Hippolyte de Bouchard - Campaign With William Brown

Campaign With William Brown

In 1815 Bouchard started a naval campaign under the command of Admiral William Brown, wherein he attacked the fortress of El Callao and the Ecuadorian city of Guayaquil. On September 12, 1815 he was granted a corsair license to fight the Spanish aboard the French-built corvette Halcón, which had been bought to the Argentine State by Vicente Anastacio Echeverría. Most of the officers were French, except for the second commander, the Englishman Robert Jones, and Ramón Freire. Before weighing anchor a conflict between Bouchard and his superiors arose when the expedition's agent, Severino Prudant, promoted several sailors. Echevarría intervened and settled the conflict.

The campaign fleet was composed of the frigate Hercules under the command of William Brown, the Santísima Trinidad under the command of his brother, Miguel Brown, the schooner Constitución under the command of Oliverio Russell, and the Halcón. The Hércules and Santísima Trinidad set sail from Montevideo on October 24; the other two ships departed five days later. The plan was for all four ships to rendezvous at Mocha Island where they would establish a plan of operation. The Brown brothers arrived at the island on 28 December, with the Halcón arriving the following day. Upon arrival Bouchard announced that while circumnavigating Cape Horn his ship was exposed to fourteen days of severe weather, and it was on that basis that he had concluded that the Constitución had sunk (neither the ship nor its crew were ever seen again). On December 31 Brown and Bouchard agreed to operate together during the first hundred days of 1816. Any plunder would be divided as follows: two parts to Brown, as the commander-in-chief, and one-and-a-half parts each for the Santísima Trinidad and the Halcón. Bouchard and Miguel Brown subsequently set course for the Peruvian coast, while the Hércules sailed to the Juan Fernández Islands in order to free a number of patriots that were being held prisoner there.

On January 10, 1816 the three vessels met again near the fortress of El Callao. The ships formed a blockade and bombarded Guayaquil and its nearby the fortification. The following day the group seized the brigantine San Pablo, which was used to transport sick and injured sailors as well as the liberated prisoners. On the 13th the frigate Gobernadora was captured, and Lt. Colonel Vicente Banegas, officer of the Republican Army of Nueva Granada, joined the fleet. Four more ships were commandeered on the 18th, including the schooner Carmen and the brig Místico along with two other ships, one of which was sacked and sunk. On January 21 the Argentine fleet again attacked the fortress, sinking the frigate Fuente Hermosa in the process. Seven days later two more vessels were captured, the frigates Candelaria and Consecuencia. The next day the expanded fleet sailed north in the search of the Guayas River. On February 7 the Argentine contingent arrived at Puná Island, near Guayaquil. As they arrived, William Brown ordered Bouchard and his brother to stay close to the seven ships they had captured. Brown took the command of the Santísima Trinidad, with which he wanted to attack Guayaquil. The next day his attack demolished the fort of Punta de Piedras, located some five leagues from Guayaquil. However, on 9 February Brown failed in his attempt to take the castle of San Carlos, and was instead captured by the royalist forces. After a long negotiation, the Argentine corsairs traded Brown for the Candelaria, three brigantines and five correspondence chests that had been taken from the Consecuencia.

After three days, Bouchard informed Brown that his ship was close to sinking and that the officers wished to return to Buenos Aires. He then asked for a division of the booty, and received the Consecuencia, the Carmen, and 3,475 pesos as compensation (he had to leave the Halcón behind). Bouchard elected to return to Buenos Aires via Cape Horn, and it was there that new incidents with the crew arose, many of which were solved with violence, such as a duel with one of his sergeants. When an officer on the Carmen notified Bouchard that the ship was in imminent danger of foundering, Bouchard nonetheless ordered the man to continue the journey. As a result, the crew mutinied and headed to the Galápagos Islands. The Consecuencia, with Bouchard still in command, made port in Buenos Aires on June 18.