The use of the French shipbuilding town of Lorient by the Germans for a strong submarine base has caused the town to suffer from the explosive wrath of American bombers. Situated on the Brittany coast, midway between Brest and the mouth of the Loire, Lorient is especially remembered in the United States as a base from which notable operations were carried out by gallant American naval commanders in the days when the Navy was young.
One of these was John Paul Jones, who used the port during the summer of 1779 for the outfitting of the Bonne Homme Richard. Sailing from here he won fame by the capture of the Serapis on September 23, 1779, off Flamborough Head. When he turned over the Serapis to the French in Texel Roads, Holland, on November 21, 1779, he transferred to the Alliance in which he returned to Lorient for repair and refitting.1 It was in the roadstead between Lorient and the citadel of Port Louis that Jones is supposed to have reenacted the capture of the Serapis. Here also occurred the unsavory business with Landais.
With Landais and the Alliance on the way to America, Jones at once set about reconditioning the Ariel, which was a former English frigate, captured by the French and loaned to the United States. The amounts of money spent by Jones in refitting these ships brought at least two letters of caution from Franklin who was then in Paris. The first start in the reconditioned Ariel was ill-timed for it encountered the notable hurricane of October, 1780, but a few miles from Lorient. The partially wrecked ship was worked back to port from the Penmarque Rocks with jury fore and mizzenmasts, there to be again repaired for the more successful departure on December 18.
1The Logs of the "Serapis-Alliance-Ariel" under the Command of John Paul Jones, 1779, 1780. Edited by John S. Barnes, Late Lieutenant Commander, U.S.N., N.Y. 1911.
Another of these notable Americans to use the port was Captain William Henry Allen. In the summer of 1813 he sailed from Lorient on one of the most noteworthy single cruises of our naval history.2 The ultimate object of the cruise of the Argus was to raid British shipping, but the immediate aim was the delivery to France of our newly appointed ambassador, the Hon. William H. Crawford, former Senator from Georgia and later presidential candidate. The landing of Mr. Crawford and the Argus at Lorient was recorded in sufficiently detailed manner to give us an unusual glimpse of the port which is once again receiving attention from American forces, but now in a much different manner.
From the diary of Mr. Crawford3 come the details of the landfall and arrival at port in a land governed then as now in a manner so foreign to the ways of democracy.4
2 For other articles on Captain Allen and the Argus see U. S. Naval Institute PROCEEDINGS, August, 1937, pp. 1150-61, and May, 1939, pp. 653-60.
3The Journal of William H. Crawford, Smith College Studies in History, October, 1925, D. C. Knowlton, ed.
4Ibid., p. 21.
Sunday, 11th July [1813]. At dawn two vessels were descried on the North of the Argus, but they manifested a disposition to avoid us. At 8:00 a.m. we saw land which we judged to be the coast of France, north of L’Orient, which we wished to enter. The day was fine, and we were able within an hour afterwards to distinguish the wheat fields from those of grass. We passed the Pennant rocks and islands, and descried a village and a small port with a small vessel lying in it. A gun was fired for a pilot but none came. We coasted along, with a chart of the coast of France on the table, and fortunately entered the Port of L’Orient at 6:00 p.m. without having seen a sail except the vessels already mentioned.
Mr. Crawford was not noted for being a quiet or reticent person, but the French pilot who came out to the Argus went about his work in such an imperious manner that even the American minister (Crawford) described him as “rude and boisterous.” The pilot, evidently somewhat overbearingly, announced that the ship must perform quarantine, and in the course of such must hoist a yellow flag. The information was not suited to smooth the proceedings, neither was the manner in which it was given. When, a short time later, a more calm individual made his appearance alongside the brig, in the person of a health officer, he was received with evident relief by the captain. The information which this latter visitor brought was that after the ship had been visited by the customhouse officers the quarantine would be removed during the day following, and then the passengers and crew would be at liberty to go ashore.
To add to the red tape there next appeared two members of the harbor police. That was not so bad, but when they quite politely offered the statement that they had had no dinner and would the Americans please feed them the captain’s temper rose still higher. The Frenchmen were quickly and effectively told that they could starve as far as the American Navy had any interest in them. The gendarmes acted so reasonably, however, that Captain Allen recinded the starving order and to use Mr. Crawford’s effective description,
His natural good temper, and humanity dissipated this momentary gloom, and he proposed that we should direct my Steward to supply their wants to which I immediately assented.5
On Monday, July 12, the weather was fine and the brig was worked a bit higher in the port. At noon the ship was visited by the officers of the police and of the customs. The maritime prefect, General Daugier, sent his compliments to Mr. Crawford including the promise to remove the minister to shore whenever he so desired. Naturally Mr. Crawford, none too well at the time, took immediate advantage of the offer by asking for a boat to be sent for him as soon as possible. Then came the principal customs officers to question the captain, the officers, and even the American minister. Again the manner was quite offensive with the result that Captain Allen peremptorily refused to answer many of the questions asked him. The customs officers demanded to see the commission of Mr. Crawford, then took from him all letters and dispatches to the French legation, as well as all private letters. Some letters and dispatches they allowed the minister to retain; these were to General Lafayette, and to high government officials, especially since these were written by members of our own government.
This lack of harmony attended as it was by a recurrence of irritating circumstances led to a penetrating observation on autocratic and beaurocratic governments as contrasted with our own.
The formalities, the parade, and the delay which was incident to every act of office made me feel that I was now in a country where the Rulers were everything and the people nothing. In the United States, you are insensible of the existence of the government but in the granting of benefits. Here the most ordinary act is subject to be, and absolutely is, inspected by someone or more of the army of officers which are posted in every point of this extensive Empire.6
5The Journal of William H. Crawford, 22.
6 Ibid., p. 22.
Another in the series of difficulties was met when it was found that not even the anchor could be dropped without incident. As soon as the order was given the crew commenced to carry it out, but were interrupted by a yell of pain from Seaman Groves. A turn of the anchor cable suddenly had looped itself about his arm. Evidently the sailor was no weakling, for with a mighty heave he yanked his arm free. It was twisted and strained, but still on, although according to Surgeon Inderwick of the Argus it was much swelled. Given proper care Groves was returned to active duty a week later.7
Finally Mr. Crawford and his secretary, Mr. Jackson,8 were lodged on shore at the home of the American consul, Mr. Vail. About noon on Tuesday, July 13, 1813, these two together with Mr. Vail, the purser of the Argus, Dennison, and a Captain Lewis walked to the town of Lorient for a visit to that once vital French seaport.9 They found the town to be an old one, much less valuable to the French in 1813 than it had been in the previous century.
Throughout the first half of the seventeenth century it had been but a little village on the estuary formed by the rivers Scorff and Blavet. Then prosperity arrived, for the town was ceded to the East India Company in 1666 because of the value of its anchorage. Louis XIV designated this as the location for the new shipyards to be constructed by the company.
7 See notation in the original, Journal of Surgeon James Inderwick (of the Argus) in the Division of Manuscripts, N. Y. Public Library, under the date of July 12, 1813. This journal was edited and published in the N. Y. Public Library Bulletin in 1917, V. H. Paltsits, ed. Copies of this original journal were made by Surgeon Inderwick. They are now in the possession of P. C. Nicholson, of Providence, R. I.
8 Henry Jackson, a professor of the University of Georgia. Later retained as our Charge d’Affaires in France until 1817.
9 For history of Lorient: Galignani, A., Traveller's Guide Through France, Paris, 1825. Hugo, A., France Pittoresque, Tome II, Paris, 1835.
From 1718 to 1728 the ships of the company were fitted out at Havre while the disposal of goods took place at Nantes and at Havre, so it was not until the latter date that the “Compagnie des Indies” finally decided to center all their activities at the port of Lorient. Following this decision in 1728 there were built the vast warehouses and shipfitting establishments which caused exclamations of wonder from travelers for a century. The greatest prosperity was reached about the middle of the eighteenth century when the company owned 35 ships of the largest class.
In 1741 Lorient obtained permission from the king to surround itself with walls. The project of building these was not finished a day too soon for in 1746 there landed 7,000 English troops in an attempt to surprise and capture the town. The surprise was evident enough for the townspeople, then numbering around 14,000, were willing to surrender should the English pursue the bold policy of immediate attack. The English leaders, Admiral Lestock and General Sinclair, wasted precious time in pitching camp and in attempting to negotiate a peace with the inhabitants. Sufficient time was thus lost to enable the Comte de Tinteniac to bring in several hundred reinforcements. When the English were faced with what they presumed to be overwhelming odds they re-embarked so rapidly that they threw away much of their ammunition and left behind four cannon and a mortar. These were most fittingly presented to the inhabitants of Lorient by the king as partial payment for their somewhat harrowing experience.
The fortunes of the port were most closely bound to foreign affairs so that when the French lost Bengal in 1753 trade decreased. Later still internal mismanagement of the company caused its failure with the result that the port passed to the Crown. It was later refortified under Napoleon and it was during this period of increasing activity that Captain Allen used the port as his base in preparation for his raid on shipping in the English Channel and around Ireland.
In 1835 the French boasted of the solidity of their town, the sturdy architecture, the fine houses, and the regular streets well paved and carefully laid out. The vast warehouses were still a matter of comment, but what is still more of interest to us today is the reference to covered quays and slips for the more efficient handling of cargo. We note the modern usages of covered submarine yards built here by the Germans for the purpose of bombproofing their installations.
On a hill just south of the town there was built before 1825 a watch or signal tower 37 meters high which was noted for its commanding view of the roadstead and the town. In 1835 its uses were that of a lighthouse, lookout tower, weather vane for indicating wind directions, and general observatory.
The parish church was found to be of an unusual character, for it offered in its architecture “une bizarrerie qui etonne.”10 The church evidently was planned to be one of the most imposing in northwestern France, but the very ambitions of the planners defeated their aims for the edifice was too majestic in plan ever to be completed. After a full 30 years of continuous building the magnitude of the task overwhelmed the townspeople who then made the amazing decision to tear down part of the work already done for the purpose of using the material to finish a much more modest church! Later visitors have characterized it as a rather colorless structure.
10France Pittoresque, p. 260.
The American minister and his party finished their tour of Lorient and returned to the home of the consul, Mr. Vail. On the way back Mr. Crawford appeared so tired that Captain Lewis offered him the use of a carriage. What appeared to be a case of grippe kept him in bed for two days during which time a French surgeon made an unavailing attempt at a cure. Mr. Crawford was disgusted with the im- competence of the French doctor because he refused to let blood as a remedy! Then Surgeon Inderwick of the Argus was called but he also refused to let blood. The American doctor was, however, equal to the occasion and administerd an effective treatment in the form of a good stiff physic.11
Recuperation of the minister coincided with the outfitting of the Argus so that both left Lorient on the next Tuesday which was July 20. Crawford went on to Paris to audiences with Napoleon and the taking up of his official position. The Argus and Captain Allen went north to the Channel and the Irish Sea, where after a brief cruise, which was highly significant due to the number and rapidity of the captures made, he died as a result of the action with the Pelican.12 The British buried Captain Allen in St. Andrew’s Churchyard in Plymouth with full naval honors. The citizens of Plymouth erected a monument to him, honoring his gallantry toward his foes and his meticulously careful treatment of all noncombatants. Recent pictures of Plymouth show the ruins of St. Andrew’s; ruins made by a foe with other ideas about noncombatants.
11 Inderwick Journal, date of “July 14th, Wednesday, Port Louis L’Orient.”
12 For details of this cruise, see U. S. Naval Institute Proceedings, May, 1939, pp. 655-60.