Allegiance France Service/branch French Navy Awards Legion of Honour | Name Abel-Nicolas Dupetit Years of service 1853– Rank Vice admiral | |
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Battles/wars Crimean War
Japanese revolution
Franco-Prussian War Died March 14, 1890, Toulon, France Battles and wars Crimean War, Boshin War, Franco-Prussian War | ||
Abel-Nicolas Georges Henri Bergasse Dupetit Thouars (March 23, 1832 – March 14, 1890) was a French sailor, vice-admiral, saver of Lima and a hero in Peru.
He was born in Bordeaux-en-Gâtinais, Loiret. He was adopted by his maternal uncle Vice Admiral Abel Aubert Dupetit Thouars, adding the Dupetit-Thouars to his name.
He took part in the Crimean War, where he was wounded and was made a Knight of the Légion d'honneur. In 1868, he commanded the corvette Dupleix during the Japanese revolution. On 8 March 1868, a skiff sent to Sakai was attacked by samurai retainers of the daimyō of Tosa; 11 sailors and a midshipman were killed. The attack and French demands for punishment of the samurai involved became known as the Sakai incident. In 1870, he commanded a floating battery on the Rhine river during the Franco-Prussian War.
As a rear admiral, he was in charge of the 1880 pacification of the Marquesas Islands, which had been conquered by his uncle Abel Aubert Dupetit Thouars forty years before. On the way back to France, he commanded the French Navy observation mission at the War of the Pacific. Promoted to vice admiral in 1883, he died at Toulon on 14 March 1890.
A key south-to-north broad one-way street in Lima, Avenida (du) Petit Thouars, is named after him. It runs through Miraflores, San Isidro, Lince, and downtown Lima wards.