Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
lectual discussion that, as a student, he would have sorely missed. Certainly the
conversation would not have been at his level of capability, and he would probably
not have been released until 1814.
After its release, Arago's ship anchored for an overnight stay in the shallow-
water natural harbor of the island of Pomègue, one of a group of four in the beauti-
ful Frioul archipelago that lies 5-10 km offshore from Marseille. Another of the
islands is famous in literature as the supposed site of the imprisonment in the
Château d'If of the Count of Monte Cristo in the novel of the same name by
Alexandre Dumas. The Castle looms up massively above the rocky coastline, its
inner towers protected under concentric walls and ramparts, and other islands in the
archipelago have similar, but smaller, fortifications. The harbor was later used to
isolate suspicious ships for inspection (e.g. against the importation of the plague)
before they were allowed to dock in Marseille.
Arago says in his autobiography that after releasing his ship, Commander
Hollinworth realized he had made a mistake and attempted unsuccessfully to rectify
it. The British warship returned to the scene and made moves to capture the vessel
that it had freed, putting her long boats to sea over the course of the night and
storming Pomègue island and the Castle. Arago says that the British abandoned the
attempt to re-capture his ship as too dangerous, presumably because they were
repelled by the military garrison. There is no record of this incident in the
Minstrel's
logs, and the incident does not fit with the chronology of events given by Hollinworth,
Collingwood and another captain who encountered
Minstrel
during the day. Perhaps
Arago misinterpreted or misrepresented other activity by another British warship,
HMS
Volontaire
, which sent sailors on a raiding action a few days earlier onto the
island of Pomègue (or possibly another nearby island), but the raid would have been
being freshly talked about when he arrived on Pomègue. Arago's story of his return
to France may have improved with re-telling, incorporating elements of stories he
heard on the island and during his subsequent quarantine in Marseille about the raid
by the
Volontaire
, until, by the time he re-presented it and wrote it down, the
account had reached the printed version and confused the two ships and the two
separate actions.
Arago had avoided yet another period of imprisonment. At the time that the
Minstrel
was passing south of Marseille, escorting the Algerian merchantmen west-
wards into captivity in Gibraltar, Arago once again set foot on French soil at the
lazaretto de Marseille
(the quarantine area). He says this was on July 2, 1809, but in
actuality it was probably the day before. Within a few days of arriving Arago stepped
ashore in Marseille and wrote that he was relieved to be home “on my native soil”
and at “the termination of my laborious and perilous adventures.” A voyage from
Majorca to Marseille that should have taken a few days had taken nearly a year, and
a scientific expedition that should have taken a few months had taken three years.
ARAGO WAS WELCOMED to France by Jean-Louis Pons (1761-1831), the
Director of the Observatory in Marseille, who became well known as a discoverer
of comets and asteroids. At that time the Observatory was located in the district
known as Le Panier, on a hill a short walk from the harbor of Marseille (the
