Jean Bart was born on October 21, 1650 in Dunkirk. It was at the age of 12 that he became a cabin boy on a smuggling boat. Then, lieutenant of Vaisseau at the age of 29, he campaigned against corsairs and Barbary pirates in the Mediterranean, for the Royal Navy.

Charged in 1686, with Forbin, with leading a convoy from Dunkirk to Brest, he was captured by the English. Escaping, he went to Saint-Malo by crossing the Channel aboard a simple canoe.

His actions allowed him to be promoted to Captain in 1689. A fine strategist, during the battles of Louis XIV he developed war tactics based on the use of boat divisions which quickly became very fast, and allowing a glimpse of this what will be the future packs of submarines.

An extraordinary destiny in the service of the King of France
Jean Bart's life is incredible, as he is not only a war strategist, but also a national hero, as he begins his career as a smuggling privateer and pirate. In 1694, he seized, to the detriment of the Dutch, 130 ships loaded with wheat, which Louis XIV had ordered from the Norwegians. This is an unexpected feat for France, which is in the middle of a period of scarcity.

He thus obtained his letters of nobility and, as squadron leader in 1697, he became commander of the Navy in Dunkirk. He died there on April 27, 1702, at the age of only 51. ✞