On the track of
the Aigle...

From mid 1691 to mid 1692, the 300-ton frigate Aigle was built for King Louis XIV (more), in the harbor of Bayonne (more) under the direction of François Arnaud.

 

On August 25, 1692, Messire Louis Bazin de Beson, acting for the King Louis XIV at the Admiralty of Bordeaux, registered the commissioning of the Aigle. The document was sworn before Sieur Moureau, Notary Royal in the city of Bayonne. The investors were as follows :

• 13 861 livres, King Louis XIV

•   3 000 livres, Messire Antoine Charles IV Duc de Gramont, Governor of Bayonne

•   1 500 livres, Messire Claude Louis Hiacinte de Laboulaye, Counselor to the King in Bayonne

•     500 livres, Messire Charles de Planque, Lieutenant of the King in Bayonne.

    Source: AD64 3E4421 (310-313/1030)

 

The Aigle was to make war as a privateer (more), under the command of Sieur Antoine Durtubie (more).

 

On December 10, 1692, Louis Alexandre de Bourbon, Admiral of the French Navy (more), authorized Captain Louis de Harismendy (more) to command and arm the Aigle as a privateer.

 

On June 27, 1693, Louis Alexandre de Bourbon, Admiral of the French Navy authorized Captain Joannis de Suigaraychipy ("Croisic") (more) to command and arm the Aigle as a privateer.

 

On May 26, 1694, a small squadron of four ships sailed from Bayonne to Newfoundland:

• the Gaillard, a 650-ton vessel under command of Captain de Saint Clair (more)

• the Prudent, a 350-ton vessel under command of Jacques Gouin de Beauchesne (more), a privateer from Saint Malo

• the Favory, a 300-ton frigate under command of Captain Louis de Harismendy (more), a privateer from Bayonne

• the Aigle, a 300-ton frigate under command of Captain Joannis de Suhigaraychypy (more), a privateer from Bayonne.

Two surgeons were on board the Aigle, Charles Maynadier and François Tournal. Before sailing across the North Atlantic Ocean, the squadron sailed up the West coast of France from Bayonne to La Rochelle. At La Rochelle, Maynadier disembarked because of illness. He later claimed that Tournal had absconded with his two sea-chests (more).

 

On September 10, 1694, the Aigle was ordered to enter the bay at Ferryland, Newfounland, to fight against the English, led by Captain William Holman (more). It was a fiasco for the French warships (more), resulting in stranding and serious damage to the Aigle, and the death of Captain Suhigaraychipy.

 

On October 13, 1694, the four vessels of the squadron, as escorts of 34 merchant ships, left Plaisance (Placentia, Newfoundland) to return to France during the winter season. The Aigle was under the command of Flag-Captain Duvignau, a Navy officer who had a reputation as a harsh disciplinarian. He kept a logbook of the voyage (more), in which he recorded a difficult and dangerous crossing and the loss of several crew members.

 

On November 16, 1694, the Aigle arrived safely at Bayonne.

 

The Aigle continued in the service of the King of France until it foundered during a storm in Cayenne in 1712.

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