Medusa

[shipstamps]

One of the few shipwrecks to be shown on stamps is that of the French frigate Medusa, a tragedy caused by gross incompetence. The 150th anniversary of the event is commemorated by the 500-frs stamp of Mauritanie, issued on September 5, 1966.
On June 17, 1816 an expedition of four vessels sailed from Rochefort for Senegal. They were the frigate Medusa-44 guns, the corvette Echo, the flute Loire and the brig Argus.
The expedition was commanded by Hagues Deroys, Vicomte de Chaumerys, who was inefficient and lacking in knowledge of navigation and seamanship. He was given this command because he was a friend of Louis XVIII.
The Medusa was the fastest vessel in the expedition and left her convoy astern. Sailing 100 miles off course, de Chaumerys sighted Madeira where fresh provisions were taken on board. From Madeira he sailed to Teneriffe to await the arrival of the other three vessels. From Teneriffe the expedition set course for Senegal.
De Chaumerys' instructions told him that to the north of Cape Blanco a reef known as Arguin Reef jutted out about 100 miles from the coast. Once clear of this reef he could expect to reach Senegal safely.
Among the civilian passengers in the Medusa were a M. Picard, a French civil servant, and a M. Richefort of the Cape Verde Philanthropical Society. The former, who had been wrecked on this reef on an earlier voyage, proffered advice to de Chaumerys, but was ignored. M. Richefort, a suave individual claimed he had a greater knowledge of the dangers ahead, and his flattery of the expedition's leader so impressed de Chaumerys that he handed over command of the vessel to Richefort against the advice of his officers.
On July 2, 1816 Cape Blanco was sighted and course was altered towards the land. The Echo following closely, and not liking this change of course, hoisted warning signals. The Medusa did not reply. The Captain of the Echo decided not to follow on the new course and stood away from the coast, with the two other vessels. These three vessels reached St. Louis, Senegal, their destination.
The Medusa was wrecked on the Arguin Reef. There were 400 people on board, made up of troops, passengers and crew. Her six boats could only accommodate 250 persons, so a raft was built of ship's spars and timber. It was 66 ft. in length and about 22 ft. in width, but only the centre portion could accommodate people. The only supplies placed on the raft were casks of wine. Midshipman Coudin, incapacitated by a leg injury, became the raft's commander. At the outset the raft was towed by two of the boats, but the tow ropes parted (it is also claimed that they were cut) and the raft, with 146 men and one woman, was abandoned to its fate. Seventeen days later 15 survivors, all that remained of the 147, were rescued by the Argus which had sailed from St. Louis to search for the raft. The design of the stamp is based on an oil Painting by Jean Louis Audie Theodore Gericault, painted in 1818-19 and depicts the sighting of the Argus by the survivors on the raft.
SG250 Sea Breezes 12/68

[aukepalmhof]

Mauretania 1966 500f sg250 and FDC
Albania 1974 2.05L sg?
St Vincent Grenadines 1993 $1 sg?, scott? and MS
Ivory coast 2013 1700F sgMS?
Ivory coast 2011 raft of madusa in margin of sheet.
All scans supplied by Mr Gennadiy Sitnikov with thanks

[aukepalmhof]

The correct name of the ships was MEDUSE

About Theodore Gericault 1791-1824
The sinking of the colonial frigate MEDUSE off the coast of present-day Mauritania on July 2, 1816 shook Restoration France. Of the approximately 150 passengers and crew members who took refuge on a makeshift raft, towed by canoes then abandoned by order of Captain Duroy de Chaumareys, less than fifteen had survived.
This drama was immortalized by Théodore Géricault (Rouen 1791-Paris 1824) in one of the most famous paintings in the Louvre, The Raft of the MEDUSA, revealed at the Salon of 1819.
In his early days, Géricault devoted himself to painting horses, his passion, and military themes. Returning from Italy in the fall of 1817, he was looking for new current topics. The atrocious assassination of the former magistrate Fualdès, in Rodez, inspired him with the idea of ​​a large composition, which was ultimately abandoned. For his first important work, it was the affair of the MEDUSA that he chose, fascinated by the story of two survivors.
Rather than the sinking of the frigate, it represents the raft and its passengers, abandoned in the open sea. In rags, some agonize among the corpses, others stand up, seeing a ship, their last hope of survival.
The composition is developed using wax figures arranged on a model of the raft, made at Géricault's request by the former carpenter of the Méduse. Transforming his workshop into an annex to the morgue, the artist painted severed heads and limbs from life and observed the ravages of the disease in the hospital. On the Normandy coast, he carried out studies of sky and sea. Epic and terrifying, the final work, 7 m long, baffled the public of 1819. A tragic vision of human destiny, it established itself as the one of the major works of romanticism, with universal scope.

https://www.wopa-plus.com/en/stamps/product/&pid=90023#
France 2024 2.59€ sg?, Scott?