Landais, Pierre de

LANDAIS, PIERRE DE. (c. 1731–1820). French naval officer. Of a noble but impoverished Norman family, he entered the navy as a volunteer in 1745. In 1762 he was wounded in action and for a short time was a British prisoner. He accompanied Bougainville on his voyage of discovery around the world from 1766 to 1769. In 1775 he was discharged from the service. On 1 March 1777 Deane gave him a captain's commission and command of a merchantman loaded with supplies for America. He arrived at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on 1 December after a mutiny. Congress later gave him twelve thousand livres for those services in 1779. In 1778 he applied for a command in the Continental navy, but the Marine Committee refused. On 9 May, Congress continued him as captain and six weeks later placed him on the Alliance. Samuel Adams considered him "highly esteemed" by the committee. On 15 October he was naturalized as a citizen of Massachusetts. The Alliance sailed on 11 January 1779 with Lafayette on board. Again there was an attempted mutiny, but the Alliance arrived in Brest on 6 February.

In April 1779 Franklin changed the destination of the Alliance and ordered Landais to join the squadron of John Paul Jones. Jones and Landais appear to have taken an instant dislike to each other. During the Bonhomme Richard-Serapis engagement on 23 September 1779, Landais unaccountably attacked Jones's ship and continued to fire on it until the battle ended. On their personal rivalry, Franklin refused to judge and turned the matter over to Congress, but he gave command of the Alliance to Jones. Landais claimed that Franklin had no authority to do so. In the absence of Jones from the seaport of Lorient, Arthur Lee, who was returning to America aboard the Alliance, named Landais captain of the ship so that the voyage could proceed. Twice the crew mutinied, and the ship was placed under the command of the ranking lieutenant. When it arrived in Boston, naval authorities held a court of inquiry, found Landais guilty, and removed him from the service. In 1782 Congress rejected a report from a committee that he be paid $2,178.18 to settle his claims for pay, subsistence, and expenses.

On his return to Revolutionary France, Landais was given command of a warship at Brest (1 July 1792). A naval division was put under his command. On 1 January 1793 he was promoted to vice admiral and during that month took part in operations against Cagliari, Sardinia. The following spring he operated off the coast of Brittany (around Belle Îsle). Mutinies among the crews of Morard de Galles's fleet forced Landais to put into Brest. His commission was revoked on 26 October 1793. In November 1797 he returned to New York. From that time on he pressed his claims for prizes captured by the Alliance in 1779. In 1806 Congress paid him four thousand dollars. A bill for his further relief failed in the Senate in 1815. He spent his remaining years impoverished in New York City.

SEE ALSO Bonhomme Richard-Serapis Engagement.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ford, Worthington C., et al., eds. Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789. 34 vols. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1904–1937.

Franklin, Benjamin. Papers of Benjamin Franklin. Edited by Leonard W. Labaree, et al. 37 vols. to date. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1959–.

Lafayette, Gilbert du Motier de. Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution: Selected Letters and Documents, 1776–1790. Edited by Stanley J. Idzerda, et al. 5 vols. to date. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1977–.

Massachusetts. The Acts and Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. 21 vols. Boston: Wright and Potter, 1869–1922.

Paullin, Charles O. "Admiral Pierre Landais." Catholic Historical Review 17 (1931): 296-307.

Smith, Paul H., et al., eds. Letters of Delegates of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789. 26 vols. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1976–2000.

U.S. Congress. Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States. 42 vols. Washington, D.C.: Gales and Seaton, 1834–1856.

                           revised by Robert Rhodes Crout