There are about half a dozen escape plans of Napoleon from Saint Helena – or rather abduction projects since they were all conceived outside the island – and they all share the common point of never materializing...
Frédéric Couvert / historian, member of the Napoleonic Memory
These projects were devised in a favorable context: the royal ordinance (drafted by Fouché) of July 24, 1815, listed fifty-seven traitors to the Nation, most of them officers guilty of rallying to Napoleon during the Hundred Days. As a result, most of the exiles chose exile, the only means of escaping certain death. Indeed, thirteen death sentences followed (including three carried out: Ney, Lariboisière, and Mouton-Duvernet). Most of the Bonapartist exiles found themselves in the United States, where they joined Joseph Bonaparte, Count of Survilliers as he was now called, near Philadelphia (Point Breeze), along with figures like Grouchy or Carnot. Others chose New Orleans, where Bonapartist sympathizers soon accounted for a third of the city's population! It's worth noting that New Orleans was the target of the Anglo-American War that began in 1812, and the city was saved from a final English assault in January 1815 thanks to the determination of Francophone militias and General Jackson's American troops (future President of the United States).
Another contextual element: in 1815, the Spanish and Portuguese colonies in America were in turmoil, with independence movements, following the French occupation of the Iberian Peninsula, multiplying and quickly leading to the independence of Mexico (1821), Argentina (1816), and Brazil (1822). This climate of rebellion, where the French were popular, allowed many Bonapartist officers to consider a new career path. It's also worth recalling that, following the second Treaty of Paris, French territory was occupied by foreign powers until 1818, making any Bonapartist return to France itself unthinkable until that date.
The guardianship of the island of Saint Helena
Hudson Lowe, the new governor of Saint Helena, arrived on the island in April 1816. Naturally anxious, he knew that his career depended on neutralizing his illustrious prisoner, and he continually sought to prevent any attempt at communication with the outside world, leading to the expulsion of several of Napoleon's close associates (including Las Cases as early as October 1816). Another "paranoiac" deserves mention: the French ambassador to the United States between 1816 and 1821, Hyde de Neuville (1776-1857), was constantly on alert and engaged an army of spies tasked with monitoring the Bonapartists refugees in the United States, including Joseph, suspected of harboring plans for Napoleon's escape.
To the credit of Hudson Lowe and the French ambassador in America, there is a precedent: the escape from the Isle of Elba, even though the context is different. Indeed, Napoleon had already distinguished himself with surprise returns (from Egypt in 1799, from Russia in 1812, and finally from Elba in 1815). He was considered capable of anything: wasn't he the one who declared "impossible is not French"?
Thierry Lentz describes the surveillance of Napoleon on Saint Helena with an incisive formula: "The five circles of excess." First, there's the ocean, immense, and the numbers speak for themselves: Africa is 1,800 km away, Brazil is 3,200 km, and Europe is 6,900 km. The two closest islets, Ascension at 1,100 km and Tristan da Cunha at 2,400 km were occupied by the English in 1815 and 1816, respectively, with permanent garrisons. Next, the Royal Navy is permanently present around the island with one ship, three frigates, and four brigs based at Saint Helena. The island itself seems impregnable: its coasts are bristling with rocks, reefs, and sheer cliffs; it's a natural fortress that prohibits any landing. The garrison, initially seven hundred strong, reached up to three thousand men; add to that five hundred cannons (batteries), as well as a telegraph system: Napoleon is undoubtedly the best-guarded prisoner in history! At Longwood itself, located over 300 m above sea level, ninety soldiers permanently guard his residence, subject to a curfew. Within it, a British orderly officer is even assigned permanently. Furthermore, the road leading to the port is dotted with guard posts requiring a pass to reach Longwood... These excessive military expenses accounted for approximately 80% of the cost of captivity.
Escape projects
Despite these stringent surveillance conditions, intended to deter any attempt at escape or liberation of the illustrious prisoner, daring plans still emerged. At least half a dozen are documented from 1817 onwards (1). Whether founded or not, they had the result of alarming the English and the monarchists.
Pernambuco is a province of Brazil (capital: Recife), which proclaimed its independence from Portugal and the republic in March 1817. Its geographical interest for potential Bonapartist liberators rests on the archipelago Fernando de Noronha, which is attached to it, and which can serve as a nearby base for an expedition to Saint Helena. French Colonel Paul Latapie, exiled in the United States, was considered the leader of such an expedition. He could also rely on the networks of Pauline Fourès (former mistress of Bonaparte in Egypt), herself a refugee in Brazil. The expedition began to be executed as a steamer, the brig Parangon, conveyed Colonel Latapie along with General Michel Brayer (1769-1840), himself a refugee in the United States (sentenced to death in absentia in 1816) with several dozen Bonapartists. The reassertion of control by the Portuguese in May 1817 prematurely ended the expedition, most of the French members of which were arrested and expelled to Portugal. General Brayer, on the other hand, escaped arrest and continued the fight, but against the Spaniards in Argentina and then in Chile in 1817-1818. This affair was taken seriously enough by the British that it led to the tripling of sentinels on Saint Helena by Hudson Lowe. When he learned of it in 1818, Napoleon himself judged this expedition as "madness" (2).
Jacques Roul's (1775-1840) project is not very different. This former orderly officer of Napoleon on the island of Elba envisioned a similar raid from the United States with eight hundred men, via Brazil in 1817. Facing a lack of funding, he turned to Joseph, who declined. In retaliation, Jacques Roul himself denounced the alleged plot to Hyde de Neuville, implicating Joseph and Grouchy. Royalist agents would closely monitor them, although their involvement was never established.
Another project involves Captain Thomas Johnstone (1772-1839), known as Smuggler. According to Walter Scott (Life of Napoleon, 1829), this Irishman, inspired by the works of the American Fulton who had invented a similar device (the Nautilus) for the benefit of the French under the Consulate and tested on the Seine, also constructed a submarine (the Eagle!) with ballast, propelled by sail on the surface and by oar when submerged. He planned to conduct trials on the Thames when the English police seized his submarine in 1817, suspecting a plot to escape from Saint Helena. However, this overlooks the incredible difficulties that would undoubtedly have rendered such a project unfeasible, especially since it involved a mechanical chair hoisted by a rope to lower Napoleon onto the shore! Montholon reported that upon learning of this affair, the Emperor declared, "It's a story good for amusing children."
Joseph Lakanal (1762-1845), a former regicidal convention member in exile in the United States and a Freemason supported a project to proclaim Joseph "king of Mexico," then in full anti-Spanish turmoil, as a possible springboard for an expedition to Saint Helena in 1817. He raised funds for this purpose through the establishment of the "Wine and Olive Co." located in Alabama, Marengo County, Aigleville - one couldn't make this up! - presided over by another exiled French general, Lefebvre-Desnouettes (1773-1822). Once again, Joseph's reluctance, likely understanding that his tranquility (or even his life) depended on his neutrality, as well as the temporary resumption of Spanish control in Mexico, thwarted this project.
Champ d'Asile (Texas) was a true settlement colony founded in 1818 by one hundred and twenty exiled Bonapartist officers, most of them from the Wine & Olive Co., established in a virgin "no man's land" between New Spain (Mexico) and the United States. It was led by General Antoine Rigault (1758-1820), exiled to New York in November 1817, as well as the two Lallemand brothers, Charles (1774-1839), who had joined Boston in April 1817 after being denied permission to accompany the Emperor to Saint Helena by the English in 1815, and Henri (1777-1823), also banished and residing in Philadelphia since 1817. The Champ d'Asile colony was militarily and economically supported by the pirate Jean Laffitte, who headed a "Republic of Barataria."
This Frenchman served as a midshipman in the French navy, participating in the expedition to Saint-Domingue in 1802, before becoming a privateer leading a private army in service of the Americans, earning him fame when he victoriously defended New Orleans against the English in January 1815 with fifty ships, several cannons, and nearly a thousand men. Did all these men, loyal to Napoleon and supported by Jean Lafitte's fleet, have the intention, as suspected by Hyde de Neuville, of rescuing the Emperor? In any case, the Champ d'Asile colony, which reached four hundred settlers, subjected to blockade and Spanish raids, and facing increasing suspicion from the United States, was devastated by the Spanish in October of the same year, leaving the project without a future.
Finally, another project was considered by Commodore Stephen Decatur (1779-1820). Approached by the exiled General Bertrand Clauzel (1772-1842) and Joseph Lakanal (again him), this American officer was a hero of the daring raid on Tripoli in 1804 against the Barbary pirates. However, he died prematurely - and foolishly - in a duel in 1820, thus definitively putting an end to a bold liberation attempt.
Finally, another escape project was considered in 1820
Nicolas Girod (1751-1840), a Savoyard born in Cluses, emigrated to New Orleans, then French, long before the Revolution, and served as mayor (American) from 1812 to 1815. He distinguished himself during the siege of the city by the English in 1814-1815 with the decisive assistance of Jean Laffite. In 1820, he built a wealthy residence in New Orleans, called "Napoleon House" (located on Chartres Street today), supposedly intended to accommodate the Emperor once liberated.
This reinforced the suspicions of the French ambassador, especially as Girod simultaneously commissioned a clipper named Séraphine in Charleston, commanded by Dominique Youx (1775-1830), a former French gunner, pirate, and above all, half-brother and deputy of the privateer Jean Laffite! Unfortunately, the Emperor passed away on May 5, 1821, just before the presumed departure of the expedition...
Napoleon's stance
One observation is immediately apparent: none of these projects received Napoleon's approval. Besides their uncertain feasibility (the Emperor himself estimated the chance of escaping from Saint Helena at one in two hundred), he couldn't bring himself to abandon his numerous entourage (about thirty Frenchmen), who would likely have faced the death penalty for complicity in such an attempt. Additionally, all these schemes lacked flair, something Napoleon couldn't bear, as demonstrated by his attitude on the Isle of Aix in 1815. Montholon recounts in his Memoirs this disillusioned reflection from the Emperor: "They offer me an escape plan: all these plans are absurd and degrading; do you see me disguised as a sailor or a Chinese, descending to the shore by a rope and hiding in a beer barrel in the hold?" His only real hope of leaving Saint Helena with dignity remained that of an official liberation, a hope dashed by the Congress of the Allies in Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818.
Failing to seriously consider an escape, Napoleon, resigned, and took malicious pleasure in testing the nerves of his English guardians regarding his presence on the island. For example, by evading the sight of the sentinels for several days, or, ingeniously, by sending his chaplain, Father Vignali (who resembled him), to traverse the estate on horseback at a gallop in 1819, creating the impression of a ruse, which put the entire island on alert. Finally, the illness that weakened the Emperor since 1816 also dissuaded him from attempting any escape plans.
Napoleon also understood the significant advantage of a slow death on Saint Helena for posterity: it was better to die as a martyr of the English oligarchy than to ridicule himself in a futile escape attempt.
The ultimate victory
The lack of money, support, rigor, discretion, and realism (but not imagination!) is the common trait of all these projects devised outside the island. Ultimately, all these aborted projects, once they reached the ears of the English, only increased the surveillance around Napoleon, leading to an excess of means, proving the fear he still inspired in his enemies! Even though fanciful, these projects served the Emperor's grand design of wanting to die as a martyr before History. He confided to O'Meara: "The more they persecute me, the better it will be, and it will show the world what rage of persecution the English are capable of!" And Hudson Lowe eventually became the most infamous jailer in history... By remaining at Saint Helena at all costs, Napoleon indeed won his most important battle there, the battle of memory.
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