Jean-Baptiste de Gennes, comte d'Oyac ( – 15 February 1705) was a French naval officer who is known as an early French explorer of the Straits of Magellan. He was the last governor of the French colony of Saint-Christophe on the West Indian island now called Saint Kitts. After he surrendered the island to the English during the War of the Spanish Succession he was tried and found guilty of cowardice. He died before his appeal to this verdict could be heard. He was also an inventor, and among other devices invented a power loom driven by a mill wheel.
Family and early years (1656–91)
Jean-Baptiste de Gennes was born around 1656 in Guérande, Loire-Atlantique. His father was Jean du Boisguy de Gennes, seigneur de Bourg Chevreuil. His mother was Anne Naudin du Vieux-Pont. He came from an old noble family of Brittany that had fallen into great poverty. To maintain the family his father "exercised a mechanical art that is a necessary part of medicine." Louis Victor de Rochechouart de Mortemart, when visiting Brittany, was struck by the spirit and ability of the young Gennes and took him to Messina. He then made him enter the navy, where he served with distinction and became known to Jean-Baptiste Colbert and then to Louis and Jérôme Phélypeaux, secretaries of state for the navy, who employed him on various dangerous missions.
Gennes married twice. He had two or three daughters from the first marriage. His second marriage was to the daughter of a rich merchant of La Rochelle named Savouret. His marriage to Marie Savouret took place on 1 June 1690. They had two children, Jean Guillaume and Anne Henriette. His son also joined the navy.
Naval captain (1691–98)
Gennes was made chevalier of the Order of Saint Louis. He was appointed capitaine de vaisseau (ship-of-the-line captain) in 1691, aged about 35.
In 1695 Gennes was given command of a squadron of the king's navy armed by some private individuals who had obtained permission to make an establishment in the Strait of Magellan, or near there in the north or south sea. Gennes left La Rochelle on 3 June 1695 in command of a fleet of five vessels, the largest being the Faucon (46) and the Soleil d'Afrique (32). The fleet was at Gorée off what is now Senegal from 3–19 July 1695, and in the Gambia River from 22 July to 24 August 1695, where the French captured Fort James on what is now Kunta Kinteh Island from the English. Gennes loaded two vessels with the captured Africans he found in the English base and dispatched them to the French islands of the Antilles. This prize covered all the costs of the armament. Contrary winds forced the rest of the fleet back to Gorée on 5 September 1695. From there they sailed to the Cape Verde Islands, to Saint Anne Island on the coast of Brazil and then to Rio de Janeiro, which they reached on 2 December and left on 26 December 1695.
The fleet sailed down the coast of Patagonia in January 1696. They entered the Strait on 11 February 1696 and reached Port Galant, but were forced to return and reentered the Atlantic on 11 April 1696. Gennes blamed the captain of the Séditieux for the failure to reach the Pacific. Although expedition was unable to pass through to the Pacific due to the extreme cold and poor weather, it made a number of observations of the land and inhabitants of the region.
On 16 April 1696 the squadron was separated by fog. Gennes returned to Rio de Janeiro on 20 May. He rejoined the Soleil d'Afrique and Séditieux (26) on 18 July 1696 in Bahia. The squadron reached Cayenne on 31 August 1696, left the next month to cruise around Barbados, and visited Martinique, Saint Lucia and Guadeloupe. Gennes sailed from Guadeloupe on 11 February 1697. He returned to La Rochelle on 21 April 1697. Gennes was granted considerable pensions for himself and his family, was given a large grant of land named Oyac on the mainland of Cayenne, and was elevated by the king to become the count of Oyac.
Governor of Saint-Christophe (1698–1702)