Jean-Jacques Magendie

Jean-Jacques Magendie (Bordeaux, 21 May 1766 - Paris, 26 March 1835) was a French Navy officer. He famously captained the flagship Bucentaure at the Battle of Trafalgar.

Magendie joined the French Royal Navy in 1781 as an apprentice, and later sailed on merchant ships, raising to second captain and distinguishing himself to the point where he was mentioned in a June 1793 meeting of the National Convention. He was brought into Navy service with the rank of ensign and given command of a cutter patrolling off the coasts of England and Ireland.

In 1794, he captained the cutter Ranger, and the corvette Espion from July. On 4 March 1795, the British frigate Lively captured Espion about 13 leagues off Ushant.

Released, Magendie returned to France, where the court-martial acquitted him for the loss of his ship. On 28 September 1795, he married Raimonde Deschazeau.

In March 1796, he was promoted to commander, and in September received the command of the Tartu. He took part in the early stages of the Expédition d'Irlande, but on 5 January 1797, Tartu she was captured by HMS Polyphemus.

Magendie was again taken prisoner. He returned to France in September 1798, and was again cleared of any wrongdoing in the less of his ship. He then served as first officer on the brand new Africaine, under captain Pierre-Félix de Lapalisse. Upon her return, Africaine joined up with Régénérée and was put under the command of captain Saunier. Tasked with ferrying ammunition for the Armée d'Orient.

Split from Régénérée by a storm, Africaine encountered HMS Phoebe, under Captain Robert Barlow, east of Gibraltar. Phoebe, which had the weather gage, overtook Africaine and engaged her at close range, despite the French soldiers, who augmented the frigate's guns with their musket fire. Phoebe's guns inflicted more than 340 casualties on the soldiers and seaman of Africaine before she struck at 9:30PM. Magendie sustained a head injury and was captured for the third time.

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