Laurent Jean François Truguet

Laurent Jean François Truguet
Laurent Truguet in 1832; portrait by Jean-Baptiste Paulin Guérin
Born	10 January 1752 Toulon
Died	26 December 1839(1839-12-26) (aged 87) Toulon
Allegiance	France (Ancien Régime – Bourbon Monarchy)
Service/branch	Navy
Years of service	1765–1804; 1809 – c. 1811; 1814 – c. 1819
Rank	Grand admiral
Awards	member of légion d'honneur, conseiller d'État, knight grand-cross of the order of Saint Louis, comte, peer of France

Laurent Truguet (10 January 1752, Toulon – 26 December 1839, Toulon) was a French admiral.

Of arisocratic origins, and the son of a chef d'escadre, Laurent de Truguet entered the gardes de la marine in 1765. He navigated successively the Hirondelle, Provence, Atalante, Pléiade and Chimère. He won several prizes, awarded to the best gardes by Louis XV. He became enseigne de vaisseau in 1773 and had already been in eight campaigns by July 1778, when war was declared against England.

In the war in America, he served on the frigate Atalante then on the vessel Hector under the comte d'Estaing, and took part in the battle at Saint Lucia. Lieutenant de vaisseau from 1779, in the land attack on Savannah, he saved the life of admiral d'Estaing despite being severely wounded himself, for which he was made a knight of Order of Saint Louis.

On the Languedoc then the Citoyen, he took part in various battles as a member of Guichen's then de Grasse's fleet (battle of Chesapeake, Battle of St. Kitts, Battle of the Saintes).

Major de Vaisseau from 1784, he cooperated in the tasks assigned to M. Choiseuil-Gouffier, ambassador to Constantinople, and was charged with instructing the Ottomans in the arts of fortification, artillery, metallurgy, naval architecture, and so on. Truguet commanded a brig, the Tarleton, with which he re-mapped the hydrography of the Dardanelles in 1785 and 1786, and in 1787 published a "Traité de Marine" (Naval Treatise) at Constantinople.