Georges René Le Peley de Pléville Georges - René Le Pelley de Pléville ( 29 June 1726 , Granville – 2 October 1805 , Paris ) was the governor of the port of Marseilles , a French admiral , minister for the navy and the colonies from 15 July 1797 to 27 April 1798 , a senator , a knight of the Order of St Louis and the Order of Cincinnatus , and one of the very first Grand officiers of the Légion d ' honneur . Life . Origins and youth . His father was Hervé Le Pelley , seigneur de Pléville , a captain in the merchant navy , and his mother was the daughter of the seigneur du Saussey in the parish of Lingreville . Thus de Pléville was attracted to the sea and ships early in his life . Orphaned whilst very young , he ran away from the collège at Coutances to get himself engaged on a ship to Newfoundland in 1738 . His uncle - intending him for the priesthood - asked the ship ' s captain to put de Pléville off life at sea . His first voyage as a pilotin was also particularly hard , and he was welcomed in Newfoundland by an old friend of his father , who treated him more understandingly . He thus went on many cod fishing voyages on different ships . An ensign from 1740 on the " Ville de Québec " , he revolted against a sending to the brig which he deemed unjust , and fled whilst the vessel was anchored on the coast of Canada . He walked alone for 50 days across the Canadian forest , meeting native tribes , before finally arriving in Quebec , where he was welcomed by a family that took pity on him . He embarked on another ship under a pseudonym as a helmsman and for the following years continued to serve in Newfoundland . War of the Austrian Succession . He entered the gardes de la marine but was too poor to remain there , so he was taken on by a small privateer sailing from Granville , the " Françoise du Lac " , as lieutenant . Some hours after leaving port , this boat was met in the lee of Jersey by two English privateers and crushed between their cannons ' cross - fire . de Pléville was wounded in this 6 hour long battle , losing his right leg and finally being captured . Welcomed to Falmouth like a son by the family of an Admiralty functionary , he was cared for there and learned English until he was exchanged for an English prisoner . He then served in the French Royal Navy as lieutenant de frégate on the " Argonaute " , commanded by Tilly Le Pelley , another uncle , then on the ship " Mercure " , which was part of the squadron under the orders of the duc d ' Anville in 1746 to recapture Cape Breton Island . This squadron was met on its return from Chebucto by Admiral George Anson and in the ensuing First battle of Cape Finisterre a cannonball carried away de Pléville ' s wooden leg ( de Pléville joked to his captain " That cannonball was mistaken - it only made work for the carpenter . " or , in the original French , " Le boulet s ' est trompé - il n ' a donné de besogne qu ' au charpentier " ) and he was once again taken prisoner . On his release , he started serving on another privateer . He was second officer on the " Comte de Noailles " , on which he was yet again taken prisoner , though he managed to escape shortly before the end of the war . He then became second officer on a smuggling vessel working along the coast of England then , as captain , for four years again on a Newfoundland fishing vessel . In 1757 Georges Pléville Le Pelley married Marie Ursule de Rambaud in Marseilles , and the couple had four children . Marie Ursule was the daughter of Jean Rambaud ( a privateer captain , ship - owner and foreign merchant ) , with the marriage thus making de Pléville brother - in - law to Agathe de Rambaud . Seven Years ' War . His boat , the " Brillant " , was requisitioned as a troop transport for the 1756 expedition to Minorca and then for the operations on Corsica . He commanded the privateer corvette " Colibri " , belonging to his father - in - law , informing the French navy of the movements of English vessels . Having been in many close combats , he and the " Colibri " were integrated into the Clue squadron in 1758 at Martinique . From 1758 to 1762 , he commanded a small ship of the French Navy , the " Hirondelle " , with which he seized three British East India Company ships . During one of these battles , he again lost his wooden leg . Health problems forced him to take up posts on land in the following years , including lieutenant de vaisseau and capitaine of the port of Martinique from 1763 , writing a treatise on masts and making improvements to the roads on the Antilles . Governor of the port of Marseilles . Returning to France , he was taken on by the harbour of Marseilles as its harbour - captain . The English frigate " Alarm " , battered by a storm in the evening of 1 May 1770 , ran aground on the coast of Provence amongst boulders , and was in imminent danger of breaking up . This event gave Pléville the chance to deploy his nautical knowledge , his self - control and his courage . Told of the danger the ship was in , he quickly mustered the harbour pilots , surrounded himself with the bravest sailors he could find , and at their head rushed to the relief of the English , while confronting the perils of the sea in the darkest time of a stormy night . He moored himself to a grelin , slid alongside the boulders , reached on board the frigate with his wooden leg , and took command of it . The ship had already almost heeled over many times , and began to run aground . Pléville ordered a manoeuvre that got it afloat again and brought it into harbour at Marseilles . This frigate was commanded by captain John Jervis , who later became a British admiral and was awarded the title of Earl of St Vincent for destroying the Spanish fleet at the cape of that name in 1797 . de Pléville ' s fearless devotion and dignity was appreciated in England , with the lords of the Admiralty giving him a glowing testimony on behalf of the British government and commanding captain Jervis to return to Marseilles in the frigate " Alarm " to give de Pléville a very valuable present and a letter expressing their sentiments on his inspiring conduct . The letter ran thus : The present was a piece of silverware in the form of an urn , on which were engraved dolphins and other maritime attributes , with a model of the " Alarm " , and a richly engraved lid surmounted by a triton . Remarkable in its elegance of form and high level of finish and workmanship , this vase bore the English coat of arms , and had the following inscription , intended to preserve the memory of the event which had merited this superb present : Thinking that he could not receive a gift from a foreign sovereign , de Pléville only accepted the urn after having been duly authorised to do so by the king of France . Jervis was also extremely grateful to de Pléville , and eager for the chance to reward him . He wrote to his sister from HMS " Alarm " , anchored at Mahón on 27 December 1770 : Ten years later , de Pléville ' s devotion to the safety of the " Alarm " gained a different but no less honourable reward , when his son - a young naval officer - was captured on board a frigate at the end of a battle in 1780 and taken to England . There , the British Admiralty sent him back to France without requiring a prisoner - exchange , after having authorised him to choose three other French naval officers to go with him . American War of Independence . During the American War of Independence , he acted as lieutenant de vaisseau in d ' Estaing ' s squadron from 1778 on board the flagship , the " Languedoc " . He took part in the whole campaign and in many different battles . d ' Estaing entrusted him with gaining supplies and reprovisioning the fleet , and was astonished by his unselfishness , for those usually given that kind of mission would not let such a chance for self - enrichment pass them by . He was promoted to capitaine de vaisseau at the admiral ' s intervention , but returned to France with him and re - assumed his old duties at the port of Marseilles . There , he also gave positive comparison to his contemporaries in his exemplary honesty ( rare at that time ) , living only on his official wage and not on embezzled funds , despite having a large family to support . Under the French Revolution . He adopted the principles of the French Revolution , as did most of the officers who had served in America , but in moderation . He was the treasurer of a revolutionaries ' club at Marseilles . He sailed to Avignon , where he disembarked , sabre in hand , to receive his orders . During the Reign of Terror , he was sent to take command of a division charged with escorting a resupply convoy to Tunis that had not yet got through , replacing Jean Gaspard Vence after he was accused of treason . On arrival , he realised that Vence was really in difficulties and had not failed in his duty in the slightest . Ignoring his orders , he kept Vence in his command and simply offered him his help . This brought de Pléville some difficulties with the authorities , but thanks to him Vence ' s reputation would be fully rescued . He fulfilled the functions of a Minister of the Navy for two years , and then reorganised the naval forces at Ancona and Corfu . He , Letourneur and Maret were the three plenipotentiaries sent to Lille in summer 1797 for ( fruitless ) peace negotiations with Britain . During his stay in Lille , on 19 July 1797 , the Directory named him Minister of the Navy and the Colonies , to replace admiral Laurent Truguet . Also in 1797 he was made a counter admiral . As minister , he was once again remarked upon for his unselfishness , honesty and scrupulousness in a regime particularly marked by general corruption among the political and administrative elites . He was made vice admiral in April 1798 , but dismissed from the ministry due to his disapproval of the expedition to Egypt , for which he was convinced the navy did not have the means . He was vindicated in this by the fleet ' s disastrous defeat by Nelson at the battle of Aboukir Bay . At the age of 72 , he commanded the French naval forces in the Mediterranean for a short while , then retired to Paris . The Consulate named him a senator in 1799 , and the Empire brought him the honour of commander of the Légion d ’ honneur on its creation , though he died soon after the honour was bestowed . Likenesses . His portrait may be seen in the musée du Vieux Granville , whilst his statue dominates Granville ' s port . Also , a bust of him may be seen at the palace of Versailles .