Admiral Satan The Life and Campaigns of Suffren

9781850436867

185043686X

Nelson admired him. Marie-Antoinette counted him among France's national heroes. The exiled Napoleon sighed for what might have been had his own navy been commanded by someone of like calibre. His lascar sailors feared him as much as they admired him, and nicknamed him 'Admiral Satan'. In an age of remarkable characters, Pierre-Andre de Suffren Saint Tropez, the Bailli de Suffren, was one of the most remarkable: eccentric, irascible, slovenly, gluttonous, possessed of furious energy and lust for battle. He was also the most daring, innovative tactician in France's pre-revolutionary navy. Suffren began his naval career in the service of the Knights of Malta, protecting the Order's shipping against the corsairs of the Barbary coast. Then began the long, slow climb through the ranks of the pre-revolutionary French navy, during which he saw action in the West Indies, ran the blockade during the American war of independence, and was twice taken prisoner by the British, whom he hated ever after. When at last he achieved independent command, this hatred fuelled his determination to beat the British in the Indian Ocean. At stake was France's alliance with Haidar Ali, the shrewd and battle-scarred Nawab of Mysore, and hence control of southern India. Suffren brought all his tactical brilliance and radical innovation to bear: his opponent, the indomitable Admiral Sir Edward Hughes, was no less determined, and the resulting campaign was as fierce as it was evenly balanced, ending only with the declaration of peace in 1783. Suffren returned to France, to be feted and feasted by nobility and populace alike. He ended his life there, having acquired honours and avoirdupois in more or less equal measure. Roderick Cavaliero's is the first English-language biography of this extraordinary man. It is a vivid portrait of an individual and his world, with sharply drawn descriptions of people, places and events - and, of course, the sea battles, with their mingled excitement and danger. Above all, Suffren himself comes to life, with his immense vitality, his volcanic rages, his eccentricities and his matchless understanding of war in his chosen element, the sea.