Étienne-Joseph de Saint-Germain d'Apchon

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Étienne-Joseph de Saint-Germain d’Apchon (born 1724; death date unknown) was a French Navy officer who fought in the War of American Independence and was later a member of the Society of the Cincinnati. He came from a Forez family. He joined the navy as a garde-marine in 1740 and rose to lieutenant in 1756. He commanded several ships: the 24-gun Gracieuse in 1765 in the Larache expedition; then the 32-gun Pléïade the following year. Promoted to captain in 1770, he led the 40-gun Atalante in 1771 on voyages to Toulon, Tunis and Malta. In 1773 he commanded the 80-gun Languedoc, and in 1778 the 74-gun Protecteur as part of Vice-Admiral d’Estaing’s squadron, fighting at the Battle of St. Lucia on December 15, 1778. In 1780 he served with the French–Spanish fleet under Córdoba. Later that year he was appointed governor of Fort Lupin, a post he held until 1783. In 1783 he took part in the inquiry into the Battle of the Saintes.