Hippolyte or Hipolito Bouchard was a French-born Argentine sailor and corsair who fought for Argentina, Chile, and Peru.
46 Facts About Hippolyte Bouchard
2.
Hippolyte Bouchard met the local ruler, King Kamehameha I His forces occupied Monterey, California, then a Spanish colony, raised the Argentine flag and held the town for six days.
3.
Toward the end of the voyage Bouchard raided Spanish ports in Central America.
4.
Hippolyte Bouchard initially worked in the French merchant fleet, then served in the French Navy in their campaigns against the English, thus starting his life at sea.
5.
In March 1812 Hippolyte Bouchard joined the Mounted Grenadiers Regiment led by Jose de San Martin and took part in the Battle of San Lorenzo in 1813, where he captured a Spanish flag and therefore was granted Argentine citizenship.
6.
In 1815 Hippolyte 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.
7.
On 31 December Brown and Hippolyte Bouchard agreed to operate together during the first hundred days of 1816.
8.
Hippolyte Bouchard then asked for a division of the booty, and received the Consecuencia, the Carmen, and 3,475 pesos as compensation.
9.
Hippolyte 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.
10.
Hippolyte Bouchard decided to stay with the frigate Consecuencia for his next campaign.
11.
When Hippolyte Bouchard discovered this he ordered the sailor's arrest, provoking general unrest.
12.
Two days later La Argentina headed to Ensenada de Barragan, which started rumors flying that Hippolyte Bouchard had deserted the service.
13.
On 9 July 1817 Hippolyte Bouchard set out from Ensenada de Barragan in command of La Argentina on a two-year voyage, intending to travel across the Atlantic to the African coast in order to circumnavigate around the Cape of Good Hope and engage a fleet of ships operated by the Company of the Philippines that had sailed from Spain to India.
14.
Hippolyte Bouchard convened a "war council" to judge the prisoners, sentencing all of them to death, save for the youngest.
15.
Hippolyte Bouchard arrived in the archipelago on January 2,1818, and remained there for five days.
16.
Hippolyte Bouchard attempted to hide his origin, but the frigate's captain discerned what his true intentions were and warned the Spanish authorities of his intentions.
17.
Hippolyte Bouchard instead began to plunder nearby vessels, all the while staying clear of the Spanish cannons.
18.
The Argentine frigate was unable to approach the harbor because of its draft, so Hippolyte Bouchard ordered Sommers, Greissac and Van Buren to use three boats to capture the ship.
19.
Hippolyte Bouchard wanted to revenge the deaths, but in order to capture the brigantine he needed a vessel with a smaller stern.
20.
Once captured, Hippolyte Bouchard put a number of cannons in her.
21.
Hippolyte Bouchard placed Greissac and Oliver in command of her with 35 sailors.
22.
Hippolyte Bouchard hired Peter Corney to captain the Santa Rosa, a captured ship whose crew had mutinied.
23.
The Filipinos who settled in San Blas were escapees from Spanish slavery in the Manila Galleons, upon meeting Hippolyte Bouchard who worked for the Argentinians that revolted against Spain, the common grievance the Filipinos shared against the Spaniards, which they shared with the Argentines caused them to mutiny and join the rebel Argentines.
24.
Hippolyte Bouchard decided to chase the frigate, which they found becalmed.
25.
Hippolyte Bouchard ordered Sheppard to take a rowboat to ask the frigate's commander for information about the ship in the Hawaiian harbor.
26.
Hippolyte Bouchard traded his sword and commanders hat, along with an honorific title of Lieutenant Colonel of the United Provinces.
27.
Hippolyte Bouchard recruited Peter Corney, who put in charge of the corvette Santa Rosa.
28.
Hippolyte Bouchard met with his officers to design the attack plan.
29.
Once it was out of range, Hippolyte Bouchard sent captain Sheppard to the Santa Rosa, leading two hundred soldiers, carrying firearms and lances.
30.
Hippolyte Bouchard was told the family had strongly supported the Spanish cause.
31.
Hippolyte Bouchard waited for them the whole day, because he thought they were lost, until he decided to burn the farm and go to Mission Santa Barbara, where the three men could have been taken as prisoners.
32.
Threats annoyed Hippolyte Bouchard; he sent one hundred men to take the town.
33.
The officer reported there was no relevant ship nearby, and Hippolyte Bouchard decided to sail on.
34.
Hippolyte Bouchard burned the brig San Antonio and the schooner Lauretana, because their owners had not offered enough money for them, 30,000 and 20,000 duros respectively.
35.
Hippolyte Bouchard demanded that his surgeon heal the wounded, but the Chilean corsair decided to go away.
36.
Hippolyte Bouchard went to Valparaiso, in Chile in order to collaborate with Jose de San Martin's campaign to liberate Peru.
37.
Some historians, for example Miguel Angel de Marco, suggest that the flags of the United Provinces of Central America and most of the states that composed it were inspired by the Argentine Flag that Hippolyte Bouchard took with him.
38.
On 9 July 1819, exactly two years after Hippolyte Bouchard left Buenos Aires, the Santa Rosa and the Maria Sofia arrived to Valparaiso.
39.
Hippolyte Bouchard was informed that Thomas Cochrane had ordered his arrest.
40.
In 1820 Hippolyte Bouchard was in Peru serving with the Chilean navy.
41.
Hippolyte Bouchard created the Peruvian Navy and Bouchard was given the frigate Prueba, captured by the Royalists in Callao.
42.
Cochrane complained again and Tomas Guido asked him to protest to the Chilean government and ordered Hippolyte Bouchard to be ready to fight if the Scottish admiral decided to attack the Peruvian fleet.
43.
Hippolyte 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 Valparaiso.
44.
Hippolyte Bouchard would participate, in 1828, in the war against Gran Colombia.
45.
Hippolyte Bouchard had lost contact with his family many years before: after the expedition with Brown he had lived with his wife for only ten months, and he never knew his younger daughter who was born after the beginning of his expedition around the world.
46.
Hippolyte Bouchard was killed by one of his servants on 4 January 1837.