Le Patriote

The Le Patriote was one of the 400 ships which Napolean Bonaparte used to transport over 50,000 men from France to invade Egypt in 1798. In addition to military troops, Napoleon brought with him 151 savants (artists, scientists, engineers, scholars, etc.) to document the culture of Egypt. The Le Patriote has been described as one of the research vessels, probably a commandeered merchant ship, which brought these savants and many of their research supplies and equipment from France, having departed Toulon on 19 May, to Egypt, arriving on the shores of Alexandria on the first of July.
The arrival of the savants was not an easy one. Approaching the coast of Egypt, Le Patriote struck a reef, known today as "EL-Fara Reef", located to the west of the harbour entrance and was fast aground. The savants and ship's crew were able to abandon the ship and safely reach the shoreline located a few hundred meters away. However, the ship eventually sank where it had struck the reef, taking with it many of the scientific tools and research materials which the savants required.
History shows us that while Napoleon's military invasion of Egypt was a failure, in part due to the loss of his capital warships during the Battle of the Nile and becoming stranded in Egypt, the scientific expedition was a greater success than anyone had envisioned. The scientific expedition resulted in the discovery of the Rosetta Stone which was the key to deciphering hieroglyphics, the publication of the "Description de l'Egypte" published from 1810-29, the founding of the Institut d'Egypte (which eventually became the modern day Cairo Museum), and "Scientific and Military History of the French Expedition to Egypt" in 1830-36, among other works.
The Le Patriote however, was forgotten where she sank. The man most affected by the loss of the scientific equipment and materials onboard the ship was Nicolas-Jacques Conté, a chemist and inventor, who remained in Alexandria for some months afterwards manufacturing replacement equipment for the expedition. He was also the commander of Napoleon's "Aerostatic Corps" in charge of the expeditions survey balloons and equipment. He was known as a ingenious inventor of which Gaspard Monge, a fellow scientist and a mathematician said: "He had all of the sciences in his head and all of the arts in his hand".

While in Alexandria Conté invented and built an engraving machine which greatly improved the quality of the engraving process and saved numerous man-hours, manufactured surgical equipment, tools and utensils, minting equipment and windmills. (Trivia Note: Conté is also known and the inventor of the pencil in 1795, which still bears his name today!)
Meanwhile, the Le Patriote remained forgotten and was lost to history until, in 1983 and 84, Jacques Dumas and the Egyptian Underwater Archaeology Department (DUA) were conducting surveys of Napoleon's fleet in Aboukir Bay located to the east of Alexandria. In addition to identifying the wreck of L'Orient, the wrecks of 3 other ships of the fleet were discovered. In 1986, The Société Français de Recherché Archéologique Sous-marines (SOFRAS), assisted by the French Navy, conducted excavations of these ships. Information learned from the research and excavation of these ships aided in determining  Le Patriote's final resting place in 4-meters of water on the western end of EL-Fara Reef which is located to the west of the modern day beach resort area of Agami.
The wreck of the Le Patriote was excavated in the same year, with many artifacts being recovered. The artifacts were delivered to the DUA's labratory located in the Stanley district of Alexandria for conservation, restoration, and study. This, at the time, was the largest conservation and restoration project which the DUA had conducted to date.
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