Hippolyte de Bouchard - Later Life

Later Life

In 1820 Bouchard was in Perú serving with the Chilean navy. In December of that year he requested José de San Martín, who had been named Protector of Peru, to be allowed to return to Argentina due to his economic situation. San Martín ordered him to stay in Lima for four months more.

When Lord Cochrane took the money stored in the warships he commanded to compensate the wages he did not receive, San Martín decided to fight against him. He created the Peruvian Navy and Bouchard was given the frigate Prueba, captured to the Royalists in Callao. Cochrane complained again and Tomás Guido asked him to protest to the Chilean government and ordered Bouchard to be ready to fight if the Scottish admiral decided to attack the Peruvian fleet. Bouchard confronted Cochrane at sea, to the point of challenging him to a single duel; however, the Chilean Admiral refused to fight and sailed back to Valparaíso.

After the incident, he continued to sail in Peruvian waters commanding the Santa Rosa, because Consecuencia had to be sold as firewood. Santa Rosa would end up being burned during the El Callao rebellion of 1824. Bouchard would also participate, in 1828, in the war against Gran Colombia. After the death of the Admiral Martín Jorge Guise, he was in charge of the Peruvian Navy, but he would retire one year later, after the loss of the ensign ship, Presidente.

During his retirement he decided to live in the properties that had been given to him by the Peruvian Government, San Javier y San José de la Nazca, near Palpa. He established a sugar mill. A long time ago he had lost contact with his family: after the expedition with Brown he had lived with his wife only ten months, and he never knew his younger daughter who was born after the beginning of the expedition around the world. He was killed by one of his servants on January 4, 1843.

In his adopted country of Argentina, Bouchard is revered as a patriot and several places (one being a street in downtown Buenos Aires close to the waterfront) are named in his honor. One of the Argentine Navy's former US destroyers (which saw service during the Falklands War) was named ARA Bouchard.

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