GREAT FRENCH SAILOR

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 August 1929, Page 9

GREAT FRENCH SAILOR

COUNT DE TOURVILLE. The visit s to Auckland of the Tourville, the very modern and fast cruiser of the French Navy, will remind students of history that all our encounters with that gallant nation did not turn out quite so satisfactorily from our standpoint as St. Vincent or Trafalgar. There was a time when the English flag was practically swept from the sea, and the man who did it was Anne-Hilarion de Contentin, Comte de Tourville, born at Paris in 1642, who was undoubtedly the greatest sailor of his era. He was not only personally brave as a lion, but he had the added gifts of organisation and strategy. Although such a great fighter he was singularly polished and polite—altogether* the sort of sea-hero that the British admire.

The story of his career and of that of the various ship's which have been named after him is contained in a neat little booklet called “Croiseur Tourville,” for a copy of which we are indebted to the French Consul at Auckland, M. Paul Serre. The booklet is in French, and below we give some of the salient points which will enable one to grasp what the name means to a Frenchman.

“The greatest sailor of the century, and the most modest,” was the reputation given to de Tourville by the English and the Dutch —and they should have known, for they were handsomely beaten by him on more than one occasion. He went to sea at the age of 16, in a ship belonging to the Knights of Malta, and had some exciting experiences lighting the Barbary corsairs. When he was 19 he allowed a Tunisien craft to board him. After 150 of the pirates had swarmed over to his vessel, he ordered the lines of the grappling iron to be cut, mastered the horde which had swept aboard, then he boarded their ship and captured her. At the- age of 25 de Tourville entered the French Navy, and took part in most of the daring exploits of the latter half of the 17th century. The year. 1690 was memorable for France, and disastrous for England and Holland. De Tourville was then Com-mander-in-Chief, and Hew his penant on the “Soleil Royal.” On July 10 of that year he beat the combined fleet of the English and Dutch at Beveziers. Fifteen enemy ships were destroyed or captured, and as the French memoir puts it, “the English flag disappeared. from the sea. ’ ’ In the following year the French fitted out only a moderate number of ships, and de Tourville’s instructions were to protect the coasts- of France, but not to seek a big fight. During this “campaign of the open sea,” as it was called, he added to his laurels. In 1692 he met the English fleet of 99 ships off Harfleur, and he had but 45. Although he could have easily made off he told his officers that his orders this time were to attack the enemy, strong or weak, wherever he found them. When night fell not one French ship had struck her colours or gone to the bottom. The enemy had lost two ships and were soundly beaten in spite of the odds. - . De Tourville was made a Marshal of France, and retired to well-earned rest in 1697, when the Peace of Ryswick put an end to the war. He died in 1701. The first warship called Tourville, after the great admiral, was a vessel o f 74 guns. She was so well-built that she was not condemned until 1834. She took part in many engagements, but as far as the English are concerned’ her most interesting' memory was that she was one of the vessels taking part in the expedition of Hoche to Ireland. Between 1811 and 1814 an old vessel of Spanish origin bore the name of Tourville while she was attached to the Naval School at Brest. The next Tourville was a fine vessel of 90 guns. Built at Brest, she was one of the first vessels to be fitted with the auxiliary screw. She took part in the Franco-British expedition to the Baltic during the Crimean war. Like the grand old wooden -walls of England, the Tourville of that epoch was a most picturesque object, with her double tier of gun-ports, her carved stern and towering masts and wide yards. The Tourville of the Crimean era was succeeded by a cruiser built in 1876. Although she was constructed of wood, the builders had made such a good job of 'her that she was not broken up until 1903. The name Tourville did not appear on the poop of another ship until 1909, and then it wqs carried by a transport. In 1914 plans were laid for building a 29,000 ton ship to carry the name, but she was never built, and until the present Tourville was begun in 1925 the name was borne by the old transport mentioned.