---
title: The shipwrecked memory of the L'Utile slaves
date: 2007-04-30T15:05:07Z
source: https://web.archive.org/web/20071013233036/http://portal0.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=26887&URL_DO=DO_PRINTPAGE&URL_SECTION=201.html
tags: travel, history

---

The shipwrecked memory of the *L'Utile* slaves**
 
On July 31, 1761, the French ship *L’Utile* is shipwrecked on a tiny
island in the Indian Ocean. Not long after, the sailors manage to reach
Madagascar, but they leave behind the Malgache slaves they had embarked
illegally on L’Utile. Only a handful of survivors remain when they are
found 15 years later, in 1776. UNESCO has reopened this lost chapter in
the history of the slave trade.

![culture.jpg](/web/20071013233036im_/http://portal0.unesco.org/en/file_download.php/62273d4806176e06529ccad0b638c291culture.jpg)

A corvette drops anchor near a small island, lost in the Indian Ocean,
on November 29, 1776. The island seems completely deserted, a stretch of
white sand with a few palm trees. Yet the sailors discover a baby and
seven women, all former slaves from Madagascar. Dressed in tunics of
woven feathers, they are the only survivors of a shipwreck 15 years
earlier. They survived by eating birds, turtles and shellfish.

Max Guérout, former French navy officer and vice-president of France’s
marine archaeology research group, GRAN, tells the story: “*L’Utile*
left Bayonne in southwest France for the Mascarene Islands on November
17, 1760. It called at Madagascar to replenish food supplies, and the
captain, Commander La Fargue, decided to take aboard 60 slaves, against
the governor’s orders. He set sail for the Ile de France, now Mauritius.
Blown off course by the bad weather, the ship was wrecked on the reefs
of a small island, one kilometer square, which now bears the name of the
man who saved the last few survivors: Tromelin.” \
 \
 A “relation”, one of the gazettes sold on the street in those days,
gave details of the shipwreck: “Traversing a host of dangers, most of
the crew finally succeeded in reaching the island. Almost all were
injured, maimed and covered in bruises; they were specters rather than
men.” At the beginning of their exile, the survivors salvaged wood from
the wreck as well as tools and supplies: “a few kegs of brandy and a few
barrels of flour.” They built a forge and dug two wells, “the thick
white milky liquid” from the first proving to be toxic. In spite of the
hostile environment, food was not a major problem. All they needed to do
was catch one of the 500-kilo sea turtles that lived on the island ¹. \
 \
 **Abandoned, forgotten, finally rescued** \
 Just two months after the wreck, the survivors managed to build a boat.
“Preparations were made for an imminent departure on the night of the
26th to the 27th of September,” according to the gazette. “All hands
worked feverishly… they were able to move the boat along rollers,
despite several accidents and unrelenting terror…Finally it was
launched, held by an anchor salvaged from the wreck.” But not all the
shipwreck victims were invited aboard the “Providence”, name given to
the vessel. “The 122 French sailors boarded hopefully, arms around each
other so they could all fit, with a small amount of food. The blacks,
whom they were forced to leave behind, maintained an oppressive
silence.” \
 \
 About 60 men and women stayed on the island, with a “writ testifying to
their services” and the promise that the sailors would return to rescue
them. As for the French sailors, they reached Madagascar a few days
later, and continued to Mauritius where they made a report on the
shipwreck and the slaves. “The governor of the Ile de France was so
angry at the late captain La Fargue for having disobeyed his orders by
taking slaves aboard the Utile that he refused to send a ship to get
them,” says Max Guérout. “On the day the crew arrived, he wrote, ‘Today
the Utile survivors arrived. The captain has died. Good for him.’” Yet
it was the slaves who paid for his transgression. \
 \
 After waiting in vain for two years, the desperate survivors built a
raft and 18 of them sailed for home. We do not know if they made it. We
do know is that the second attempt at escape, 10 years later, failed. A
French sailor was on the second raft, and had they succeeded, he would
have produced a written account. \
 \
 In 1773 or 1774, when the *Utile* shipwreck victims were long
forgotten, a passing ship spotted signs of life on the Ile de Sable. The
new governor dispatched the vessel the *Sauterelle* to the rescue, but
it failed in its attempt to approach the little coral island, surrounded
by waters 4000 meters deep. Two sailors headed for shore in a canoe, but
smashed up against a reef. One sailor managed to swim back to the ship,
the other was left on the island. According to the women who were
finally rescued, the sailor and the last three male survivors then built
a raft. The four men, with three of the women, sailed away from the
island. They were never seen again. \
 \
 Another two expeditions failed before the corvette *La Dauphine*
finally arrived, on November 29 1776. The Chevalier de Tromelin, a royal
navy officer, was its captain. What happened when he met the last
survivors, and where is his report? Hard to say, because “It’s mentioned
in the archives, but I can’t get my hands on it,” says Max Guérout, who
is trying to trace the officer’s descendants in Lorient, in southern
Brittany. \
 \
 So far, much of the historical research linked to these events has been
fruitful, due largely to UNESCO’s financial support. More than 100
documents have been examined in several cities in France, notably
Bayonne, where the ship was commissioned. Genealogical research has
begun to find descendants of the *Utile* sailors; more is planned on
Mauritius, where Tromelin took the seven women and the little boy. \
 \
 **Genealogical research** \
 This historical research is one of three dimensions of the “Forgotten
Slaves” programme launched by the GRAN, as part of the International
Year for the Commemoration of the Struggle Against Slavery and its
Abolition (2004), and of UNESCO’s Slave Route Programme.
([http://www.unesco.org/culture/dialogue/slave](/web/20071013233036/http://www.unesco.org/culture/dialogue/slave)).
Inspired by the story of the Utile, “Forgotten Slaves” aims to conduct
historical and archaeological research to elucidate every aspect of this
terrible event, representative of the slave trade. It will also serve as
part of an information campaign targeting the media, the general public
and schools, to raise awareness of issues surrounding slavery. Software
called “I-maj”, recently launched on GRAN’s website
([http://www.archeonavale.org/](/web/20071013233036/http://www.archeonavale.org/))
allows partners to write, edit and post texts approved by the project’s
supervisors. \
 \
 A group of 17 children from a primary school in Brittany (France) are
the first partners in this category. The school is not far from the
Tromelin family manor, and the pupils are focusing on the Chevalier’s
life. Guérout looks forward to extending the network of schools to
Reunion Island, Polynesia and Martinique and to forming partnerships
with UNESCO’s Associated Schools Project Network and the 90 schools in
SEED (Schlumberger Excellence in Educational Development Programme) in
New York. \
 \
 Finally, an exceptional adventure will begin in 2006 with the
archeological phase of the “Forgotten Slaves” project. A dozen
archeologists, divers, scientists and doctors are off to Tromelin Island
for a 25-day land and underwater survey. \
 \
 “It’s a complicated operation,” says Guérout. “Tromelin is not a
tourist destination. There are no flights and access by sea is
particularly risky because of whirlpools, currents and breakers. \
 \
 ” Where there’s a will, there’s a way. On the island, the GRAN will try
to locate the old camps, the forge, the well and the only permanent
building dating back that far, a shelter for the fire. “There’s a theory
that they kept the fire going for 15 years,” says Guérout. “That does
not seem very likely, given the trade winds and the frequent
hurricanes.” The doctor looking after the team will also do physical
anthropology research should they find burial places. \
 \
 Underwater, the team will explore the wreck, and also vast sedimentary
basins, which according to Guérout “are a sort of receptacle at a depth
of six or seven meters, into which objects may have fallen”. Pieces of
ceramic have already been found washed up on the shore. Each little
fragment is significant to recreate the history of the forgotten slaves,
who are now being rescued from oblivion.