On this day, July 2nd, of 1816, the French frigate Medusa, bound for the Senegalese port colony of Saint Louis was under the command of the incompetent royalist captain Hugo de Chaumareys.
One hundred and forty-seven men and one woman were herded onto a makeshift raft. Mayhem, mutiny and murder ensued. Fifteen survived.
"Through inept navigation of her captain, an émigré given command for political reasons but incompetent as a naval officer, Méduse struck the Bank of Arguin and became a total loss. The 400 people on board had to evacuate, with 151 men on an improvised raft towed by the frigate's launches. When the launches gave up and left the raft behind, a terrible ordeal developed."
French frigate M duse 1810 - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia
"...Théodore Géricault painted his Raft of the Medusa, which became an icon of French Romanticism."
Ibid.
The opposing emotions can be seen at both ends of the raft.....
One hundred and forty-seven men and one woman were herded onto a makeshift raft. Mayhem, mutiny and murder ensued. Fifteen survived.
"Through inept navigation of her captain, an émigré given command for political reasons but incompetent as a naval officer, Méduse struck the Bank of Arguin and became a total loss. The 400 people on board had to evacuate, with 151 men on an improvised raft towed by the frigate's launches. When the launches gave up and left the raft behind, a terrible ordeal developed."
French frigate M duse 1810 - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia
"...Théodore Géricault painted his Raft of the Medusa, which became an icon of French Romanticism."
Ibid.
The opposing emotions can be seen at both ends of the raft.....
