Pierre-Thiery Clarise (4 June 1760-12 May 1802) was a captain of the French Navy who was the captain of 80-gun steam ship "Belle Poule". He died when HMS Hector dueled his ship off Saint-Domingue. He was posthumously decorated with the rank of Rear Admiral.
Biography[]
Pierre-Thiery Clarise was born in Brest to a seafaring family, and became a member of the French Navy at the age of 16 in 1776. Clarisse served abroad during the American Revolutionary War, fighting in the West Indies. He moved to Saint-Domingue with his family in 1783 after the war, where they began to invest in maritime trade in the Caribbean.
During the French Revolutionary Wars and the concurrent Haitian Revolution, Clarisse fought against the Royal Navy of Great Britain and Spanish Navy (1791-93). In 1802, when British ship HMS Hector attempted to attack French shipping in the area, Clarisse and his vessel "Belle Poule" (an 80-gun steam ship) dueled the British ship in a naval encounter off Saint-Domingue. The battle resulted in a French victory, although Clarisse was butted with a rifle by a British sailor and killed. Posthumously, he was made a Rear Admiral.