Les Galères de France et la société des galériens : 1660-1748

The oared warships of france and the oarsmen society (1660-1748)

• Auteur / Autrice : André Zysberg
• Direction : Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie
• Type : Thèse de doctorat
• Discipline(s) : Histoire
• Date : Soutenance en 1986
• Etablissement(s) : Paris, EHESS

Résumé

Des annees 1660 aux annees 1748, des dizaines de milliers d'hommes furent condamnes a ramer sur les galeres du roi de france: voleurs, faussaires et assassins, aussi bien que vagabonds, contrebandiers, deserteurs, ainsi que des protestants dont le seul crime etait de demeurer fideles a leur religion. Le fichier informatique des forcats, etabli d'apres les registres d'inscription de la chiourme, donne une image statistique de cette population. De 1680 (debut des registres) a 1748 (fin des galeres), il y eu 60 000 condamnes. La majorite d'entre eux etaient des deserteurs et des contrebandiers, puis venaient les criminels de droit commun. La peine des galeres representait-elle vraiment un enfer destine a tourmenter les mechants? comme la chiourme (l'equipage des rameurs) formait ''l'ame d'une galere'', il fallait du temps pour entrainer et endurcir les galeriens. Il serait naif de croire que l'on obtenait ce resultat en frappant continuellement les hommes a coups de corde. Mais si la vie en mer etait toujours apre, cruelle, humiliante et eprouvante, leur vie au port de marseille, quand les galeres etaient desarmees, comportait de longues periodes de repos, des tolerances, des petits avantages et des libertes, qui auraient paru inimaginables et scandaleuses dans un penitencier ou dans une prison du xixe et du xxe siecles.

From about 1660 to 1748, tens of thousands of men were sentenced to pull the oar on the wargalleys of the king of france: thieves, forgers and assassins, as well as wagrants, smugglers, deserting soldiers and also protestants whose only crime was remaining faithful to their religion the computer file built by the author with records of royal navy (the ''registres des forcats'') give us a statistical picture of this population. From 1680 (the beginning of these registers) to 1748 (the suppression of the royal galley corps) there were 60 000 men sent by the criminal justice to marseille. The major part of them were not common law criminals, but smugglers and deserters. Did the galley sentence actually represent a hell designed to torment evildoers? since the ''chiourme'' (the convict crew) was the ''soul of the galleys'' and it took time to train et toughen the oarsmen. It would be naive to believe that this result was obtained by constantly striking the men. But if life at sea was always humiliating, harsh, cruel, their life ashore when the galleys were laid up in port at marseille consisted of long rest periods, limited form of freedom, small benefits and liberties that would have seemed unimaginable ans scandalous in a 19th ou 20th century penitentiary.