18th C Indian Ocean VoyagesMain MenuThe Voyage of the Prince de ContiFollow a French East India Company voyageLascarsSouth Asian sailors on the Prince de ContiThe Grim Side of SailingDeath and Disease on the Prince de ContiClimbing the LadderFollow the career trajectories of skilled sailorsMath and Science at SeaSailors' homework on the Prince de ContiAlong for the ridePassengers on the Prince de ContiMargaret Schottef1cf1ba52c6ad9ac71dc2f31f540ecfd6f863db2Matt Robertshawb17ae2d86131f0de10f5609f41b12fea9cbbd232
Ruins of Pondichéry, 1769
12021-08-02T13:12:57-04:00Matt Robertshawb17ae2d86131f0de10f5609f41b12fea9cbbd2321011Ruins of Pondichéry, 1769plain2021-08-02T13:12:57-04:00Matt Robertshawb17ae2d86131f0de10f5609f41b12fea9cbbd232
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1media/banniere_navire.jpg2021-07-22T13:27:45-04:00Pondichéry (Puducherry)40Port in South Asiagoogle_maps2021-08-20T11:15:46-04:0009/02/1754 - 09/11/175411.916667, 79.816667 The Prince de Conti was at Pondichéry 2-11 September 1754.
At Pondichèry, the French and German military unit disembarked along with several others. Altogether 122 people—almost half of those on board—remained in Pondichéry when the Prince de Conti continued on its way to Kolkata.
One noteworthy individual who disembarked at Pondichéry was a fifteen-year-old from Saint-Malo named Jean François Honoré Lavigne (n° 267). According to the rôle, Lavigne got on the wrong boat at Lorient. It seems he had intended to be on the Duc d'Orléans. He appears on its rôle where he is listed as staying behind in Lorient. As we have seen, the two ships actually crossed paths again at Madagascar, so one wonders why Lavigne didn't correct his mistake and change shipsas Joséph Tréguier had done.
There is no clear record of Lavigne leaving Pondichéry. Interestingly, however, there is a slim possibility that he ended up on the Duc d'Orléans after all. A few weeks after Lavigne disembarked from the Prince de Conti at Pondichéry, the Duc d'Orléans arrived at the same port. The Governor General of French India, Joséph François, marquis Dupleix, then boarded the Duc d'Orléans for his return to Europe. (In the midst of ongoing clashes with the British, Dupleix had been replaced after serving in the role for twelve years. This transition marked the end of French expansion in India). For his return voyage, Dupleix took along an entourage of seventeen servants, slaves and other attendants, including a guard named La Vigne (n° 717). Is it possible that Dupleix hired the young Lavigne and arranged for his return to Europe? Whether or not it was the same Lavigne, he showed the same penchant for drifting. The Duc d'Orléans stopped at Île Bourbon on its way back to France, but when Dupleix and the rest of his entourage carried on, La Vigne stayed behind. Four months later, he ended up boarding another ship, the Bourbon, and returning to Pondichéry.
12021-08-13T12:25:29-04:00Pondichéry, 1758-17619plain2021-08-13T13:37:23-04:0005/01/1758 - 01/15/176111.916667, 79.816667According to the Dauphin rôle, Tréguier was in Pondichéry from 1 May 1758 to 15 January 1761—almost three years. This would put him in the town during the British siege of Pondichéry, from September 1760 to January 1761.
He drops from the record for six years after he supposedly left Pondichéry in January 1761. It is not clear how he returned to Europe. Perhaps he made his way back to France with the military or displaced civilians after the Siege. Perhaps he boarded a non-FEIC ship and so isn't in the company records. In any case, he was back in Lorient by 1767 when he once again appears on a FEIC rôle for the voyage of the Paix (1767-1768).