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Categories: 1755 births | 1798 deaths | French Navy officers | Napoleonic wars French naval commanders
Louis de Casabianca
Louis de Casabianca (c.1755 - 1798) was a French naval officer. He was captain of the L'Orient, the principle ship of the fleet which carried Napoleon Bonaparte and his army to Egypt.
At the Battle of the Nile (August 1, 1798), when Nelson attacked the French fleet in the Bay of Aboukir , Casabianca fought bravely until he was killed. During the battle, he ordered his ten-year old son to a certain part of the ship and told him to stay there until he called him. Not knowing of his father's death, the boy stood at his post while the ship caught fire. He refused to leave the ship with the others because he had no orders to go. The fire soon reached the powder magazine, and the boy was blown up with the ship.
Felicia Hemans commemorated the event with a poem, titled "Casabianca," which made the son more famous than the father.
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