François Leconte

Its life

He goes down from two old families Normans, its back paternal grandfather was lawyer in Cherbourg and was assassinated while going to one of its customers with Tourlaville. As for its maternal ancestors, they result from one of the most former families of the middle-class of Cherbourg. Several members of this family were sailors and died of violent death at sea; his/her older brother perishes drowned in the port of Carteret and his younger brother in the estuary of the the Gironde.

Since 1808, François Leconte embarks like beginner on a launch drain-hole and escapes with a first shipwreck in the Manche. In 1811, it crosses Napoleon in Cherbourg and attends the major rehandling of the navy which the Emperor orders. In 1812, it becomes sign of crystallized vessel and one him the command of the company of the Dutch conscripts. Appointed lieutenant in 1814, it takes part in the Napoleonean battles. It embarks then for various missions with Saint-Domingue (it will write a report on this island in 1837), with Newfoundland, the the Antilles, in Guyana, with the Denmark, in Russia, with the Portugal, in Tunisia, Italy, with Malta, Haiti, Cuba, the Brésil, in India, with Sumatra, Tahiti, etc In addition to its missions in military matter, Leconte will seek the island Hunter without success and will be convinced of its inexistence, it will give also some scientific precise details on the New Caledonia.

Its work

He is the author of only one work, picturesque Mémoires of a naval officer , published with Brest, at Pontois, in 1851, 2 volumes. Written in a clear style, sometimes enjoué, this work is the exact account of its missions around the sphere. Because it is not satisfied with exclusively maritime descriptions, but because it evokes the daily newspaper of each dignitary who receives it, Leconte is an invaluable witness of the state of the Aristocracy throughout the world in first half of the 19th century. For this reason, it does not fear to mix the anecdotic memory with the historical facts.

Sources

picturesque Memories of a naval officer , Brest, Pontois, 1851,2 volumes.

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