Michel Dubocage

Michel Joseph Dubocage, seigneur de Bléville,[lower-alpha 1] (28 January 1676 – 10 May 1727) was a French corsair, explorer, and merchant credited with first charting Clipperton Island.

Michel Dubocage

seigneur de Bléville
Portrait of Michel Dubocage
Born(1676-06-28)June 28, 1676
Le Havre, France
DiedMay 10, 1727(1727-05-10) (aged 50)
Le Havre, France
Occupations
  • ship captain
  • merchant
Known fordiscovery of Clipperton Island
Spouse
Marie-Jeanne Boissaye du Bocage
​
​
(m. 1705)​
Military career
AllegianceKingdom of France
Service/branchFrench Navy
Years of servicec. 1690–1704
Battles/warsNine Years' War
Awardssword of honour

Biography

Dubocage was born in the Notre-Dame quartier of Le Havre to ship captain Nicolas Dubocage and Marie Dufresnil. Dubocage went sea with Jean Bart's squadron during the Nine Years' War and he earned a commission as a frigate lieutenant on 1 January 1692, a few weeks before he turned 16, along with a sword of honour from Louis XIV. When he was 18, Dubocage captained Le Sauvage, a Dunkirk raider.[1]

In 1703, he obtained command of the new, 30-gun light frigate Dauphine, which he used as a privateer. The ship was lost 11 December 1704 on the Banc de la Natière at the entrance to the port of Saint-Malo while bringing in an English prize, The Dragon, captured off Ushant, Brittany.[2][3] Dubocage was cleared of fault in the wreck.[4]

From 1707 to 1716, Dubocage captained in a nine-year commercial expedition around the Pacific Ocean aboard La Découverte. The four ships of the expedition left Le Havre for Brest on 6 September 1707, departing Brest on 23 March 1708. After a year-long delay at the Río de la Plata, La Découverte and La Princesse, captained by Martin de Chassiron, continued on their journey to the Pacific. In January 1710, the ships passed Cape Horn en route to Chile and Peru.[5]

While sailing from Peru to Guam, Dubocage discovered Clipperton Island, naming it "Île de la Passion" as La Découverte reached it on Good Friday, 3 April 1711. La Princesse arrived the following day as Dubocage sailed around the island mapping it and assessing its possible value.[4] From Guam, La Découverte sailed on to Amoy (now Xiamen, China) before sailing back to Peru via California. From there, they continued on, rounding Cape Horn and returning to Le Havre on 23 August 1716.[2][6] In 1711, during his year in Amoy, Dubocage negotiated the first Franco–Chinese maritime commercial treaty.[7] From this journey, La Découverte returned laden with 1.2 million livres[lower-alpha 2] worth of gold, silver, and trade goods.[8]

Having made his fortune, he returned to Le Havre and set up a trading house. He purchased a hôtel particulier in the Saint-François quarter (now the Musée Dubocage de Bléville museum) along with other lands around Le Havre, including acquiring the seigneurie of Bléville in 1717.[1][8]

Personal life

In 1705, he married Marie-Jeanne Boissaye du Bocage (1681–1728), daughter of the royal hydrographic engineer Georges Boissaye du Bocage, and they had one son, also named Michel Joseph (1707–1756), who served as an alderman in Le Harve.[9] Dubocage died in 1727 and was buried in the parish church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste in Bléville.[10]

See also

Shipwrecks of Saint Malo

Notes
  1. Some sources render his surname as du Bocage or Dubocage de Bléville.
  2. 1.2 million livres in 1717 is equivalent to about €26.4 million in 2023. (Convertisseur de Monnaie d'Ancien Régime)

References
  1. "Le corsaire Michel J. Dubocage". Le Havre Musées d'Art et d'Histoire (in French). Retrieved 29 May 2023.
  2. Veyrat, Élisabeth; L'Hour, Michel, "L'identification tant attendue de l'épave Natière 1 !" [The long-awaited identification of the Natière 1 shipwreck!], in Jaouen, Marine; Richez, Florence (eds.), Bilan Scientifique du Département des Recherches Archéologiques Subaquatiques et Sous-marines: 2006–2007 [Scientific Report of the Department of Underwater and Submarine Archaeological Research: 2006–2007] (in French), Ministère de la Culture, pp. 34–35, retrieved 29 May 2023
  3. "The Dauphine, a royal 300-tonne frigate". The Saint-Malo shipwrecks. Musée d'Archéologie Nationale. Retrieved 29 May 2023.
  4. "Michel Dubocage, captain of the Dauphine". The Saint-Malo shipwrecks. Musée d'Archéologie Nationale. Retrieved 29 May 2023.
  5. Trichet, Jean (2011). "L'Île de la Passion ou Île de Clipperton: Histoire de la Découverte, Histoiroe de l'Occupation, Histoire Naurelle" [Île de la Passion or Clipperton Island: History of Its Discovery, History of Occupation, Natural History] (PDF). Mémoris de l'Académie d'Orléans Agriculture, Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts (in French). VI (21): 70–71. ISSN 0994-6357. Retrieved 30 May 2023.
  6. Lévesque, Rodrigue (June 1988). "French Ships at Guam, 1708-1717: Introduction to a Little-Known Period in Pacific". The Journal of Pacific History. 33 (1): 107–108. JSTOR 25169369.
  7. "Le Neptune oriental". Collections: Levons l'ancre (in French). Le Havre Musées d'Art et d'Histoire. Retrieved 29 May 2023.
  8. Delobette, Edouard (2001). "Les mutations du commerce maritime du Havre, 1680–1730". Annales de Normandie (in French). 51 (1): 32fn. doi:10.3406/annor.2001.1299.
  9. Chabannes, Hervé (2013). Les passeurs de la mémoire Havraise : histoire, mémoire et identité au havre du XVIème au XIXème siècle [Le Havre Memory Smugglers: History, memory and identity in Le Havre from the 16th to 19th century] (PhD) (in French). Université du Havre. pp. 170–173. Retrieved 30 May 2023.
  10. "Le mobilier de l'église paroissiale Saint-Jean-Baptiste" [The furniture of the parish church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste]. POP : la plateforme ouverte du patrimoine (in French). Ministère de la Culture. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
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