WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.480 Welcome in, everyone. It is so great to have 00:00:02.480 --> 00:00:04.459 you sitting down with us today. Absolutely. It's 00:00:04.459 --> 00:00:07.480 great to be here. So if you are anything like 00:00:07.480 --> 00:00:10.740 me, you love a good historical mystery, especially 00:00:10.740 --> 00:00:13.019 when it turns out to be, you know, a little bit 00:00:13.019 --> 00:00:15.080 absurd. Those are always the best kind. Right. 00:00:15.500 --> 00:00:17.699 So for today's deep dive, our source material 00:00:17.699 --> 00:00:20.079 is actually just a single Wikipedia article. 00:00:20.260 --> 00:00:23.019 Which sounds completely crazy, I know. It does. 00:00:23.339 --> 00:00:26.280 But do not let that fool you. This article details 00:00:26.280 --> 00:00:29.320 the history of ships named Poisson Volant. Which 00:00:29.320 --> 00:00:32.179 is French for flying fish. Exactly. And our mission 00:00:32.179 --> 00:00:35.880 today is to explore the completely chaotic, almost 00:00:35.880 --> 00:00:39.880 comical history of French... privateers operating 00:00:39.880 --> 00:00:42.840 under this wildly popular name between the year 00:00:42.840 --> 00:00:46.299 1760 and 1814. This is a very specific window 00:00:46.299 --> 00:00:49.939 of time. It is. We're going to track down stolen 00:00:49.939 --> 00:00:52.280 ships, thrown guns, and what has to be the most 00:00:52.280 --> 00:00:54.439 confusing maritime identity crisis in history. 00:00:54.700 --> 00:00:56.640 Let's unpack this, because before we start throwing 00:00:56.640 --> 00:00:58.539 around dates and ship names, I need to understand 00:00:58.539 --> 00:01:00.740 the rules of the game here. When we talk about 00:01:00.740 --> 00:01:02.679 these vessels, were these actual French Navy 00:01:02.679 --> 00:01:05.519 ships or something else entirely? What's fascinating 00:01:05.519 --> 00:01:08.969 here is... Well, it's the crucial distinction 00:01:08.969 --> 00:01:13.609 between a formal commissioned naval warship and 00:01:13.609 --> 00:01:16.629 a privateer. If you were sailing in a national 00:01:16.629 --> 00:01:20.189 navy, you were a uniformed military vessel following 00:01:20.189 --> 00:01:23.890 very strict governmental hierarchies. But a privateer 00:01:23.890 --> 00:01:27.409 was essentially a state -sanctioned pirate. Wait, 00:01:27.450 --> 00:01:30.010 state sanctioned? Right. Governments would issue 00:01:30.010 --> 00:01:32.430 official documents granting private ship owners 00:01:32.430 --> 00:01:35.209 the legal right to attack and capture enemy merchant 00:01:35.209 --> 00:01:38.049 vessels. It was purely a for -profit enterprise 00:01:38.049 --> 00:01:40.590 masquerading as warfare. So they were just in 00:01:40.590 --> 00:01:42.909 it for the money. Completely. You equipped a 00:01:42.909 --> 00:01:45.390 ship, hired a crew, and went out hunting for 00:01:45.390 --> 00:01:48.150 prizes. If you succeeded, you and your crew got 00:01:48.150 --> 00:01:50.430 a cut of the profits when the captured ship and 00:01:50.430 --> 00:01:52.849 its cargo were sold at auction. And if you failed? 00:01:52.989 --> 00:01:55.170 You went bankrupt or ended up freezing in a British 00:01:55.170 --> 00:01:58.230 prison. And for some inexplicable reason, the 00:01:58.230 --> 00:02:00.849 name Poisson Volant, the flying fish, became 00:02:00.849 --> 00:02:04.049 the trendy go -to name for these French opportunists. 00:02:04.269 --> 00:02:06.670 So it was essentially the 18th century equivalent 00:02:06.670 --> 00:02:09.210 of naming your tech startup with a missing vowel. 00:02:09.639 --> 00:02:11.599 Everyone just copied the trend, so let's get 00:02:11.599 --> 00:02:14.120 right into the timeline. The earliest sighting 00:02:14.120 --> 00:02:17.219 in our source document takes us to April of 1760. 00:02:17.379 --> 00:02:20.659 Right. The British frigate, A .G .M .S. Levant, 00:02:20.759 --> 00:02:23.680 is on patrol over in the Caribbean. They spot 00:02:23.680 --> 00:02:26.419 an eight -gun French privateer named Poisson 00:02:26.419 --> 00:02:29.099 -Follant to capture it and deliver the vessel 00:02:29.099 --> 00:02:31.479 and her crew to the British authorities in the 00:02:31.479 --> 00:02:34.080 Lourdes Islands. A pretty standard capture. Yeah, 00:02:34.099 --> 00:02:36.599 but when I read eight -gun ship, my mind immediately 00:02:36.599 --> 00:02:39.580 goes to these giant floating wooden fortresses 00:02:39.580 --> 00:02:41.780 from the movies. Yeah. But that's not what this 00:02:41.780 --> 00:02:44.159 was, is it? Not at all. We really have to scale 00:02:44.159 --> 00:02:46.759 down our imagination here. An eight -gun privateer 00:02:46.759 --> 00:02:49.379 was likely a small, incredibly cramped vessel, 00:02:49.740 --> 00:02:52.379 maybe roughly the size of a modern luxury yacht. 00:02:52.500 --> 00:02:54.620 Without the luxury. Entirely lacking the luxury. 00:02:54.680 --> 00:02:57.039 I mean, you are cramming... dozens of men onto 00:02:57.039 --> 00:03:00.500 this tiny deck, along with eight heavy iron cannons, 00:03:00.740 --> 00:03:03.620 gunpowder, provisions, water. It was smelly, 00:03:03.620 --> 00:03:05.919 claustrophobic, and built entirely for speed 00:03:05.919 --> 00:03:08.379 over firepower. Wow. They weren't looking to 00:03:08.379 --> 00:03:10.419 fight the Royal Navy. They were looking to terrorize 00:03:10.419 --> 00:03:13.439 slow, unarmed merchant ships. That paints a much 00:03:13.439 --> 00:03:16.759 grimier picture. And sometimes, even that strategy 00:03:16.759 --> 00:03:19.819 failed miserably. Oh, absolutely. Fast forward 00:03:19.819 --> 00:03:24.539 to December 10th, 1782. The story of this particular 00:03:24.539 --> 00:03:27.219 Poisson Volant, is actually a little bit pathetic. 00:03:27.300 --> 00:03:29.300 It really is. They are just three days out of 00:03:29.300 --> 00:03:31.539 the port of Dunkirk. They have captured absolutely 00:03:31.539 --> 00:03:34.719 nothing. Zero prizes. Nothing at all. And they 00:03:34.719 --> 00:03:37.139 are summarily sunk right off the coast of Portland 00:03:37.139 --> 00:03:39.840 by a ship named Speedwell. Commanded by Captain 00:03:39.840 --> 00:03:42.500 Wesson. Right. And the surviving French crew 00:03:42.500 --> 00:03:45.020 just washes up in Weymouth. It's a remarkably 00:03:45.020 --> 00:03:47.759 short and unsuccessful career. It is a very short 00:03:47.759 --> 00:03:50.259 career. But from a historical and analytical 00:03:50.259 --> 00:03:53.039 standpoint, the identity of the ship that sank 00:03:53.039 --> 00:03:56.080 them is incredibly revealing. How so? Well, the 00:03:56.080 --> 00:03:58.439 source notes that this Speedwell was likely a 00:03:58.439 --> 00:04:01.219 humble customs revenue cutter, not the mighty 00:04:01.219 --> 00:04:03.900 warship. HMS Speedwell. Okay, what's a cutter? 00:04:04.039 --> 00:04:07.280 To picture a cutter, imagine a small, single 00:04:07.280 --> 00:04:10.199 -masted boat built with a very sharp bow to slice 00:04:10.199 --> 00:04:12.340 through the waves. They were essentially the 00:04:12.340 --> 00:04:15.020 maritime border patrol of their day, tasked with 00:04:15.020 --> 00:04:17.420 catching smugglers. And we know this wasn't the 00:04:17.420 --> 00:04:20.360 actual warship HMS Speedwell because that vessel 00:04:20.360 --> 00:04:23.439 was incredibly busy down in Gibraltar under the 00:04:23.439 --> 00:04:25.500 command of a Lieutenant Gibson at that exact 00:04:25.500 --> 00:04:29.060 time. So basically... Heavily armed tax collectors 00:04:29.060 --> 00:04:31.800 were taking down these privateers while the actual 00:04:31.800 --> 00:04:35.060 Royal Navy was busy elsewhere. Precisely. And 00:04:35.060 --> 00:04:37.399 for you listening, this highlights exactly why 00:04:37.399 --> 00:04:40.480 precise naval record keeping matters so much 00:04:40.480 --> 00:04:43.000 when piecing history together. Right. Because 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:45.860 names get duplicated. Exactly. If historians 00:04:45.860 --> 00:04:48.519 just saw a ledger entry saying Speedwell sunk 00:04:48.519 --> 00:04:51.160 a ship, they might attribute a massive naval 00:04:51.160 --> 00:04:53.920 victory to the wrong vessel. Distinguishing between 00:04:53.920 --> 00:04:56.300 a local customs boat and a commissioned warship 00:04:56.300 --> 00:04:58.819 changes the entire context of the engagement. 00:04:59.000 --> 00:05:00.699 It totally rewrites the story. It shows that 00:05:00.699 --> 00:05:02.560 these privateers weren't always going up against 00:05:02.560 --> 00:05:04.699 the titans of the Royal Navy. Sometimes they 00:05:04.699 --> 00:05:06.579 were getting bested by the local Coast Guard. 00:05:06.779 --> 00:05:09.120 Which speaks volumes about how chaotic this whole 00:05:09.120 --> 00:05:12.399 era was. And that chaos just keeps escalating. 00:05:12.459 --> 00:05:15.629 It really does. In 1795 alone, we see a flurry 00:05:15.629 --> 00:05:18.889 of these captures across the globe. In June of 00:05:18.889 --> 00:05:22.709 that year, HMS Weasel and HMS Phaeton team up 00:05:22.709 --> 00:05:25.569 to capture a 10 -gun Poisson Volante right in 00:05:25.569 --> 00:05:28.250 the English Channel. Then, just a few months 00:05:28.250 --> 00:05:31.889 later, on September 30th, HMS Success captures 00:05:31.889 --> 00:05:35.550 a brig named Poisson Volante all the way over 00:05:35.550 --> 00:05:37.930 on the Jamaica Station. And just to clarify the 00:05:37.930 --> 00:05:40.629 terminology for the listener, a brig is a two 00:05:40.629 --> 00:05:43.300 -masted vessel that is square -rigged. Meaning? 00:05:43.360 --> 00:05:45.120 Meaning the sails hang across the ship rather 00:05:45.120 --> 00:05:48.139 than along its length. Brigs required a larger 00:05:48.139 --> 00:05:50.259 crew to manage all that rigging, but they were 00:05:50.259 --> 00:05:52.959 sturdy, agile, and functioned like miniature 00:05:52.959 --> 00:05:56.060 warships. But you touched on the real issue there, 00:05:56.160 --> 00:05:58.480 geographical spread. Right, because we've got 00:05:58.480 --> 00:06:00.199 flying fishes popping up in Europe and flying 00:06:00.199 --> 00:06:01.980 fishes popping up in the Caribbean simultaneously. 00:06:02.540 --> 00:06:05.120 Imagine being an admiralty clerk in London. You 00:06:05.120 --> 00:06:07.439 are receiving dispatch after dispatch from different 00:06:07.439 --> 00:06:09.959 oceans, all reporting the capture of the Poisson 00:06:09.959 --> 00:06:12.009 Blanc. It would be a nightmare. They were likely 00:06:12.009 --> 00:06:14.310 pulling their hair out, trying to figure out 00:06:14.310 --> 00:06:17.230 how one ship was seemingly in two oceans at once, 00:06:17.370 --> 00:06:19.569 before the reality set in that they were just 00:06:19.569 --> 00:06:22.889 dealing with a wildly overused, unoriginal name. 00:06:23.029 --> 00:06:24.560 Well, hold on to that thought about the... Poor 00:06:24.560 --> 00:06:27.300 admiralty clerks. Here's where it gets really 00:06:27.300 --> 00:06:29.660 interesting. The identity crisis is about to 00:06:29.660 --> 00:06:31.959 reach a whole new level of ridiculousness. Oh, 00:06:31.959 --> 00:06:34.199 yes. Let's rewind slightly to that same month, 00:06:34.319 --> 00:06:38.439 June 1795. A British ship named HMS Flying Fish 00:06:38.439 --> 00:06:40.439 is en route to Jamaica when it gets attacked 00:06:40.439 --> 00:06:42.660 and captured by two French privateers. Which 00:06:42.660 --> 00:06:45.180 is a significant loss for the British, losing 00:06:45.180 --> 00:06:47.920 a named vessel to the enemy. Keep that loss in 00:06:47.920 --> 00:06:49.720 the back of your mind as we move forward to May 00:06:49.720 --> 00:06:53.220 4, 1796. We have three British ships sailing 00:06:53.220 --> 00:06:56.790 together. HMS Esperance, HMS Spencer, and HMS 00:06:56.790 --> 00:06:59.110 Bonetta. A solid little fleet. Right. They are 00:06:59.110 --> 00:07:01.290 scanning the horizon, and suddenly they spot 00:07:01.290 --> 00:07:03.750 some suspicious sails. The fleet immediately 00:07:03.750 --> 00:07:07.069 splits up to give chase. Dang it, protocol. HMS 00:07:07.069 --> 00:07:08.870 Spencer breaks off, heading south -southeast, 00:07:09.149 --> 00:07:11.149 and eventually runs down and captures a French 00:07:11.149 --> 00:07:14.250 gun brig called Vulcan. Meanwhile, Esperance 00:07:14.250 --> 00:07:16.209 and Bonetta take a different trajectory. They 00:07:16.209 --> 00:07:18.569 head southwest by west. Exactly. And they chase 00:07:18.569 --> 00:07:20.810 down a schooner that was sailing from OK -2 to 00:07:20.810 --> 00:07:23.839 New York. This is a classic naval pincer movement. 00:07:24.079 --> 00:07:27.180 You divide your forces to secure multiple targets 00:07:27.180 --> 00:07:29.819 so they can't scatter. And it's worth noting 00:07:29.819 --> 00:07:32.500 that a schooner, unlike the square -rigged brig 00:07:32.500 --> 00:07:35.139 we mentioned earlier, is fore -and -aft rigged. 00:07:35.160 --> 00:07:38.060 So the sails are different. Yes, the sails run 00:07:38.060 --> 00:07:40.759 parallel to the length of the ship. This makes 00:07:40.759 --> 00:07:43.379 schooners incredibly maneuverable, especially 00:07:43.379 --> 00:07:46.560 when sailing upwind, which is the perfect design 00:07:46.560 --> 00:07:49.500 for a ship trying to escape capture. Well... 00:07:49.709 --> 00:07:52.350 Their escape plan didn't work. Esperance and 00:07:52.350 --> 00:07:54.449 Bonetta finally catch this fast schooner and 00:07:54.449 --> 00:07:56.889 board it. And guess what the French crew calls 00:07:56.889 --> 00:07:59.829 their ship? The Poisson Volant. The Poisson Volant. 00:07:59.829 --> 00:08:02.490 But wait, the plot twist. The British sailors 00:08:02.490 --> 00:08:04.709 are looking around this captured French schooner, 00:08:04.709 --> 00:08:06.790 taking inventory, and they start recognizing 00:08:06.790 --> 00:08:09.449 the architecture. It's all too familiar. It turns 00:08:09.449 --> 00:08:12.990 out this French privateer Poisson Volant is actually 00:08:12.990 --> 00:08:16.129 the HMS Flying Fish that the French had captured 00:08:16.129 --> 00:08:19.220 the previous year. The audacity is just remarkable. 00:08:19.980 --> 00:08:22.379 The French captured a British ship named Flying 00:08:22.379 --> 00:08:25.560 Fish, literally translated the name into French 00:08:25.560 --> 00:08:28.560 to call it Poisson Volant, and sent it back out 00:08:28.560 --> 00:08:30.480 to sea to fight the British. That's unbelievable. 00:08:31.160 --> 00:08:33.200 But looking closely at the source text about 00:08:33.200 --> 00:08:36.320 this specific chase, we see just how terrifying 00:08:36.320 --> 00:08:38.820 the pursuit actually was. Yeah, let's get into 00:08:38.820 --> 00:08:41.480 that. This captured vessel was commanded by a 00:08:41.480 --> 00:08:43.379 sub -lieutenant who had come over from another 00:08:43.379 --> 00:08:46.100 French ship, the Concorde, just eight or ten 00:08:46.100 --> 00:08:50.460 days prior. And he had a crew of 38 men. During 00:08:50.460 --> 00:08:52.899 the pursuit by the British, this French crew 00:08:52.899 --> 00:08:56.500 actually cut down their own gunnels. The edges 00:08:56.500 --> 00:08:58.399 of the ship? The upper edges of the ship's sides, 00:08:58.480 --> 00:09:00.779 right. And they threw their own cannons overboard. 00:09:01.120 --> 00:09:03.620 I cannot even fathom the sheer panic required 00:09:03.620 --> 00:09:06.019 to do that. Yeah. You have to be absolutely terrified 00:09:06.019 --> 00:09:08.759 to start swinging axes and dismantling your own 00:09:08.759 --> 00:09:11.159 ship while you're actively sailing it. It speaks 00:09:11.159 --> 00:09:13.700 perfectly to the physics of 18th century naval 00:09:13.700 --> 00:09:16.870 pursuits. Weight was everything. If a larger, 00:09:16.929 --> 00:09:19.129 heavily armed British warship was bearing down 00:09:19.129 --> 00:09:21.929 on you, your only defense as a privateer was 00:09:21.929 --> 00:09:25.870 speed. Just run away. Exactly. Every single pound 00:09:25.870 --> 00:09:29.259 mattered. Heaving heavy iron cannons into the 00:09:29.259 --> 00:09:31.220 ocean would instantly lift the hull slightly 00:09:31.220 --> 00:09:34.279 higher in the water, reducing drag. Chopping 00:09:34.279 --> 00:09:36.399 down the wooden gunnels reduced topside weight. 00:09:36.559 --> 00:09:38.600 So they were stripping the car while driving. 00:09:38.740 --> 00:09:41.320 It was a desperate calculation. Sacrifice your 00:09:41.320 --> 00:09:43.860 ability to defend yourself in order to maximize 00:09:43.860 --> 00:09:45.980 your chance to flee. It wasn't just a statistic 00:09:45.980 --> 00:09:49.659 on a page. It was frantic men sweating and fighting 00:09:49.659 --> 00:09:51.740 against physics to survive. And in this case, 00:09:51.759 --> 00:09:54.340 it wasn't enough. No, but it shows just how high 00:09:54.340 --> 00:09:56.639 the stakes were. It brings such a visceral reality 00:09:56.639 --> 00:09:59.480 to the timeline. But you would think the French 00:09:59.480 --> 00:10:01.759 might realize this name was becoming a liability. 00:10:02.460 --> 00:10:05.740 Instead, we move into the 1797, which I can only 00:10:05.740 --> 00:10:08.240 describe as the peak whack -a -mole year for 00:10:08.240 --> 00:10:10.559 the British Navy. It really was. Early in the 00:10:10.559 --> 00:10:13.779 year, HMS Magicien captures not one, but two 00:10:13.779 --> 00:10:17.259 entirely different privateers named Poisson -Vollant. 00:10:17.480 --> 00:10:20.100 Within a single month. Incredible. On January 00:10:20.100 --> 00:10:22.480 13th, they catch one with 12 guns and 80 men. 00:10:22.720 --> 00:10:24.659 Then on February 16th, they catch a completely 00:10:24.659 --> 00:10:27.720 different one with five guns and 50 men. And 00:10:27.720 --> 00:10:29.419 to make it even more confusing, one of these 00:10:29.419 --> 00:10:32.100 wasn't even French. Right. It was Dutch. A Dutch 00:10:32.100 --> 00:10:35.360 privateer operating out of Curacao. If we connect 00:10:35.360 --> 00:10:37.179 this to the bigger picture, it really highlights 00:10:37.179 --> 00:10:39.440 how the privateering industry transcended borders, 00:10:39.740 --> 00:10:42.879 colonies, and nationalities. It wasn't just a 00:10:42.879 --> 00:10:45.399 French phenomenon. The Dutch were engaged in 00:10:45.399 --> 00:10:47.860 it. And as we'll see, the Americans built ships 00:10:47.860 --> 00:10:50.080 for it. So it was global enterprise? Absolutely. 00:10:50.600 --> 00:10:53.480 The name Flying Fish had clearly become synonymous 00:10:53.480 --> 00:10:55.960 with speed and agility across the entire maritime 00:10:55.960 --> 00:10:58.940 world. It was essentially an international brand 00:10:58.940 --> 00:11:01.940 name. Like a franchise. Pretty much. If you were 00:11:01.940 --> 00:11:04.440 seeking investors for your new privateering venture, 00:11:04.740 --> 00:11:07.460 pitching it as the Croissant Volant probably 00:11:07.460 --> 00:11:09.679 sounded like a safe bet to guarantee returns. 00:11:09.899 --> 00:11:12.980 A safe bet that practically guaranteed a British 00:11:12.980 --> 00:11:15.559 warship was going to hunt you down. Which leads 00:11:15.559 --> 00:11:17.860 me to the funniest anecdote of this entire deep 00:11:17.860 --> 00:11:21.919 dive. It is April 4th, 1797. I love this one. 00:11:22.120 --> 00:11:25.000 HMS Tamar, commanded by Captain Sir Thomas Byam 00:11:25.000 --> 00:11:28.120 Martin, is diligently escorting a convoy of ships 00:11:28.120 --> 00:11:30.980 from Barbados to Martinique. They encounter a 00:11:30.980 --> 00:11:33.379 four -gun French privateer out of Guadeloupe, 00:11:33.399 --> 00:11:35.899 manned by a crew of 40. And let me guess the 00:11:35.899 --> 00:11:40.460 name. You guessed it. HMS Tamar captures it and 00:11:40.460 --> 00:11:43.019 brings it into Martinique. But the punchline 00:11:43.019 --> 00:11:45.419 here, which is provided by Captain Martin's own 00:11:45.419 --> 00:11:48.259 biography, is that HMS Tamar had already captured 00:11:48.259 --> 00:11:51.220 this exact same ship earlier that same year. 00:11:51.340 --> 00:11:54.360 Which is just wild. How does a ship just walk 00:11:54.360 --> 00:11:56.440 away from being captured only to get caught by 00:11:56.440 --> 00:11:59.379 the exact same guy a few months later? It sounds 00:11:59.379 --> 00:12:02.860 completely fabricated, but it is a perfect illustration 00:12:02.860 --> 00:12:06.940 of the bizarre circular economy of privateering 00:12:06.940 --> 00:12:09.610 during this era. Let's walk through how this 00:12:09.610 --> 00:12:11.669 actually happened because it was a highly bureaucratic 00:12:11.669 --> 00:12:14.710 process. Okay. Lay it out for us. When HMS Tamar 00:12:14.710 --> 00:12:16.549 captured the ship the first time, they didn't 00:12:16.549 --> 00:12:19.379 just sink it. They sent her into Antigua. In 00:12:19.379 --> 00:12:22.679 Antigua, a British prize court officially condemned 00:12:22.679 --> 00:12:24.700 the ship. And condemned in this context doesn't 00:12:24.700 --> 00:12:26.960 mean they declared it unfit to sail, right? Correct. 00:12:27.039 --> 00:12:30.139 In naval terms, condemnation is the legal process 00:12:30.139 --> 00:12:32.500 of declaring a ship a lawful capture of war. 00:12:32.700 --> 00:12:35.179 Once condemned, the ship was put up for public 00:12:35.179 --> 00:12:37.960 auction and sold as a prize to the highest bidder, 00:12:37.960 --> 00:12:40.100 with the prize money distributed to the British 00:12:40.100 --> 00:12:41.980 crew that captured it. So it's essentially a 00:12:41.980 --> 00:12:45.200 maritime police auction. Exactly. And in this 00:12:45.200 --> 00:12:47.299 case, the buyers sailed their newly purchased 00:12:47.299 --> 00:12:50.720 ship to a neutral island. There, a company of 00:12:50.720 --> 00:12:53.549 speculators essentially the venture capitalists 00:12:53.549 --> 00:12:56.649 of the 18th century, bought the ship. Oh, no. 00:12:56.889 --> 00:12:59.230 They then sailed it right back to French -controlled 00:12:59.230 --> 00:13:02.110 Guadeloupe, got a brand new privateering commission 00:13:02.110 --> 00:13:04.649 from the local government, hired a new crew, 00:13:04.769 --> 00:13:07.549 and sent it right back into the war zone to attack 00:13:07.549 --> 00:13:10.129 British shipping. Only for it to blunder straight 00:13:10.129 --> 00:13:12.250 into the exact same British warship that had 00:13:12.250 --> 00:13:14.389 captured it months earlier. It was an endless 00:13:14.389 --> 00:13:16.970 loop of capture, auction, and recommissioning. 00:13:17.259 --> 00:13:19.740 The sigh that Captain Martin must have let out 00:13:19.740 --> 00:13:21.759 when he looked through his spyglass and saw that 00:13:21.759 --> 00:13:23.840 same ship again. You just know he was thinking, 00:13:23.899 --> 00:13:26.000 didn't I literally just sell you? He had to be 00:13:26.000 --> 00:13:29.399 exhausted by it. Hilarious. But the sheer volume 00:13:29.399 --> 00:13:32.379 of these ships in the summer of 1797 is just 00:13:32.379 --> 00:13:35.759 staggering. Instead of isolated incidents, we 00:13:35.759 --> 00:13:38.120 see a rapid fire string of captures that shows 00:13:38.120 --> 00:13:40.320 the incredible variety of these vessels. Yes, 00:13:40.320 --> 00:13:42.679 they weren't all the same type of ship. Exactly. 00:13:42.840 --> 00:13:46.139 On June 5th, that revenue cutter, Lively, nabs 00:13:46.139 --> 00:13:49.740 a tiny 12 -ton Pras -en -Volant from Nantes right 00:13:49.740 --> 00:13:52.500 off the Isle of Wight. It only had two swivel 00:13:52.500 --> 00:13:55.379 guns and 25 men. To give you a sense of scale, 00:13:55.519 --> 00:13:58.620 a 12 -ton ship is minuscule. Think of something 00:13:58.620 --> 00:14:01.259 roughly the size of a large modern delivery van 00:14:01.259 --> 00:14:03.860 floating on the water. That is incredibly small. 00:14:03.980 --> 00:14:06.539 And swivel guns aren't the massive cannons on 00:14:06.539 --> 00:14:09.100 wooden wheels you see in movies. They were smaller 00:14:09.100 --> 00:14:11.700 anti -personnel weapons mounted on pivots along 00:14:11.700 --> 00:14:14.639 the ship's rails, almost like oversized shotguns 00:14:14.639 --> 00:14:16.399 used to clear an enemy deck before boarding. 00:14:16.580 --> 00:14:19.259 And the customs officer who caught them, a Mr. 00:14:19.299 --> 00:14:21.879 Dubois Smith, noted for the record that they 00:14:21.879 --> 00:14:24.200 hadn't taken a single prize. Not surprising for 00:14:24.200 --> 00:14:26.039 a ship that size. Right. And then just a few 00:14:26.039 --> 00:14:28.679 weeks later, on June 27th, HMS Trent catches 00:14:28.679 --> 00:14:31.159 a brand new lugger out of Havre de Grace over 00:14:31.159 --> 00:14:33.600 near Yarmouth. A lugger is yet another distinct 00:14:33.600 --> 00:14:36.600 type of vessel. They use distinctive asymmetrical 00:14:36.600 --> 00:14:39.620 four -sided sails called lug sails. They were 00:14:39.620 --> 00:14:41.820 heavily favored by smugglers because they offered 00:14:41.820 --> 00:14:44.919 incredible bursts of raw speed across short distances 00:14:44.919 --> 00:14:47.279 like the English Channel. Well, their speed didn't 00:14:47.279 --> 00:14:49.759 save them. But the source notes something really 00:14:49.759 --> 00:14:52.659 strange about this specific lugger. It had a 00:14:52.659 --> 00:14:56.019 crew of 50 men, but 28 of them were missing. 00:14:56.320 --> 00:14:59.179 More than half the crew. Right. They were reportedly 00:14:59.179 --> 00:15:02.350 away manning a brig and a ship. that the Poisson 00:15:02.350 --> 00:15:05.570 Volant had taken as prizes earlier. Wait, why 00:15:05.570 --> 00:15:07.950 is a privateer sailing around a war zone with 00:15:07.950 --> 00:15:10.549 more than half its crew missing? That is the 00:15:10.549 --> 00:15:12.830 great vulnerability of a successful privateer. 00:15:12.830 --> 00:15:14.990 When you capture an enemy merchant ship, you 00:15:14.990 --> 00:15:17.429 can't just tie a rope to it and tow it. You have 00:15:17.429 --> 00:15:19.570 to put your own men, a prize crew, on board to 00:15:19.570 --> 00:15:21.710 sail the captured vessel back to a friendly port 00:15:21.710 --> 00:15:23.860 to be sold. Oh, so you're dividing your workforce. 00:15:24.059 --> 00:15:26.820 Exactly. Every time you win an engagement, you 00:15:26.820 --> 00:15:29.000 weaken your own ship by depleting your crew. 00:15:29.120 --> 00:15:31.840 This brand new Poisson Volant was highly successful 00:15:31.840 --> 00:15:34.720 initially, taking two prizes. But that success 00:15:34.720 --> 00:15:38.120 left them severely undermanned. So when HMS Trent 00:15:38.120 --> 00:15:39.559 finally caught up with them, they threw their 00:15:39.559 --> 00:15:42.340 14 guns overboard to escape. But without enough 00:15:42.340 --> 00:15:45.259 men to effectively work the sails or fight, their 00:15:45.259 --> 00:15:47.419 fate was sealed. So they were literally victims 00:15:47.419 --> 00:15:50.299 of their own success. And the variety of these 00:15:50.299 --> 00:15:53.639 ships just continues. On July 24th of that same 00:15:53.639 --> 00:15:57.659 summer, HMS Concorde captures a four -gun Croissant 00:15:57.659 --> 00:16:00.600 Volant off Cape Finisterre. But this one was 00:16:00.600 --> 00:16:02.620 a little different. It was commanded by a Captain 00:16:02.620 --> 00:16:05.100 Letart, and it was carrying a massive cargo of 00:16:05.100 --> 00:16:07.659 Bordeaux wines to Guadeloupe. This is a crucial 00:16:07.659 --> 00:16:10.679 distinction in the maritime law of the era. Captain 00:16:10.679 --> 00:16:13.559 Letart's ship was not a pure privateer. It was 00:16:13.559 --> 00:16:15.980 operating under a letter of marque. How is that 00:16:15.980 --> 00:16:18.799 different? While the terms are often used interchangeably 00:16:18.799 --> 00:16:21.779 today, historically, a letter of marque was a 00:16:21.779 --> 00:16:24.899 document given to a merchant vessel. Their primary 00:16:24.899 --> 00:16:28.080 mission was commercial, in this case, delivering 00:16:28.080 --> 00:16:30.860 valuable Bordeaux wine to the colonies. So they 00:16:30.860 --> 00:16:32.919 were delivery drivers. Delivery drivers with 00:16:32.919 --> 00:16:34.820 a license to hunt. The letter of marque simply 00:16:34.820 --> 00:16:36.980 gave them the legal right to capture any enemy 00:16:36.980 --> 00:16:38.740 ships they might happen to encounter along the 00:16:38.740 --> 00:16:41.960 way. Letart's actual business plan was to deliver 00:16:41.960 --> 00:16:44.799 the wine first, get paid, and only then use his 00:16:44.799 --> 00:16:47.279 empty ship to cruise as a dedicated privateer 00:16:47.279 --> 00:16:49.240 in the West Indies. It was a side hustle. He 00:16:49.240 --> 00:16:51.059 was going to deliver the wine, then do a little 00:16:51.059 --> 00:16:53.360 light piracy on the weekends. In a manner of 00:16:53.360 --> 00:16:56.539 speaking, yes, but it was a very capable ship. 00:16:56.980 --> 00:16:59.500 Captain Roberts of the Concorde made a pointed 00:16:59.500 --> 00:17:02.860 note in his report. He stated that this Poisson 00:17:02.860 --> 00:17:05.839 Volant was actually faster in light winds than 00:17:05.839 --> 00:17:08.619 his own warship. Wow. He believed it could have 00:17:08.619 --> 00:17:10.660 done considerable mischief if they hadn't managed 00:17:10.660 --> 00:17:12.640 to catch it while it was still under the reach 00:17:12.640 --> 00:17:15.839 of the Concorde's guns. These stories of near 00:17:15.839 --> 00:17:19.079 misses and missing crews are fascinating. But 00:17:19.079 --> 00:17:20.960 we do need to look at the darker side of this 00:17:20.960 --> 00:17:23.910 history. Because our source material also forces 00:17:23.910 --> 00:17:27.230 us to confront the real human cost. Yes, it wasn't 00:17:27.230 --> 00:17:30.450 a game. It wasn't all just throwing cannons overboard 00:17:30.450 --> 00:17:32.630 and outrunning the Coast Guard. Let's look at 00:17:32.630 --> 00:17:36.250 April 9, 1801. A hired armed cutter named Stagg 00:17:36.250 --> 00:17:39.109 is south of Beachy Head when she sights a lugger 00:17:39.109 --> 00:17:42.069 and a brig. A very familiar scenario. The Stagg 00:17:42.069 --> 00:17:43.990 gives chase for an hour and a half and eventually 00:17:43.990 --> 00:17:46.849 captures both. The lugger is a French privateer 00:17:46.849 --> 00:17:49.109 out of Boulogne named Poisson -Voulon, commanded 00:17:49.109 --> 00:17:51.890 by a citizen Jacques -Antoine Head. Now, Citizen 00:17:51.890 --> 00:17:54.309 Head had been a busy man. On a previous cruise, 00:17:54.470 --> 00:17:56.869 he had captured six vessels. So he was experienced. 00:17:57.250 --> 00:18:00.230 Very. And in this engagement with the stag, Head 00:18:00.230 --> 00:18:02.069 doesn't just surrender immediately. He fights. 00:18:02.349 --> 00:18:04.809 And before he finally strikes his colors, two 00:18:04.809 --> 00:18:07.369 of his men are killed and four wounded. And just 00:18:07.369 --> 00:18:10.049 to clarify, striking his colors literally means 00:18:10.049 --> 00:18:12.690 the physical act of hauling down the ship's flag 00:18:12.690 --> 00:18:15.569 to signal a formal surrender and stop the slaughter. 00:18:16.240 --> 00:18:18.339 But this raises an important question for you, 00:18:18.380 --> 00:18:20.819 the listener, as you process this history. It 00:18:20.819 --> 00:18:24.059 is very easy to get swept up in the romanticism 00:18:24.059 --> 00:18:26.799 of the era, the almost comical repetition of 00:18:26.799 --> 00:18:29.240 the names and the bureaucratic absurdity of the 00:18:29.240 --> 00:18:32.059 prize courts. But we must remember the deadly 00:18:32.059 --> 00:18:34.400 reality of these skirmishes. People were dying. 00:18:34.599 --> 00:18:36.920 Picture the scene. Cannonballs splintering the 00:18:36.920 --> 00:18:39.559 wooden decks into lethal shrapnel. Close quarters 00:18:39.559 --> 00:18:42.140 musket fire. The utter lack of modern medical 00:18:42.140 --> 00:18:45.269 care. Two men died on that deck. Four suffered 00:18:45.269 --> 00:18:48.130 likely horrific wounds. This wasn't a gentleman's 00:18:48.130 --> 00:18:50.829 game of maritime tag. It was a bloody high stakes 00:18:50.829 --> 00:18:53.769 business driven by greed, nationalism and desperation. 00:18:54.509 --> 00:18:57.769 The name Poisson Ballant might sound light and 00:18:57.769 --> 00:19:00.049 whimsical, but the men sailing under it were 00:19:00.049 --> 00:19:02.970 engaged in lethal combat. That grounds the whole 00:19:02.970 --> 00:19:05.940 story in reality. Behind every one of these ledger 00:19:05.940 --> 00:19:08.819 entries is a very real, very dangerous human 00:19:08.819 --> 00:19:11.279 experience. But as we bring our timeline to a 00:19:11.279 --> 00:19:14.140 close, the universe seems to insist on one final 00:19:14.140 --> 00:19:16.859 moment of absolute irony. It really is perfect. 00:19:17.119 --> 00:19:21.579 We move to mid -1803. A massive British squadron, 00:19:21.599 --> 00:19:24.200 we're talking major warships here, Cumberland, 00:19:24.339 --> 00:19:26.980 Hercule, Bellerophon, Elephant, and Vanguard, 00:19:27.160 --> 00:19:29.619 all under the command of Captain Henry William 00:19:29.619 --> 00:19:32.230 Bainton. An overwhelming force. Truly. And this 00:19:32.230 --> 00:19:35.130 massive force surrounds and captures a 12 -gun 00:19:35.130 --> 00:19:37.990 Poisson Volant. And this final capture ties the 00:19:37.990 --> 00:19:40.529 entire narrative together so perfectly. This 00:19:40.529 --> 00:19:42.789 last Poisson Volant wasn't even French -built. 00:19:42.910 --> 00:19:45.990 It was a sleek, fast, American -built schooner 00:19:45.990 --> 00:19:47.990 that the French had somehow acquired and were 00:19:47.990 --> 00:19:50.130 using as a privateer. And what did the British 00:19:50.130 --> 00:19:52.670 do upon capturing this fast, American -built, 00:19:52.710 --> 00:19:55.470 French -sailed ship named Flying Fish? They officially 00:19:55.470 --> 00:19:57.450 commissioned her right back into the Royal Navy, 00:19:57.630 --> 00:20:00.539 her new name. HMS Flying Fish. They literally 00:20:00.539 --> 00:20:03.819 translated right back. The French stole HMS Flying 00:20:03.819 --> 00:20:06.480 Fish and named it Poisson Volant. And years later, 00:20:06.559 --> 00:20:08.440 the British capture an American -built Poisson 00:20:08.440 --> 00:20:11.700 Volant and name it HMS Flying Fish. The historical 00:20:11.700 --> 00:20:14.019 loop closes perfectly. So what does this all 00:20:14.019 --> 00:20:16.839 mean? We started with this single Wikipedia article 00:20:16.839 --> 00:20:19.200 and uncovered a world where it seemed like half 00:20:19.200 --> 00:20:21.039 the French coastline was trying to cram onto 00:20:21.039 --> 00:20:23.920 ships. named the Flying Fish. It was a crowded 00:20:23.920 --> 00:20:27.099 sea. We saw vessels stolen, renamed, captured, 00:20:27.519 --> 00:20:30.299 sold at auction to venture capitalists, and sent 00:20:30.299 --> 00:20:32.460 right back out to fight the very people who sold 00:20:32.460 --> 00:20:35.380 them. We saw frantic crews sawing their own ships 00:20:35.380 --> 00:20:38.440 apart to escape, and we saw the very fatal consequences 00:20:38.440 --> 00:20:41.539 of this chaotic oceanic free -for -all. For you 00:20:41.539 --> 00:20:43.140 listening to this, I think there's a profound 00:20:43.140 --> 00:20:46.420 parallel here to our modern world. Think about 00:20:46.420 --> 00:20:49.559 the chaotic information environment of the 18th 00:20:49.559 --> 00:20:51.779 century seas that we just described. British 00:20:51.779 --> 00:20:54.400 admirals were bombarded with overlapping data, 00:20:54.539 --> 00:20:57.119 duplicate names and contradictory reports from 00:20:57.119 --> 00:20:59.539 different oceans, struggling to figure out who 00:20:59.539 --> 00:21:01.440 was who and what was actually happening. It sounds 00:21:01.440 --> 00:21:05.259 like my inbox. Exactly. Does that feeling of 00:21:05.259 --> 00:21:08.319 information overload, of overlapping and confusing 00:21:08.319 --> 00:21:11.309 data feel familiar to you today? Whether you 00:21:11.309 --> 00:21:13.609 are navigating your own field of study, managing 00:21:13.609 --> 00:21:16.650 a massive project at work, or just reading the 00:21:16.650 --> 00:21:20.069 morning news, we often face our own fleet of 00:21:20.069 --> 00:21:23.019 poissons volants. Multiple things demanding our 00:21:23.019 --> 00:21:25.819 attention, all looking the exact same, all requiring 00:21:25.819 --> 00:21:29.019 us to dig much deeper to find the actual truth 00:21:29.019 --> 00:21:31.319 beneath the surface. We are all just trying to 00:21:31.319 --> 00:21:33.599 figure out which flying fish is which. Exactly. 00:21:33.700 --> 00:21:35.839 As we wrap up this deep dive, I want to leave 00:21:35.839 --> 00:21:38.680 you with one final provocative thought to mull 00:21:38.680 --> 00:21:41.079 over on your own. We've talked about the tactical 00:21:41.079 --> 00:21:42.980 and economic reasons these ships were out there, 00:21:43.079 --> 00:21:45.420 but put yourself in the shoes of an 18th century 00:21:45.420 --> 00:21:48.000 sailor for a second. A very dangerous job. These 00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:49.900 were deeply superstitious people. If you were 00:21:49.900 --> 00:21:52.359 heading out to sea in the... year 1800. Knowing 00:21:52.359 --> 00:21:55.180 full well the history we just discussed, would 00:21:55.180 --> 00:21:57.440 naming your ship the Flying Fish be considered 00:21:57.440 --> 00:21:59.900 a powerful omen of incredible speed and luck? 00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:02.660 Or a massive target. Exactly. Given how many 00:22:02.660 --> 00:22:05.119 of them ended up captured, sunk, or sold at auction, 00:22:05.279 --> 00:22:07.740 would it be viewed as a cursed target, practically 00:22:07.740 --> 00:22:10.599 begging the British Navy to hunt you down? It 00:22:10.599 --> 00:22:11.900 really makes you wonder about the psychology 00:22:11.900 --> 00:22:14.539 of the men painting that name on the hull one 00:22:14.539 --> 00:22:16.539 more time. Thank you so much for joining us on 00:22:16.539 --> 00:22:18.559 this deep dive. We will catch you on the next 00:22:18.559 --> 00:22:18.720 one.