The first reports of a gruesome disaster reached Paris on 5 September 1816. A French frigate, the Medusa, had run aground on the notorious and poorly mapped Arguin Bank off the coast of West Africa. It was the flagship of a small expedition sent to repossess the settlement of Senegal, which had been handed back to the French by the Treaties of Paris (1814 and 1815). The captain, Hugues Duroy de Chaumareys, was, in Jonathan Miles's words, 'a rusty relic from the Ancien Régime who had not put to sea for about a quarter of a century'. When it ran aground, the Medusa had become separated from the rest of the expedition. There wasn't enough room in its longboats and barges for all the passengers and crew, so a raft was fashioned from some of the wreckage. It was about a quarter of the size of the Medusa's main deck. One hundred and forty-seven people were put on the raft, which was to be towed by the other boats. The leading boat contained Captain Chaumareys, who had smartly abandoned ship before the evacuation was complete.

LRB 5 July 2007 | PDF Download