Louis Édouard Bouët-Willaumez

Louis Edouard Bouët-Willaumez (24 April 1808 – 9 September 1871) was a French admiral.

He was born Louis Edouard Bouët, the son of a businessman (and mayor of Lambezeller) in Maison-Lafitte, near Paris. Having joined the French Navy, in 1824 he embarked on a five-year voyage, first in the Mediterranean (where he saw action at the Battle of Navarino in 1827) and then in the Indian Ocean.

In 1829 he was promoted to ship's Ensign, and served in the Morea expedition. In 1830 he was part of the blockade and capture of Algiers, followed by the blockade of Antwerp. Made Lieutenant in 1834, he was attached to the naval post at La Plata, from where he was sent to Senegal. In 1836 took command of the steamship L'Africain, with which he travelled 200 miles inland, up to the Félou Falls (les Chutes de Félou) in upper Senegal. He was the only Westerner to return alive, the others having succumbed to disease.

In 1838 Bouët took command of the brig La Malouine, which charted a trade route along the African coast. Along the way he punished a native tribe that had plundered three trading ships, and signed a commercial treaty with the king of Gabon in 1839. In July 1840 he carried out a reconnaissance of the bay of Mogador and established a plan of attack.

Promoted to Lieutenant commander in 1840, on Le Misus, he took command of the Foreign Division of Africa from 1841 to 1842, when he was named provisional governor of Senegal. In 1843, Bouët began a period of expansion when he captured the port of Saint-Louis and allowed privately owned trading companies (mainly from Bordeaux) to handle the administration of the town; he also sent a new mission to Bambuk, and signed a commercial treaty with the ruler of Bundu. On 15 August 1844 he was attached to the expedition commanded by the Prince de Joinville, which took Mogador using the information that had been collected by Bouët. His reward was to take the trophies back to France, together with a promotion to Captain.

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