John Ordronaux (privateer)

Privateersman (1778–1841)

John Ordronaux (16 December 1778 – 24 August 1841) was one of the most successful privateers of the War of 1812 between the United States and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. During the war he commanded two ships, Marengo, then Prince de Neufchatel. With these he captured or destroyed about thirty British merchant ships, outran about seventeen British warships and brought back goods to the US worth between $250,000 and $300,000. In August 1812, during his First Command with the Marengo, he captured a young Scotsman from the English ship Concord called James Swanston Miller (1798 1855) and stranded him unexpectedly on the island of Grand Canary. After this freak of chance, the Swanston and Miller families went on to build a famous and unplanned mercantile dynasty in the island which hugely boosted the local economy after the Napoleonic Wars and into the 20th century.

Ordronaux was born at Nantes, Brittany, France to a French merchant skipper, John Ordronaux (senior) and an English mother, Joanna Hammond from the city of Hull, England. At the outbreak of the war on 18 June 1812, he commanded the French privateer Marengo which had been outfitted in New York City in November 1811. His patron was a French lady called Florye Charretton, who was allegedly a Parisian woman of considerable wealth.

On 23 June 1812 Marengo was in New London and being watched by the British 36 gun frigate (Captain Richard Byron). However Belvidera was sighted and chased away by President and her squadron (Captain John Rodgers) allowing Marengo to capture the English brigantine Lady Sherbroke from Halifax, Nova Scotia. This prize was sent into New York on 10 August 1812. Marengo then went on to take the brigantines Eliza (Captain Sullivan) of Guernsey, and Lady Provost (Captain Jennings) of Halifax, Nova Scotia. This document suggests that Ordronaux was a gentleman and that he treated his prisoners of war sympathetically. It describes him handing over eighteen named prisoners to the British Consul at Fayal in the Azores Islands on 17 August 1812. The prisoners included two masters and three mates and an exchange was made for the same number of American prisoners of war. Jacques Bidois is named as the commander of Marengo in this document but he is thought to have been Ordronaux's mate at this time. In mid October 1812, Bidois is listed as master of Marengo in a book which also records her as having only six guns and a crew of fifty men. So her three captured prizes must have seemed a considerable success.

On 29 August 1812 Marengo captured the British brigantine Concord (Captain Taylor) between Tenerife and Fuerteventura according to Lloyd's List Marine Collection. Some captured passengers from Concord were landed on the island of Grand Canary after being relieved of their money. Amongst these was the 14 year old Scotsman from Cockburnspath, James Swanston Miller (1798 1855), who went on to found the famous mercantile houses of Swanston and Miller in the island. After being taken in and given a job by a French merchant called Francisco Gourié, he learnt the business of import/export and progressed to starting his own business, Swanston & Co., in 1820. In 1824 his cousin Thomas Miller Swanston (1805 1885) joined him in the business. The business was renamed Thomas Miller & Co. when James Swanston Miller retired to Scotland, a rich man, in about 1846. The Miller dynasty remained in the islands for four generations during which time they established many companies including a bank, general store, insurance company and car dealership at Calle de Triana, 46, and the shipping agency Miller y Cia., S. A. on the Muelle de Santa Catalina. They were also responsible, with their Swanston cousins, for building the beginnings of the modern port of Las Palmas (the Puerto de La Luz) between 1883 and 1903. With others, they also built the Santa Catalina Hotel, the English Church and established the British cemetery and other institutions. James Miller (1839 1915) and his brother Joseph Miller (1840 1920) were awarded the Spanish decoration of Caballo de la Real Orden de Isabel la Catolica for their contribution to the development of the island's economy by constructing the Port and its facilities, the Santa Catalina Hotel and for supporting Spanish institutions such as the Chamber of Commerce. Thomas Miller's son James Miller (1839 1915) and grandson Gerald Miller (1889 1982) both became honorary British vice Consuls, and both entertained royalty and other vip's in the island, including the British Prime Minister, Harold MacMillan in 1960.

It is possible that the Royal Navy made an attempt to rescue James Swanston Miller and his fellow captured passengers with the 38 gun frigate, HMS Macedonian. This ship had been ordered to escort an East Indiaman to Madeira and then hunt for prizes. She left Madeira to carry out this latter order on 22 October. News of the recent visit of Marengo to Fayal in the Azores, or of the capture of Concord and her British passengers near the Canary Islands, is likely to have reached Madeira by that time, because the news reached Lloyd's of London on 24 October. So if this was a rescue attempt it failed almost before it began. After departing from Grand Canary in August 1812, Concord was taken to New York to auction as a prize The sale of Concord alone raised the sum of $24,409. This was shared between her owners and each named member of her crew in proportions given in the surviving court documents. Showing further panache, Ordronaux managed to capture his next prize Hazard (Captain John Anderson) on 18 January, before his ship was properly fitted out. Ordronaux undertook his first cruise from Cherbourg into the English Channel in early March 1814. Ordronaux captured six British vessels sending the valuable ones into French ports and burning the rest, despite constant harassment by the Royal Navy ships and HMS Sybille. Ordronaux's next cruise was his most successful taking him along the coast of Portugal and back to the English Channel from July 1814.

Ordronaux's most famous accomplishment took place in the fall of 1814. The Prince de Neufchatel was making her first privateering cruise out of a U. S. port with a very small crew of 33 men. Four days out of Boston, she captured the English merchantmen Douglass and took it under tow. On 11 October, and with Douglass still under tow, Prince de Neufchatel met the British 40 gun frigate off the southeastern tip of Martha's Vineyard. These name Ordronaux as one of the owners and Captain Nicholas Millin as master of the vessel since 12 December 1814. These records suggest that Ordronaux was not on board when Prince de Neufchatel was captured, and cannot be held responsible for its loss. Other documents in the UK National Archives relate to the interrogation of Benjamin Wells, a sailmaker on Prince, the consideration of the British Admiralty to take Prince into service with the Royal Navy, details of the sale of Prince as a prize, the captain's log of HMS Leander, and the "Head Money" papers of Prince de Neufchatel. and married Jean Marie Elizabeth Charretton the daughter of his former patron. His body, while being transported home, is thought to have been thrown overboard by superstitious sailors when their ship nearly sank in a storm. In honor of the man, the World War II U. S. warship, Ordronaux, was named after him.