Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte

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Picquet de la Motte and Louis XVI.

The 1779 "Combat de la Martinique".

Count Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte (born 1 November 1720 in Rennes; died 10 June 1791 in Brest) was a French admiral.

Aged fifteen, he joined the Naval Guards and served in Morocco, the Baltic Sea, the Caribbean Islands and in India. Noted for his strategic skills, he was called to Paris in 1775 to help the Secretary of State prepare the order to reorganise the Navy. In 1778, as a Squadron Commander, he took part in the Battle of Ouessant and then cruised the English seas. During one month, he captured thirteen ships.

During the American Revolutionary War, Picquet de la Motte distinguished himself as a member of Admiral d'Estaing's squadron in Martinique and during the Battle of Grenada and the Siege of Savannah.

On December 18, 1779, he attacked a British squadron under the command of Admiral Hyde Parker that was attempting to blockade a French convoy; such was the success of his action, named the "Combat de la Martinique", that Hyde Parker sent him a letter of congratulation:

The conduct of your Excellency in the affair of the 18th of this month fully justifies the reputation which you enjoy among us, and I assure you that I could not witness without envy the skill you showed on that occasion. Our enmity is transient, depending upon our masters; but your merit has stamped upon my heart the greatest admiration for yourself. ^[1]

In 1781, as commander of a nine-vessel squadron that included three frigates, Picquet de la Motte intercepted the fleet of Admiral Rodney en route to plunder Saint-Eustache. Twenty-six British ships were captured. Soon afterwards he was promoted to Lieutenant General of the Naval Armies.

Picquet de la Motte died in 1791, after fifty-two years of service. Four vessels of the French Navy have been named in his honour, the most recent being the first-rank frigate Lamotte-Picquet.