Captain De Chaumereys And Governor Schmaltz example essay topic

... he Loire, The Medusa and The Echo. The Medusa was to transport the governor along with 400 passengers, to re-establish the colony. Soon after departing the Port de Rochefort on June 17, 1816, the Medusa, piloted by an inexperienced captain, Hugues Duro y De Chaumereys, sailed quickly away from the rest of the fleet, leaving The Medusa, her crew and passengers to the mercy of the Atlantic. De Chaumereys, an incompetent sea captain, achieved his high ranking position due to political influences, and affiliation to the French Ministry of the Marine. He had prior experience as a customs officer for more than 20 years, and served against Napoleon, gaining him favor of the new Bourbon government, and disfavor among the crew. He resisted the advice of subordinate officers and the personal experiences of more seasoned sailors and caused the wreck of the Medusa on the Arguin Bank.

De Chaumereys attempted to save the Medusa by lightening her load and discarding precious cargo designated for the Senegalese colony, into the ocean. After several attempts to free the ship from the reef, De Chaumereys decided to cease the rescue efforts and abandon The Medusa. A raft was constructed from the masts and crossbeams of The Medusa, to carry the crew, soldiers and some of the passengers. Due to there only being six lifeboats aboard, the dignitaries, their families and other higher ranking officials took possession of them, leaving approximately 150 members for the raft. Seventeen crewmen decided, for whatever reason, to remain on The Medusa. Those in the lifeboats quickly decided that towing the raft was impractical, and Governor Schmaltz, not Captain De Chaumereys, was the first to drop the tow line to the raft, leaving it to the cruelty of the open sea.

On the raft, the situation quickly deteriorated, and panic consumed those aboard. Fighting broke out, provisions were destroyed and the Raft of the Medusa's infamous voyage commenced. The first night 20 men were killed, or committed suicide, in a struggle to defeat terror, fear and dread. The undisciplined soldiers quickly staged a mutiny, eventually committed cannibalism and other atrocities, and 13 days later, 15 of the original 150 that went into the ocean survived to be rescued. The following material is from eye witness accounts of two of The Medusa's survivors, the ship's Surgeon, Henri Savigny and ship's Geographer, Alexander Correard. Much of the testimony of the two survivors was released to an anti-Bourbon newspaper, resulting in a scandal and political cover-up, and the court martial of Captain De Chaumereys.

According to the accounts of Savigny and Correard, "The officers of the Marine have abandoned us, making us criminal for the accusations made against the captain and Governor Schmaltz. Those men, who are perhaps guilty, but by their rank and position, are entitled to more respect, have failed in their duties; caused the destruction of 150 miserable wretches, leaving them to the most cruel fate, and scarcely exciting a murmur of disapprobation. Are the dignities and the resources of the State, still the exclusive patrimony of the elitist, privileged class?" There exists among the officers of the Marine, an esprit de corps, a false point of honor and arrogance, which leads them to consider as an insult to the navy as a whole, the discovery of one guilty individual. Savigny and Correard believed that they deserved more from their government, and professed that certain individuals, by their conduct during the shipwreck, also deserved proper recognition for behavior and decisions, either good or bad.

The Captain was deceived and misinformed numerous times prior to being stranded on the reef and furthermore dismissed the vital information of experienced sailors and their declarations of impending danger. Ensign Maude t affirmed that The Medusa was on the edge of the reef; this information was immediately dismissed with the answer of "Never mind". He ordered soundings of the depth of the ocean, noticing the changing color of the water, identifying sand in the waves and seaweed, all being facts pointing to shallow water. The Medusa ran aground, stranding 400 passengers, crew and officers at 3: 15 p. m., July 2, 1816. After several attempts to remove the ship from the reef, the loss of the vessel was certain, and it was proper to secure the escape of the crew and passengers.

Governor Schmaltz drew a plan of the raft, capable of carrying 200 men, along with provisions. It was necessary to build the raft, mainly because the six lifeboats could not contain the 400 passengers and crew. The provisions were to be placed on the raft, and the raft towed by the lifeboats until reaching the Island port of Saint Louis in Senegal. The work on the raft was completed, and preparations to debark were made. If the frigate was lightened as soon as she struck the reef, she may have been saved. The Governor refused to permit the dumping of supplies, i. e., kegs of flour, into the ocean.

Fourteen twenty-four pound cannons were also overlooked and not considered to be dumped, thus possibly providing enough drought to sail free of the Arguin Reef and being free from danger. The moment to abandon ship came, and the soldiers embarked to the raft, mostly armed with their sabers and knives, the officers with their side-arms and customary swords. Approximately 120 soldiers, 29 other men and sailors and one woman took place upon the raft, and the order for departure was given. The raft was supplied with the instruments for proper navigation, should it be separated from the other boats. It was impossible to move on the raft, due to overcrowding, yet the other boats proved to have more than ample room for their more privileged occupants.

The raft was secured to the other boats, but the churning of the ocean caused concern that the raft might thrash upon the boats and sink them all, so the governor decided to release the tow ropes to the raft. The raft was alone, unable to be controlled; fear and panic soon overtook the crew of the raft. Terrified, the soldiers and sailors gave themselves up for being lost at sea. Believing that they would be consumed by the sea, they decided to drink the wine that was brought aboard, drinking until they lost their senses of reason. Then the idea of ridding themselves of the officers and committing mutiny took hold. They decided to quicken their demise by destroying the raft and putting an end to their misery.

The officers protested, and the fighting began. One man attempted to cut the ropes with an ax; he was immediately dispatched by a saber blow to the head; had there been more like him the raft would have been destroyed. The mutineers aligned themselves against the officers and those whom decided to survive, and after several attacks, were repulsed. The dead and dying cluttered the deck of the raft, the wounded treated and preparations for future attacks and defenses made. Many men, sailors, officers and passengers alike, showed great courage and coolness in the ensuing cruelty.

Only a handful of men resisted the large number of mutineers, not more than 20 chose to defend the raft. The turmoil lasted for thirteen days, acts of torture, atrocity, murder and cannibalism took place aboard the raft. Many men, on both sides, committed suicide; many were killed during the numerous battles and many more were too weak to defend themselves; they were thrown overboard. On the morning of July 17, 1816, a ship was seen on the horizon, which soon disappeared, hope was cast aside; despair and grief overtook the survivors. A tent was made from the ruined sails and the survivors sought relief in slumber. After two hours, the Master Gunner of The Medusa went out of the tent and discovered that the ship had returned, and they were saved.

It was The Argus; she had seen their signs of distress and returned. Shortly after, the surviving crew was removed from the raft to The Argus, to be reunited with others who had been shipwrecked. Fifteen men, naked, terribly sunburned, wounded, dehydrated and many near death, were taken great care of and soon began the long process of recovery". Such is the faithful history of one hundred fifty persons, who were left upon that raft; only fifteen of whom survived; and five of that number were so reduced, that they died of fatigue, shortly after arriving at St. Louis; those who still exist are covered with scars, and the cruel sufferings which they have endured have greatly impaired their constitution". Savigny and Correard, 1817 Many questions remain to be answered about the wreck of The Medusa, and many issues shall be addressed... 1.) Why did the representatives of the French Government insist upon taking the route through the Arguin Reef, when a more direct path to the Canary Islands is recommended?

2.) Why was the advice of the more experienced navigator dismissed? 3.) Why did the Ministry of the Marine send instructions to the Captain of The Medusa stating to disregard the charts, which clearly show the reef and its dangers? 4.) Had the Captain listened to his subordinate officers, The Medusa might not have run aground and sunk. 5.) Why did the Governor and the Captain stop the subordinate officers from throwing cargo overboard, thus lightening the Medusa and possibly making her able to sail free of the reef? 6.) Did the Governor see himself and the others of his party as being "held in a higher station" the crew and soldiers placed on the raft? In conclusion, Captain De Chaumereys and Governor Schmaltz did act with negligence, deliberate indifference and with poor judgment concerning the wreck of The Medusa and the subsequent abandoning to the lifeboats and raft.

The Captain exercised extreme negligence by not correctly supervising the crew on the raft, and by not insisting that an officer of merit, accompany the crew while on the raft. More importance was placed on the more privileged classes, most of who occupied the more stable and secure lifeboats. The Minister of the Marine did show negligence by placing the command of the fleet in the control of a less than qualified captain, and thus jeopardized the entire fleet, the crew and the contents designed for the colony at Senegal. A cover-up was affected, and Captain De Chaumereys was the person deemed liable and summarily court martialed, ruining his naval career. According to Savigny and Correard, .".. men decorated with ribbons of all colors, who counted very well the number of their ancestors, but of whom it would have been useless to ask an account of their studies, being called to superior commands, have not been able to show anything but their orders and their unskilfulness. They have done more, they have had the privilege of losing the vessels and people of the State, without its being possible for the laws to reach them; and after all, how could a tribunal have condemned them?

They might have replied to their judges, that they had not passed their time in studying the regulations of the service, or the laws of the marine, and that, if they had failed, it was without knowledge or design. In fact, it would be difficult to suppose that they intended to their own destruction: they have but too well proved that they knew how to provide for their own safety.".