Jean Bart: This name is certainly evocative for the people of Dunkirk and other maritime history enthusiasts. Parisians may know this curious patronymic through an alley in the sixth arrondissement which adjoins the rue Duguay-Trouin, a few steps from the Luxembourg Gardens.
Jean Bart, one could also say Jan Baert in Flemish style, was the first privateer captain knighted by the Sun King in 1694. For it was he who gave the privateer race its letters of nobility.
A real Dunkirk
The man was born on 21 October 1650 in Dunkirk. At that time, the city was a strategic crossroads for the great European powers. It was at the crossroads of the North Sea and the English Channel, Holland and England. For what makes Jean Bart's singularity is first and foremost his birthplace. Dunkirk is the corsair city par excellence, sometimes Spanish, sometimes Flemish, sometimes English and then French, thanks to Louis XIV who decided to buy the city definitively in 1662. He commissioned Marshal Vauban to turn it into a fortified city, an indispensable port city for the kingdom of France.
A sailor above all
But let's get back to little Jean Bart. From the age of 12, the little capre (privateer) made his first classes on a contraband boat. At the age of 16, it was as a moss that he took part in the epic victory of the Dutch, under the command of Admiral Ruyter, over the English fleet that was retreating at the mouth of the Thames.
Jean Bart is a precocious, determined sailor, of an imposing size, some say more than two metres tall, piercing blue eyes, Nordic blond hair, a pronounced Flemish accent, a harsh temperament, a little angry.
It is these multiple facets that allow him to be a renowned squadron leader, fearsome for his adversaries, not hesitating to take the lead of his men when it comes to boarding and running on an enemy admiral, saber clear.
A man of war
His keen sense of strategy and daring in all circumstances made him a key man for the Royal Navy. As in the Battle of Texel off Amsterdam, a victory that saved France in 1694 from famine. Jean Bart, after an epic battle against an outnumbered Dutch fleet, repatriated to Dunkirk and the port of Le Havre more than 130 ships, all loaded with wheat. France escaped the famine and the court of Louis XIV was fascinated by this sailor, an inveterate pipe smoker with a rustic manner. The colossus Jan Baert becomes the knight Bart.
An incredible escape
Jean Bart also had boldness and courage during his escape from Plymouth where he was imprisoned in 1689. At the Musée de la Marine in Paris, one can admire an engraving where Forbin and Jean Bart escape from the bay of Plymouth by boat. The two companions of misfortune crossed the Channel and its storms to Saint-Malo in only two days. A feat. For Jean Bart is one of those devils of a man who, like the aviator Henri Guillaumet, is capable of confronting nature and the elements in extreme conditions. What Jean Bart achieved during his escape "not a beast would have done it. »
For the anecdote, it is because Dunkirk was a European city, brewed by many languages, that Jean Bart was able to leave Plymouth discreetly. A British building asked him to declare his identity. He replies in perfect English: "Fishermen! "We are fishermen! A magical word that allows him to take the powder of escapism. Because Jean Bart speaks Flemish, Spanish, French and English.
The first in a long line of privateers..
After his death in 1702, the greatest privateer of Dunkirk will have the no less famous Duguay-Trouin and Surcouf as his spiritual descendants. Both of them were malouins, just as daring as their master in privateer racing.
The Dutch admiral who was defeated a few years earlier at Texel by Jean Bart wrote these last words before he expired: "The consolation I have and to have been defeated by heroes. »
An expedition in the footsteps of Jean Bart
And it is in the wake of this illustrious privateer, a distant ancestor of my family, that with Patrick Tabarly and a small crew, we undertook a maritime expedition during the month of September 2020. We'll be scouring the waves of the English Channel with two major ports of call in Dunkirk and Saint-Malo, in the shadow of Jean Bart's victories off the coast of England, and will relive his spectacular escape from the pontoons of Plymouth, which made him the greatest sailor of his time.
Maxime Dalle
