaution inspired
22. confidence, and everyone went to work
23. and without complaint. I was so well supported by
24. the officers, and even by the English, that in less than an
25. hour the cannons and the masts were jettisoned into the sea
26. without injuring anyone. The ship, lightened by this,
27. took a better position. The jolts became
28. less frequent and less violent. There remained
29. only the rudder, which had cut into two or three
30. beams and which we succeeded in jettisoning into the sea.
31. And we found ourselves, though the ship had
32. already settled, at least more calm and in condition
33. to await, without danger, the help that the warships—
34. which, at dawn, took action to put about—were able
35. to send to us. I had, in the first minutes, occupied
36. the English in collecting up bread from the store room, and a stockpile
37. was made of it in the main cabin. But the
38. greater part was wet and fell
39. into the sea through the gun ports when the frigate settled.
40. We found ourselves, at that moment, without water,
41. without wine, and nearly without bread. The warships
42. approached, and the Diadème’s large canot14
[fol. 229:]
1. arrived towards 9 o’clock. When the warships
2. were close enough, I dispatched the Diadème’s
3. canot, my chaloupe,15 and my canot, loaded with
4. people. I might have had, at that moment,
5. 600 men on board the Opale, as many English
6. as French. I saw the difficulty that the
7. warships would have in approaching her. The following day,
8. the winds and the currents causing [them] to fall off leeward,
9. I wanted to take advantage of this first moment in order to save
10. as many of my people as I could. And in order

2
11. to bring that about, I forbade that anyone think
12. of saving anything except the clothes they
13. wore. I arranged them one-by-one in all the
14. boats, and I placed there as many of them as they [the boats] could
15. carry without risk. One of the prizes, in which
16. Monsieur de Charité embarked, came very close to
17. us, and the people were disembarked onto her. This gave
18. us the means to make two trips.
19. In the evening, she moved away and was to rejoin the
20. warships. I had Monsieur Fouquet told of the condition
21. I was in and he sent to me, the following day, by
22. his canot, some provisions, which reached us just at the
23. right time. But that day we were only able to rescue
24. very few people, the warships having
25. fallen off a long way leeward, and only
26. one trip could be made. I had on board the two
27. captains of the prizes that I had taken, and one of them [the prizes]
28. found itself grounded near us and had
29. remained upright. The captain proposed to me to go
30. there to find any kind of provisions. He carried back to us some
31. casks of water, some biscuit, and some taffia.16 These unexpected
32. provisions revived the crew, which was dying
33. of hunger and which saw, although perhaps
34. less than I did, the distress that we were facing
35. because of the remoteness of the warships,
36. although Monsieur Fouquet did everything humanly
37. possible in order to give us assistance. But
38. the currents and the winds did not permit him
39. to do any better. I owe him my salvation
40. and was even more touched by the form he
41. employed than by the substance. Humanity dictates
[fol. 229v:]
1. the one, but all men do not know how to
2. apply as well the other.
3. In the minutes immediately following the wreck, I had
4. a raft made from the spare topmasts and all the
5. yards that I had on board. I put on this raft the few
6. provisions that remained to me of the flour, my sheep,
7. two bullocks, and generally whatever could be used
8. to survive on. I had placed on it about sixty of the
9. best men left to me, who were the
10. maîtres,17 the petty officers (officiers mariniers), and a few English.
11. And I wanted to have this raft go ashore after
12. having sent back the Diadème’s canot and having asked
13. Monsieur Fouquet to send [a party] to look for me on the lee side
14. of the island, where the small boats could safely
15. anchor. And I alerted him that I was going to take
16. ashore about 180 men who were still with me.
17. But I had the displeasure to see my raft run aground
18. on the bar that was between the land and me
19. and to see all the provisions that I had placed in it
20. sink to the bottom. Fortunately, I was able to bring the raft
21. back aboard and no one perished on it. This
22. accident distressed me a lot but did not discourage

3
23. me. I still had my chaloupe and my small
24. canot. The two English captains, who had sailed
25. a great deal to the coast of Guinée [and were] accustomed to passing
26. by canot over bars where the sea breaks more
27. than on this one, proposed to me, if I would
28. entrust my small canot to them, to go to look for a
29. passage [through the bar] for my chaloupe. I accepted their offers.
30. They succeeded and arrived on shore. The 25th,
31. in the morning, the third day of my wreck, they carried
32. onto the island, in the chaloupe that they guided,
33. more than one hundred men. And in the evening, no longer
34. seeing the warships, I myself went there at
35. 7 o’clock, preceded by the chaloupe, in which
36. were the officers and the maîtres, and I followed
37. them in the small canot. I had the displeasure
38. to see this chaloupe run aground and almost
39. perish on the bar, from which she was pulled
40. only by the maneuver that the officers had
41. the crew make, having them get
[fol. 230:]
1. into the water and lift the chaloupe, which they
2. floated and reached the shore, where I experienced the sight
3. of the groaning of my entire crew, which
4. was dying of hunger and thirst, not having found,
5. since morning, a drop of water on this
6. island. [But],I did not find it at all hard to calm them. They
7. had seen that I had never neglected
8. their salvation, not one man drowned or even
9. injured, [and] the officers no better treated
10. than they. The example that it had presented them had
11. acquired [their] confidence. Large fires are started
12. and on them were placed some grills of salt
13. bacon and beef, a few barrels of which had
14. come to the coast. I promised them water for
15. the following morning. The expectations settled them down,
16. calmness returned in an instant, and they slept
17. peacefully throughout the night. The English and the
18. French had an equal fate, and peace reigned
19. between us. At daybreak, I assembled
20. everyone. I laid out some wells in places
21. where I judged to find it less difficult to
22. dig. I put everyone to work,
23. and the officers placed themselves to direct them. I had
24. caulked and put back into place one of the chaloupe’s strakes,
25. which it was missing the day before when it
26. was run aground. Once everyone was
27. occupied, I left in charge of the works Monsieur de
28. Capellis18 who was second [captain] to me and
29. was charged to send [the chaloupe] to pick up provisions
30. aboard the prize. Once the chaloupe was
31. repaired, I left him and was off to scour the
32. coast in order to see if I could find
33. some indication of a spring, which might
34. provide us some water more potable than that
35. which I hoped to find in the wells that

4
36. were being dug. Hope gave me strength,
37. and I went more than two leagues without encountering
38. anything but some holes in the rocks
39. where there was a little water from a foul source,19
[fol. 230v:]
1. which, nevertheless, I drank in long gulps. During that
2. time, the chaloupe had made one trip,
3. and sparing distributions of what had
4. been carried ashore were made to everyone.
5. I continued my trek. I had eaten, in
6. four days, only some brandied peaches and had
7. drunk some taffia, but I had strength again.
8. A little while later, I saw two men
9. who told me that the prizes were waiting
10. for me 4 leagues away. I was more than
11. two [leagues] away from my people. I sent them [the two men]
12. to Monsieur de Capellis with orders to set out
13. to follow me, and I continued my trek
14. in order to go and have food prepared for them
15. at their arrival. When I had yet made two
16. leagues, I stopped on the side of a
17. river in order to restore myself and to have it sounded
18. by a sailor who had followed me. I heard
19. voices near me. I shouted out, and I saw
20. coming to me some sailors from the Diadème
21. who came in order to guide us through a
22. marsh that they had crossed, and [they] assured me
23. that one could not get through [by going] along
24. the sea [coast]. I believed them and followed them, but I had
25. considerable difficulty withstanding the fatigue and the
26. impediments that I encountered there at every moment,
27. being a few times in water up to my chin
28. and thick, burning mud up to my
29. knees. Fortunately, I arrived beside
30. the sea, supported during this trek by
31. two sailors who helped me walk
32. and often raised me up. I found there
33. Monsieur Dumas and the provisions that this officer had
34. had placed on the route along
35. the coast. I asked him to send [help] immediately
36. to the poor wretches who followed me
37. and to make them stop on the edge
38. of the river. And I wrote to Monsieur de Capellis
[fol. 231:]
1. so that he forbade anyone to go by way of the
2. marsh where three quarters of our people,
3. exhausted by fatigue and nearly out of
4. food for four days, would have remained
5. without help. Monsieur Dumas undertook to search for a
6. route along the coast and sent [a party] to check (gager)
7. the river. I boarded one of the
8. prizes, and in the evening everyone arrived. The
9. following morning, I went ashore and again
10. gathered up a few stragglers. At noon,

5
11. seeing no more people on the other side of
12. the river where I had been, I boarded the
13. prize and made the signal that Monsieur Fouquet
14. had sent me orders to make to him when
15. everyone was embarked. I got under way
16. and he came up ahead of me. I came up to
17. him in the evening [and] we made route for the
18. Cap, where we arrived July 31. On
19. arrival, a headcount was taken of my
20. crew, and it revealed not one fewer
21. Frenchman, but it was missing,
22. of the English, 12 or 15 men. I requested
23. that a ship be fitted out as a parlementaire20
24. in order to go give them some help and to
25. take advantage of that occasion to
26. salvage the crew’s clothing and
27. my own, which had remained on the deck of
28. the frigate. My request was granted,
29. but the usual slowness, especially in
30. this country, only permitted this ship
31. to leave 8 or 10 days after our
32. arrival. It was necessary to overcome some obstacles to
33. her departure, which I cannot go into
34. without getting far off my subject. Also,
35. it reached there too late; the English had
36. gotten there first, and she returned without finding either
37. men or clothing.
38. I asked Monsieur de Clugny21 for two
39. months pay to aid my crew
40. in clothing themselves, and I obtained it. However, Monseigneur,
[Marginal note opposite the last three lines of the page:]
The King, having consented to this gratuity,
he responded to this item
and wrote to Monsieur Hocquart22 on the subject
on December 6.
[fol. 231v:]
1. I added to it the hope that the King, touched
2. by their misfortune, would grant them these two
3. months in gratuity, and I fulfill my
4. obligation to them in taking the liberty
5. to ask you this favor, which they have
6. merited by their conduct, their obedience, and
7. their resignation in an event where they
8. had experienced, during 4 days, the horrors of
9. impending death, without complaint and without
10. a single man of the crew
11. seeking to save himself
12. by swimming to shore. I still owe them a
13. testimony, in your presents, of the acts of
14. goodwill that they performed when they
15. were employed in the careening of the Hector23
16. and the raising of the Calypso. Monsieur de Blénac
17. was able to render an account to you of their

6
18. goodwill to which he was witness on that
19. occasion.
20. Monsieur de Blénac and Monsieur Ho[c]quart should have
21. had the honor to write to you today
22. on this subject and have promised me, in view of the reasonableness
23. of my request, to join with me
24. to obtain this favor. The officers are
25. also in the same situation and arrived
26. at the Cap as I did, completely naked. It is not
27. that it was impossible for us, the day that
28. we spent on the island, to save
29. most of my effects and those of the officers,
30. but there are cases, and I believed this one [to be]
31. among those, where it is necessary to sacrifice everything
32. for the common good. I caused, out of
33. necessity, in the first minutes [after striking the reef], my crew
34. to be completely naked. The same necessity no longer existed
35. in latter moments, but one might
36. believe that this precaution [not letting the crew take their cloths with them] had
37. only been taken in order to have more room
38. for my effects. A shirt is more
39. dear to a sailor than to me. I
40. could not bring back theirs, [so] I was not going
[fol. 232:]
1. to save my own. And, although
2. I considered, from then, the inconvenience that
3. the loss I was experiencing was going to cause to
4. my financial situation, I was making
5. sacrifices and it meant nothing to me. I believed it
6. quite necessary to use, on one hand, punishment
7. toward some and, on the other, money
8. in order to encourage those who worked
9. willingly. And [in addition], I have the honor to alert
10. you that I am planning, at the review [of the incident], to request
11. advancement for some. I believe it
12. necessary to request that those with whom
13. I was displeased be cut off and
14. excluded from the gratuity, in case you
15. grant one. The number of these last is
16. small and limited to three men. There is
17. a fourth whom I left at Saint-Domingue
18. in prison and whom I was not able
19. to have hung before my departure. Whatever
20. appeal I made regarding this matter, the proceeding was informed [of the evidence]
21. and his judgement certain. However, it would have been desirable that he
22. be executed as an example before the departure of
23. the squadron. Here is his crime:
24. When I had the two prizes that I had
25. captured on the 21st manned, I gave command of them to two
26. pilots mates (aides pilotes), wise and capable of sailing them. For
27. handling [the ships], I gave them some petty officers
28. [and] a dozen sailors. A quarter master (quartier maître), a few
29. days later, found out that the wife of an officer who had
30. remained on the ship had, under the head of her bed,

7
31. money and some jewels. He was, with a knife in hand,
32. about to steal them and was caught in the act by a sailor
33. and the woman’s husband, who disarmed him. The women
34. was pregnant, and the fright she received caused her
35. to miscarry. I was given an account of it
36. the moment I arrived aboard the prizes. I had the culprit
37. arrested, and he was put aboard the Diadème in irons
38. and turned over, by order of Monsieur de Blénac, into the hands of
39. judges at the Cap. The English themselves sought to excuse him
40. when they saw things at this point. Drunkenness was used
41. as the excuse, but mercy never occurred to me.
42. I fulfilled the obligation of my responsibility, I believe, in
43. asking for the most scrupulous examination. And more
44. proof was found than necessary
45. to give rise to the hope that the execution would serve
[fol. 232v:]
1. as an example to people capable of committing
2. similar excesses, which would become only too
3. common if they went unpunished.
4. Believing myself, in this event, Monseigneur,
5. more to be pitied than condemned, I believed I must
6. leave it to Monsieur de Blénac and Monsieur Fouquet to render
7. an account to you of my conduct before entering into
8. the details that I had the honor to send you
9. today. And I dare flatter myself that my misfortune
10. will not pose an obstacle to the readiness
11. I have to be effective to respond
12. to the mark of confidence that the États d’Artois24
13. gave me. In consequence, I implored Monsieur de
25
14. Roquefeuil to ask of you a leave that
15. will allow me to pay my respects to you and to go
16. to my family to make arrangements
17. that put me in a condition to profit from
18. the favor that you saw fit to grant to me
19. on this occasion and which will allow me
20. to give new proofs of my
21. zeal for the service and of my diligence toward
22. my profession.
23. I am, with respect, etc.26

8
 End Notes
1
There exists a second copy of this letter at fol. 224–27; significant differences between the
two are addressed in endnotes.
2
This marginal note is somewhat different on the second copy of d’Oisy’s report:
Squadron of Monsieur de Blénac
Monsieur le Chevalier d’Oisy
November 15, 1762
Wreck of the Opale
No. 33
3
The Chevalier d’Oisy, lieutenant de vaisseau, was commander of the frigate Opale on the
Blénac campaign. At some point following the loss of the Opale, d’Oisy was given command of
the corvette Calypso. Extrait du journal de Kxven [Kerven] le Gall Ecrivain du Roy Embarqué Sur
au 4
le V le Duc de Bourgogne..., joint à la lettre de Kxven le Gall du 8 juin 1762, A.N., Marine, B
104, fol. 108; hereinafter cited as the journal of Kerven Le Gall.
4
The 16-gun corvette Calypso, commanded initially on the Blénac campaign by Monsieur
Duchilleau, enseigne de vaisseau. Ibid.
5
Cap Français, today Cap Haïtien, Haiti.
6
The 74-gun warship Diadème, commanded on the Blénac campaign by the Chevalier
Fouquet, capitaine de vaisseau. The journal of Kerven Le Gall.
7
The 64-gun warship Brillant, commanded on the Blénac campaign by the vicomte de
Rochechouart. Ibid.
8
Charles de Courbon, comte de Blénac, chef d’escadre and commander of the campaign.
Michel Vergé-Franceschi, La Marine française au XVIIIe siecle: guerres – administration –
exploration (Paris: SEDES, 1996), 414.
9
Grand Caicos Island.
10
Paul-Louis Fouquet, capitaine de vaisseau (1754), chef d’escadre (1771), and lieutenant
général (1780). Etienne Taillemite, Dictionnaire des Marins français, nouvelle édition (Paris:
Tallandier, 2002), 191.
11
This is the Caicos Passage which runs between the Caicos islands and Mayaguana.
Because of the danger of entering the passage in darkness, d’Oisy and the other captains
attempted to adjust their speed and route so as to arrive at the passage’s entrance at dawn.
12
Mayaguana Island.
13
The ships were apparently to the northeast of Mayaguana and experiencing an east or
northeast wind. Recognizing the danger of being blown into the shallows, they intended to give
the island a wide birth as they made route for the Caicos Passage.
14
A small rowboat used primarily to carry people to and from the ship.
15
A boat considerably larger than a canot but having no deck. Chaloupes could be rowed but
were also likely to have one or two sail-rigged masts. Their primary purpose was to transport
merchandise, munitions, and passengers to and from the ship, but they were usually sturdy
enough to make short, open-water excursions.
16
A liquor distilled from sugarcane juice.
17
Experienced individuals who were in charge of specific functions on the ship. One
specifically mentioned in d’Oisy’s account is the master caulker (maître calfat).
18
The second copy of d’Oisy’s letter refers to this individual as the Marquis de Capellis. This
is thought to be Jean-Antoine-Nicolas-François, marquis de Capellis who, in 1762, was a
lieutenant de vaisseau. Jacques Aman, Les officiers bleus dans la Marine française au XVIIIe
7
siècle (Genève: Libraire Droz, 1976), 179, citing Capellis’ service dossier, A.N., Marine C 52.
19
The French here is un peu d’eau de puits détestable. In the second copy of d’Oisy’s letter,
the French is un peu d’eau de pluie détestable (a little foul rain water).

9
 20
A ship that was allowed to enter enemy waters or ports for the purpose of exchanging
prisoners or performing other neutral tasks.
21
Jean-Etienne-Bernard de Clugny de Nuits, intendant of Saint-Domingue, 1760–1763.
Vergé-Franceschi, La Marine française au XVIIIe siecle, 212, 419.
22
Gilles Hocquart de Champerny, intendant of the Marine at Brest, 1749–1764. Ibid., 209,
426.
23
The 74-gun warship Hector, commanded on the Blénac campaign by Monsieur de Sanzay,
capitaine de vaisseau. The journal of Kerven Le Gall.
24
The state of Artois was one of several provincial jurisdictions that exercised certain
administrative and fiscal powers and appointed various provincial functionaries. They were
originally set up to control ancient fiefdoms within the realm but, between the fourteenth and
seventeenth centuries, were also used to administer newly acquired territory. The Chevalier
d’Oisy was apparently the recipient of some post or favor from the state of Artois.
25
Aymar-Joseph, comte de Roquefeuil, chef d’escadre (1761) and lieutenant général (1766).
Roquefeuil was commandant of the Marine at Brest from 1761 to 1772. Vergé-Franceschi, La
Marine française au XVIIIe siecle, 191, 437.
26
So ends this copy of the letter. The second copy includes the ending, “Your very humble &
very obedient servant, Le Chr D’oisy, Brest, November 15, 1762.”

10