Jean-François Hodoul

Jean-François Hodoul (1766–1835) was a sea captain, corsair, and later merchant and plantation owner in Île de France (now Mauritius).

Origins

Hodoul was born on 11 April 1765 La Ciotat, Provence. His father, Raymond, was a charcutiere; his mother was Geneviève Cauvin. He left for Fracnes colonies in the Indian Ocean at the age of 24, and arrived at Mauritius in 1789, on board Scipion. (Other sources state that he arrived there on 12 April 1790, the day after his 25th birthday.

He rapidly became a sea captain. By 1791 he was master of Deux Sœurs. Two years later, he was master of the brig Succès. During this period he transported slaves from Africa to the Indian Ocean colonies of Île de France and Île Bourbon (Réunion).

Privateer

In 1793 the French Revolutionary Wars broke out, and with them a battle in the Indian Ocean between Britain and France. In 1794 captured him and his brig Olivette when the British entered Mahé, Seychelles, capturing the colony. The now British colony retained Olivette for its government's purposes.

In June 1794 he married the 16-year old Mairie Corantine Olivette Jorre de St Jorre, daughter of a wealthy local merchant, shortly after he had started his privateering adventures.

In 1796 Hodoul went to see again as an enseigne de vaisseau aboard the privateer Entreprise. The he sailed aboard Pichegrue, a recently captured British vessel. In her she sailed to India. On 17 February 1797 Hodoul arrived at Port Louis with the British vessel Castor, of 150 tons (bm), which Pichegrue had captured in January at Visakhapatnam.

In May he received his first privateer command, Apollon, of ten guns and six obusiers. He sailed 1 May 1797 he sailed from Port Louis for the Malabar Coast. There he captured the ship Eliza, of three masts and 350 tons (bm), herself a former French vessel. Six days later he rescued seven slaves aboard a British vessel whose crew had abandoned it after a storm. A few days later, on 17 May, he captured Edroussi, a small British vessel.

Three days after that he was at Koringa, where he captured Macroy (or Macoroy). Her crew escaped in a chaloupe, with Hodoul in pursuit. They landed on a beach and fled inland, abandoning a chest full of pearls.

On 15 September Hodoul captured Bader Bux as she sailed from Moka towards Surat. She turned out to be his most valuable prize as she was carrying 3732 gold ecus, some piastres, 296 gold sequins, and a quantity of pearls. On 30 October, while sailing back to Mauritius, Hodoul capture Laurel. While still returning, on 9 November he captured both Trayalle and Harrington. The total value of the prizes from his cruise on Apollon was 703,479,803 francs.

Hodoul sold his half-share in Apollon to the corsair LaVaillant. LaVaillant left Mauritius on 22 August 1798 and captured a valuable Portuguese vessel. However, on 10 November (French records), or 24 October (British records), HMS Leopard captured Apollon off Mombasa and carried her crew to the Comoro Islands.

In June 1799 Marie Corantine Olivette gave birth to a son, Raymond. On 28 November the privateer Général Malartic, Jean-Marie Dutertre, master, captured the bBritish vessel Surprise near Madras. He took Surprize's crew to the Seychelles from where Hodoul, in Success, took them to Mauritius; they arrived on 28 January 1800.

Hodoul next purchased Uni, a large vessel armed with 22 guns and eighteen 4-pounder obusiers and four 9-pounde obusiers. She had come from Nantes in 1798 and already had two cruises to her credit, both under the command of François Lemême. Hodoul sailed on 15 May 1800 with a crew of 220 men. Off Ste. Anne he captured the British privateer Henriette (or Harriot, from Capetown), of eight guns under the command of Captain White. In July Hodoul capture Helen, which was carrying 80,000 piastres. Then at the beginning of August he captured Friendship. However, on 5 August HMS Arrogant captured Uni and Hodoul after a chase during which Hodoul had almost all of her guns thrown overboard in an attempt to lighten her to gain speed. Captain Edward O. Osborne, of Arrogant, reported that Uni had left Mauritus with 250 men, and that she had 216 on board when captured, the rest being away on prizes. When the British first sighted Uni she had been in company with another ship, and a brig. Osborne set out after the ship, which turned out to be Friendship, and which he recaptured early that night. The brig escaped; she was the Bee, from Madras sailing to Masulipatnam. Hodoul had captured both Friendship and Bee that morning.

The British took their prizes to Madras. From there the British transferred Hodoul to Fort William (Calcutta).

Hodoul remained a prisoner until the Treaty of Amiens (1802), ended hostilities. After his release Hodoul settled on Mahe Island of the Seychelles. Here he became a wealthy businessman and plantation owner in the Seychelles, where he introduced cacao cultivation. He was particulalry successful in the sugar and rum industries, and in cotton and coffee growing. He did not fully leave the see as he built and owned several small ships that traded between the Seychelles and Mauritius.

Hodoul then settled definitely in Seychelles he was much involved in agriculture and naval constructions. He built the petit Port and Le Grand Chantier at Mahé. As a planter he successfully introduced cacao, and made his fortune with his sugar and rum industry, cotton and coffee plantations. He was a man of evenhandedness and very kind to his slaves especially to his daughters and sons in law.

At his wife's behest, Hodoul employed the exiled Jacobin architect Antoine Jean-Baptise Le Franc to build Château Mammelles, which is now the oldest building in the Seychelles. The British Authorities later used Hodoul's second large house, Ma Constance, to house the exiled Sultan of Perak.

Hodoul died at Mahé on 10 January 1835. His tomb bears the incription "Il fut juste".

Legacy

Today in the harbor of Victoria, there is a small islet named Hodoul Island in his honor. Legend has it that Hodoul's treasure is buried on Silhouette Island, northwest of Mahé.

Notes, citations, and references

Notes

Citations

References

• Demerliac, Alain (2003). Nomenclature des navires français (in French). Vol. 1792–1799. Nice: Éditions A.N.C.R.E.
• Gallois, Napoléon (1847). Les Corsaires français sous la République et l'Empire (in French). Vol. 2. Julien, Lanier et compagnie.
• Malleson, George Bruce (1878) Final French Struggles in India and on the Indian Seas: Including an Account of the Capture of the Isles of France and Bourbon, and Sketches of the Most Eminent Foreign Adventurers in India Up to the Period of that Capture : with an Appendix Containing an Account of the Expedition from India to Egypt in 1801. (W.H. Allen).
• Piat, Denis (trans: Mervyn North-Coombes) (2007) Pirates and Corsairs in Mauritius. (Christian le Comte). ISBN 978-99949-905-3-5

Sources

• Silhouette Island (Seychelles)