Honoré Joseph Antoine Ganteaume

Vice-Admiral Honoré Joseph Antoine Ganteaume (13 April 1755 – 28 July 1818) was a French Navy officer who served in the American Revolutionary War and French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Born in La Ciotat, Provence, he began his career at sea on East Indiamen before joining the Navy in 1778 during the American Revolutionary War and serving under Charles Henri Hector, Count of Estaing and Pierre André de Suffren. During the French Revolutionary Wars, Ganteaume was promoted to ship-of-the-line captain and served in the Glorious First of June and Croisière du Grand Hiver.

In 1798, Ganteaume took part in the French invasion of Egypt and Syria, narrowly escaping death during the catastrophic French defeat at the Battle of the Nile. In Egypt, he formed a personal relationship with Napoleon, who supported his career. Ganteaume was subsequently promoted to counter admiral and given command of a squadron to resupply the Army of the Orient. However, in Ganteaume's expeditions of 1801 he engaged in months of complicated manoeuvres to elude the Royal Navy and eventually failed in his mission.

Following a successful 1801 supply mission to French troops engaged in the Saint-Domingue expedition, Ganteaume was appointed as the maritime prefect of Toulon. During the Trafalgar campaign, he was ordered to lead his squadron to the Caribbean to reinforce the fleet of Admirals Pierre-Charles Villeneuve and Édouard Thomas Burgues de Missiessy, but was prevented from doing so by a British blockade. Ganteaume held various offices during the final years of the First French Empire before switching his loyalties to Louis XVIII during the Bourbon Restoration in France. He refused to support Napoleon during the Hundred Days in 1815, and died at his Provence estate in 1818.