Hamelin

Portrait of Baron Jacques Hamelin (1768-1839)

From 1 October 1800 to 23 June 1803, Hamelin captained the ship Naturaliste, along with Captain Nicolas Baudin on the Geographe, on a scientific expedition exploring the South Seas. This voyage was intended by the French government to establish a port in the southern seas before the British. Hamelin and Baudin, along with their crews, undertook extensive mapping of the coastlines of Australia and New Guinea.

The voyage included a visit to Dirk Hartog Island in 1801, where a party of Hamelin’s men discovered a plate, left by Willem de Vlamingh in 1697, which had in turn replaced an earlier plate left by Dirk Hartog in 1616. Hamelin’s men initially removed the plate but it was returned on his orders and left intact until a later visit by Louis de Freycinet in 1818. De Freycinet was on Hamelin’s 1801 crew.

On his return to France, Hamelin was promoted to captaine de vaisseau (captain), and oversaw the weaponry of the large fleet intended for the invasion of England.

Mauritius
Fight of Vénus and Ceylon

In July 1806, Hamelin took command of the frigate Vénus from Le Havre. He set sail for Isle de France (now Mauritius), seizing four ships along the way. In March 1809, Vénus entered Port Napoléon (formerly Port-Louis, Isle de France).

On 26 April, after orders from the general captain of Mauritius to leave, he sailed off, having under his command Vénus, the frigate Manche, the brig Entreprenant and the schooner Créole.

He visited Foulpointe on the east coast of Madagascar. Besieged by natives, he moved on the Bay of Bengal, entered Saint George’s channel in the Nicobar Islands, seized several British ships, sank a great number of boats sent out by the British, and on 18 November 1809, seized the British settlement of Tappanouti. On the return voyage to Mauritius, he captured three large East India Trading Company ships in the Action of 18 November 1809.

On his return trip, he seized several more British ships, until he encountered Ceylon on 17–18 September 1810. Ceylon was captured, but the next day a British frigate squadron seized both Ceylon and Vénus.