The Voyage of the Ville de Lorient (1774)
The Ville de Lorient was a small sailing vessel owned by Messrs Ménard and Piquet. It had 2 cannons, a crew of 29, and a cargo capacity of 150 tonnes. Under the command of Mathurin-Louis Puren de Keraudrin, the Ville de Lorient left Lorient for India in winter 1774, but was instead sold at Île de France (Mauritius).
A Joseph Treguyer is listed on the voyage. He is described as a 34-year-old sailor from Lorient with a small stature and chestnut hair. His father's name is listed as Joseph. He earned a wage of 24 livres. There is no record of where he disembarked, but presumably he ended up at Île de France.
The Ville de Lorient left Lorient for India sometime after 4 February 1774. The voyage records are scant, but it seems that the ship only made it as far as Île de France, where it was sold on 13 July 1774. Apparently, documentation was growing spottier and traditional voyage patterns were changing with the shift to a private East India trade.
Here, Tréguier disappears from the record for almost three years. He may have made his way back to Europe, or perhaps carried on to Asia on a different vessel. In any case, nearly three years later he was in Chandannagar, where he was hired onto another ship, the Ville d'Archangel.
