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.
Casabianca is a poem written in the early 19th century by British poet Felicia Hemans (who was, before about 1950, generally credited as "Mrs.
The young son Giocante (his age is variously given as ten, twelve and thirteen) of commander LouisdeCasabianca remained at his post and perished when the flames caused the magazine to explode.
Of course he thought Casabianca's was the noblest life that perished there; there could be no two opinions about that; it never occurred to him that the moral of the poem was that young people cannot begin too soon to exercise discretion in the obedience they pay to their papa and mamma.
Feeds |
Contact