Adventures of a Sailor of the Imperial Guard = Aventures d’un Marin de la Garde Impériale

After the combined French and Spanish fleet met disaster at Trafalgar, six surviving ships of the line commanded by Admiral François Étienne de Rosily-Mesros were trapped in the harbor of Cádiz. On June 14, 1808, Rosily surrendered his small fleet to the Spanish army. Among the crewmen of one ship, the Héros, was young helmsman Henri Ducor. Ducor endured years of captivity on the bleak island of Cabrera, finally escaped and joined Napoleon’s Marins de la Garde in time to endure the Retreat from Moscow and return to Paris. These are his memoirs in their first English translation and in hypertext.