# Joseph Potier > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Joseph_Potier > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Joseph_Potier.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Potier > Source revision: 1216351561 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) **Joseph Potier** (5 May 1768, [Saint-Malo](/source/Saint-Malo) — 10 November 1830[1]) was a French privateer and [slave trader](/source/History_of_slavery). He was one of the lieutenants of [Robert Surcouf](/source/Robert_Surcouf). ## Early life Joseph Potier was born to a family of low nobility of Saint-Malo. His mother was a descendant of [Robert Surcouf de Maisonneuve](/source/Robert_Surcouf_de_Maisonneuve), a Breton privateer.[1] and he was therefore a distant cousin to [Robert Surcouf](/source/Robert_Surcouf).[2] ## Merchant navy captain Potier started sailing as a boy on the ships that his father equipped and sent out to [Guinea](/source/Guinea) and the [Caribbean](/source/Caribbean). He rose to become an officer in the merchant marine and eventually to Captain on 28 April 1792.[3] With this rank, he served as first officer on the *Aimable-Rose*, under Captain de La Coudraie.[3] ## French Navy in the Revolution Returning to France during the [French Revolution](/source/French_Revolution) and the [Reign of Terror](/source/Reign_of_Terror), he enlisted in the [French Navy](/source/French_Navy) as an Ensign; he was appointed to a frigate bound for the Caribbean, which remained there for a few months before decommissioning in the USA.[3] For fear of being considered an *[émigré](/source/%C3%89migr%C3%A9)*, he returned to France, where he served in the general staff of Brest harbour until late 1795.[3] After the [Battle of Quiberon](/source/Invasion_of_France_(1795)), he commanded a company of sailors that hunted down the surviving émigrés.[3] ## Privateer Having obtained a release from Navy duty in late 1795, Potier enlisted on the privateer *Heureuse-Nouvelle* as first officer.[3] *Heureuse-Nouvelle* was armed with 22 guns and had a crew of 130 men;[4] she captured a number of prizes[3] until 28 January 1798, when a British squadron under Captain [Edward Pellew](/source/Edward_Pellew,_1st_Viscount_Exmouth) comprising [HMS *Indefatigable*](/source/HMS_Indefatigable_(1784)), [*Cambrian*](/source/HMS_Cambrian_(1797)), and the [hired armed](/source/Hired_armed_vessels) lugger [*Duke of York*](/source/Hired_armed_lugger_Duke_of_York) captured her.[4] The British took Potier prisoner.[3] Exchanged, Potier returned to Brest, where he re-entered the Navy. On 23 September 1800, he was released from duty.[2] The following year, he enlisted as first officer on the three-masted merchantman *Courrier de l'Ile de France*, under Captain Duval; when she arrived at [Port Louis](/source/Port_Louis), Duval gave command of the ship to Potier for a cruise to [Batavia](/source/History_of_Jakarta), and return to Mauritius.[2] Returning to France on 29 March 1803, Potier witnessed the breakdown of the [Treaty of Amiens](/source/Treaty_of_Amiens) and the outbreak of the [War of the Third Coalition](/source/War_of_the_Third_Coalition) in May.[2] On 2 January 1804, [Robert Surcouf](/source/Robert_Surcouf) gave him command of the 14-gun privateer *Confiance*. Potier led several campaigns on *Confiance*,[2] during which he captured two British merchantmen, one loaded with soap and the other with spirits.[5] In February 1807,[6] Surcouf enlisted Potier as first officer on his new privateer [*Revenant*](/source/French_corvette_Revenant).[2] After *Revenant* returned to Port-Louis from her first campaign, on 31 January 1808,[7] Surcouf gave Potier command of the ship on 2 April.[8] In late April, as *Revenant* was completing her preparations and plotting her route, a prize taken by the privateer *Adèle* gave news of the [new war between France and Portugal](/source/War_of_the_Fourth_Coalition); she also brought intelligence about the *Conceçáo-de-Santo-Antonio*, a 64-gun ship of the line armed [en flûte](/source/En_fl%C3%BBte) in Goa, bound for Rio de Janeiro and Lisbon.[8] Surcouf gave Portier the mission to intercept, and *Revenant* departed Port-Louis on 30 April.[8] She arrived in her patrol zone on 17 May and detected her target on the 24th.[8] *Revenant* captured *Conceçáo-de-Santo-Antonio* after a one-hour battle.[9][10] Potier put a prize crew under First Lieutenant Fonroc on *Conceçáo*, and returned to Mauritius one month later with his prize.[11] Potier left *Revenant*, which was sent back to Saint-Malo *[en aventurier](/source/En_aventurier)* with colonial goods.[11] next, he took command of the 18-gun 600-ton [*Diamant*](/source/Diamond_(1798_ship)), a British prize taken by the privateer *Napoléon* after a three-day chase.[11] In mid-October, *Diamant* left Mauritius, also armed *en aventurier* with goods and passengers, and bound for Lorient. She arrived in [Quiberon Bay](/source/Quiberon_Bay) in the evening of 21 January 1809 and ran into the British blockade; a frigate gave chase, but Potier managed to escape by throwing his artillery overboard.[11][note 1] *Diamant* arrived off Bordeaux on the 23rd, where a storm forced Potier to have his masts cut down to save his ship; he finally arrived in Bordeaux harbour on the 25th.[11] On his return to Saint-Malo, Portier co-founded the ship-owning company *Joseph Potier et Harembert*. The company was then responsible for arming a number of privateers.[12] ## Carrying slaves in the Bourbon Restoration During the [Bourbon Restoration](/source/Bourbon_Restoration_in_France), Portier armed the [slave ship](/source/History_of_slavery) *Africain*, on which he ferried slaves from Guinea to Martinique.[12] *Africain* ended her career in Saint-Malo on 25 July 1816, after which Potier sailed only once more, on *Narcisse*, in 1819.[13] ## Notes 1. Cunat (p.418) alleges that by nightfall, Potier had a launch fitted with a lantern and sent away as a decoy to lure the frigate. This story has been attributed to Robert Surcouf. A similar ploy is used in the novel *[Master and Commander](/source/Master_and_Commander)* by the fictional Captain Aubrey in 1800-01.[14] ## References 1. Cunat, p.410 1. Cunat, p.412 1. Cunat, p.411 1. No. 14088. 3 February 1798. p. 111. 1. Gallois, vol.2, p.302-303 1. Gallois, vol.2, p.303 1. Cunat, p.399 1. Cunat, p.413 1. Cunat, p.417 1. Report of Captain Joseph Potier, quoted in Lepelley, p. 143 — 144 1. Cunat, p.418 1. Cunat, p.419 1. Cunat, p.420 1. Charlier, 1991 ## Bibliography - Charlier, Jean-Michel & Hubinon, Victor (1991). *Surcouf - Terreur des mers*. Dupuis. ISBN 978-2800117997. - Cunat, Charles (1857). [*Saint-Malo illustré par ses marins*](https://books.google.com/books?id=W1koAAAAYAAJ) (in French). Imprimerie de F. Péalat. - Gallois, Napoléon (1847). [*Les Corsaires français sous la République et l'Empire*](https://books.google.com/books?id=dVMI4l8LN0gC) (in French). Vol. 2. Julien, Lanier et compagnie. - Lepelley, Roger (2000). *La Fin d'un empire : les derniers jours de l'Isle de France et de l'Isle Bonaparte : 1809 - 1810*. Economica. ISBN 2-7178-4148-2. --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Joseph Potier](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Potier) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Potier?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.