Congo Coast, 1764
1 media/CongoCoast1764_thumb.jpg 2021-08-27T11:00:28-04:00 Matt Robertshaw b17ae2d86131f0de10f5609f41b12fea9cbbd232 101 1 Congo Coast, 1764 plain 2021-08-27T11:00:28-04:00 Matt Robertshaw b17ae2d86131f0de10f5609f41b12fea9cbbd232This page is referenced by:
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2021-08-15T10:10:43-04:00
The Voyage of the Jason (1769-1770)
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Lorient - Cabinda - Cape of Good Hope - Mascarenes - Pondichéry
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2021-08-30T10:27:00-04:00
07/19/1769 - 08/04/1770
The Jason (or Jazon) was a small sailing vessel owned by the Arnous brothers. It had 8 cannons, a crew of 38, and a cargo capacity of 300 tonnes. Under the command of François Deschiens Villfeu, the Jason travelled from Lorient to Puducherry making stops in western and southern Africa and the Mascarene Islands along the way. The ship completed its voyage at Puducherry.
Joséph Tréguier was on board for the duration of this voyage. He is described as a 27-year-old sailor from Lorient earning a wage of 23 livres. This was Tréguier's first voyage on a vessel not owned by the French East India Company, which lost its monopoly trading rights that year. His higher wages were probably a result both of the privatization of the East India trade and of his higher level of experience.
The ship left Lorient in late July 1769. In October it was at Cabinda in West Central Africa, just north of the mouth of the Congo River. This suggests that the ship was a slave vessel, as Cabinda was the fourth most active slave trading port along the African coast and one of the top three for the French slave trade. From here, the Jason carried on to the Cape of Good Hope, and then on to Île de France, where it arrived around 31 March 1770. Here, they likely sold the enslaved Africans they purchased at Cabinda. The ship was at Île de France and Île Bourbon for several months. In June, it departed for Puducherry, where the voyage concluded on 7 August 1770.
It is unclear why the ship ended its voyage in India rather than returning to Europe. Along with eleven of his fellow crew members, Joséph Tréguier transferred onto the Digue four days after disembarking from the Jason. This, as it turned out, was a boon to Tréguier; he was able to earn an additional 3 livres per month, which is the peak of his career in financial terms.
