The many lives of the Poisson Volant

0:00Every day, excessive delays and denials from big insurers keep patients from accessing the care they need. And when care is urgent, these delays can be disastrous. These practices cost billions in wasteful spending, driving up costs for American families. But while big insurers put up barriers, America's hospitals and health systems are in your corner. Navigating endless reviews and appeals to get you the care you need when you need it most. It's time to curb these harmful practices and put the focus back on patients. Brought to you by the Coalition to Strength in America's Health Care. Welcome to another deep dive. Pull up a chair because we are just thrilled to have you here with us today. Yeah, absolutely. You are the crucial third mind in this room with us. And today, we've got a really fascinating stack of notes, historical records and a wonderfully specific Wikipedia article to share with you. It is remarkably specific. It really is. Our source material today details the history of a wildly popular ship name between the years 1760 and 1814.

1:00And that name is Poisson Volnot, which for those of us who might be a little rusty on our French translates to flying fish. It sounds quite poetic on the surface, honestly. It kind of does. But peering into the geopolitical landscape of this era paints a much grittier picture. I mean, I'm currently looking at an old naval map of the Caribbean and the English channel to just sort of ground us. Set the scene for us a bit. Well, during this period, the oceans are highly contested. We had British Royal Navy ships constantly intercepting French vessels, but these weren't just official naval warships squaring off in, you know, formal coordinated battles. Right. It wasn't just huge lines of ships firing at each other. Exactly. The oceans were absolutely swarming with privately funded vessels known as privateers. And for reasons that almost defy statistical probability, Poisson Volnot was an incredibly common name for these privately funded French ships. Okay, let's unpack this because the sheer absurdity of how often this specific name pops up in the naval records is just mind boggling. It really is. It's like looking at a modern phone book and trying to find a John Smith, except, well,

2:07except John Smith is a heavily armed sailing vessel trying to steal your cargo. Right. And you were just constantly bumping into him in the middle of the ocean. The records show the British capturing Poisson Volnot's across completely different decades and totally different oceans. That's wild. With the sense of the frequency, we can look at a detail from early 1797 involving the British ship HMS Magician on January 13th of that year, they captured a Poisson Volnot. And the logs indicate this was a formidable vessel. It was armed with 12 guns and carrying a crew of 80 men. So a serious threat. Very serious. The British crew secured the prize and continued their patrol. But then just a month later on February 16th, barely four weeks later. Exactly. That exact same British ship captured another vessel. Let me guess the name. Its name was also Poisson Volnot. You cannot make that up. The second vessel was slightly smaller though, armed with five guns and a crew of 50 men. I just try to imagine being the British captain writing that log book.

3:09You really have to wonder if they thought they were caught in some sort of maritime time loop. What's fascinating here is a detail from a later account regarding that second capture. That second Poisson Volnot was not even French. Really? No, it was a Dutch privateer operating out of Kureka. Oh, wow. The British center ended Jamaica to be legally condemned as a prize. But think about what that shows us regarding the massive scale of privateering at the time. Right. This specific name, Flying Vesh, was so overwhelmingly popular across different nations and different island colonies that the British were practically tripping over them in the Caribbean. Tripping over flying fishes. Exactly. Yeah. It had essentially become a pan-national brand for maritime opportunists. A brand for maritime opportunists. That is the perfect way to frame it. And speaking of opportunists, this leads us perfectly into what we can really only describe as the 18th century gig economy. The side hustles of a high sea. Exactly. I was looking through the notes at a capture from July 24, 1797 by HMS Concorde off Cape

4:11Finister. Ah, yes. The vessel commanded by Captain Lattart. He was commanding a foregun vessel operating under letter of marquee. That's the one. And the detail that stands out for you listening at home is Lattart's actual business model. It's so pragmatic. He wasn't just out there hunting ships full time. He was sailing from Bordeaux to Guadalupe, and his hold was packed with a cargo of wines and merchandise. He was a merchant first. Right. His privateering was entirely a side hustle. He planned to act as a standard delivery merchant, drop off his wine cargo in the Caribbean, and then use his empty ship to cruise the West Indies as a privateer. Maximize the trip. He was basically driving for an 18th century delivery app, but with cannons in the trunk just in case he saw a competitor on the route. A delivery app, where the driver might face a broadside from a heavily armed frigate if they miscalculate their route. Yes, slightly higher stakes than missing a turn. Just a bit. But it's vital to understand the economics of the era, to grasp why Lattart would even

5:12risk this. Privateering was not aimless piracy. That's a really important distinction. It is pirates were outlaws who attacked anyone and they could be hanged by any nation. A letter of mark, however, was a government license. It authorized a private person to attack and capture enemy vessels during wartime. So is legal. Entirely legal under their nation's laws. It was a highly calculated business venture for investors and captains alike. Lattart was simply hedging his financial bets. He had guaranteed income from the wine delivery and the potential for a massive lottery level payout from capturing an enemy ship. And the British captains were fully aware of how dangerous this hybrid model was, right? Oh, absolutely. Captain Roberts of the Concorde actually admitted in his official report that Lattart ship was incredibly fast in light winds. He specifically noted that if they had not caught him early, which only happened because the fog cleared it exactly the right time. Right. Sure luck. But Roberts noted that if they hadn't caught him, this particular poisson belong could

6:14have done considerable mischief. A considerable mischief usually meant devastating the local supply lines and driving up the cost of goods for entire colonies. It's a huge economic threat. It is. Lattart was a professional with a sizeable ship, but the economic incentives of privateering drew in a much wider demographic. You see a lot of amateurs trying to get a piece of the pie. Right. The gold rush mentality. Consider the capture from just a month prior to Lattart in June 1797 by a revenue cutter named Blively. The logs note they captured a poisson belong out of not three days out of more lay. This vessel was remarkably small. It was only 12 tons berthin armed with just two swivel guns and carried a crew of 25 men. I have to pause you there because we need to translate some of this 18th century nautical terminology for everyone. When you say 12 tons berthin, how big of a boat are we actually talking about? Good question. Berthin is an old measurement of cargo carrying capacity.

7:14With the physical weight of the ship itself, a 12 ton berthin vessel is roughly the size of a modern medium sized moving truck. A moving truck? Yes. It's not a warship. It's a coastal boat. And a swivel gun is essentially a small cannon, sometimes resembling a large shotgun mounted on a pitot rail. So not exactly ship sinking artillery? No, it's designed for anti-personal defense, not for sinking other ships. Put yourself in the shoes of those 25 sailors. You are crammed into a tiny boat the size of a moving truck with barely enough room to breathe let alone sleep. You have been miserable. You are armed with what amounts to two large shotguns and you are sailing out into a heavily patrolled war zone against actual warships. Desperate people taking desperate risks. The allure of that prize money must have been a literal maritime gold rush to make that risk seem worthwhile. Well, the custom service official, Mr. Dubois Smith, dutifully noted in his report that this tiny little boat had taken zero prizes. Not entirely surprising. The reality of the ocean quickly caught up with their ambitions.

8:17The prize money could set a poor sailor up for life, sure, but the low barrier to entry meant people were heading out to sea severely under-equipped. Here's where it gets really interesting because even the well-equipped ships found themselves in situations of absolute desperation. Oh, the trend chase. Yes. It's a detail chase on June 27, 1797 by HMS Trent. They were ten leagues east of Yarmeth when they spotted a French privateer Lugger. A Lugger being a small, fast sailing ship with multiple masks and four cornered sails. They were specifically built for speed over firepower. And ten leagues puts them roughly 30 miles off the coast. Exactly. The ship they spotted was brand new only 18 days out of Hoff de Grice. And its name, you guessed it, was Poisson Valon. HMS Trent, which is a massive British warship, gives chase. The French crew realizes their Lugger is being outpaced. So in a sheer act of desperation to lose weight and gain speed, the French crew physically heaves their 14 cannons overboard into the ocean.

9:20Such an extreme measure. I want us to think about the physical reality of that for a second. cannons weigh thousands of pounds, moving them across a pitching wooden deck while being fired upon by a pursuing warship is incredibly dangerous. It's frankly a miracle they didn't sink their own ship doing it. But it also represents a catastrophic loss of capital for the venture capitalists who funded that privateer. Right because someone back in France paid for those guns. Cannons were some of the most expensive pieces of equipment on any vessel. Throwing them overboard is the 18th century equivalent of a modern tech startup burning all of its servers just to outrun a competitor. That is such a great analogy. But there is a crucial operational fact hidden in the data of this specific capture. When the British finally boarded the vessel, they counted a crew of 50 men. The logs, however, indicate that 28 men from the original crew were missing. They clearly didn't jump overboard with the cannons, so where did half the crew go? This illustrates the mechanical reality of the privateering business.

10:21Those 28 men were away sailing a brig and a ship that the Poissonville lot had already captured as prizes off a place called Buckiness a few days earlier. Oh, I see. When a privateer captured a merchant ship, they couldn't just tow it behind them. They had to divide their own crew, putting a prize crew aboard the captured vessel to physically navigate it back to a friendly port where it could be legally processed and sold. So their success actively made them weaker? Precisely. They achieved their exact business goal capturing two ships. But it meant they were sailing around an active war zone with less than half their crew. Right. Each of us Trent found them, they barely had enough men left to handle the sails, which perfectly explains why they had to resort to dumping their expensive cannons. It forced a constant balancing act. If you succeeded too much, you paradoxically made yourself vulnerable to the next British warship that sailed over the horizon. The gig economy bites back. And we must impartially observe the grim reality underlying these operational mechanics. This was a lethal geopolitical conflict.

11:21And sailors on both sides were dying for the economic ambitions of their respective nations. It wasn't just a game of tag on the water? No, not at all. A clear example is the capture in April, 1801 by the hired armed cutter stag off beachy head. Ah, yes. They chased down a 14 gun-lugger Poisson volunt out of Belon, commanded by citizen Jacques Antoine Head. He was only four days out of Dieppe. And unlike the vessel that threw its guns overboard, Captain Head's crew engaged in a firefight. They fought back. They did. Before finally surrendering, two of his men were killed, and four were wounded. The historical records show that on a previous cruise, this single ship had successfully captured six different vessels. Six vessels. That's a huge, successful cruise. It was, though, four of those six were eventually recaptured by the British. But the human casualties highlight the severe stakes behind the bureaucratic veneer of letters of Mark and prize courts. It grounds the history for us. Behind every logbook entry about a captured ship, there were terrified sailors fighting

12:25for their lives. Exactly. Which, honestly, makes the administrative bureaucracy of this era all the more jarring. It brings us to the great maritime recycling bin. The life cycle of these vessels. The life cycle is almost comical in its efficiency. It is a remarkable economic loop. Let's look at April 4, 1797. HMS Tamar, commanded by Sir Thomas Byam Martin, is escorting a convoy from Barbados to Martinique. It's standard escort duty. They encounter a four-gun French privateer named Poisson Voulant out of Guadeloupe. They capture it. But Captain Martin realizes he recognizes the ship. He does. He had actually captured this exact same vessel earlier that very same year. To understand how a captain captures the exact same ship twice in a matter of months, I want you to trace the journey of this single hull of wood and canvas. Walk us through it. So, the British capture the ship the first time. They don't sink it. They send her into a port like Antigua. Here a vice admiralty court holds a hearing to legally condemn the ship of a legitimate prize of ore.

13:25Which is fascinating in itself. It wasn't just finders keepers. They had a whole judicial process to ensure the crown got its cut and that the capture didn't violate international treaties. Precisely. Once legally condemned, the ship becomes British property. It is then put up for public auction. The buyer, often a merchant, sails it to a neutral island in the Caribbean. Okay, so it leaves British hands. Right. At this neutral port, a company of speculators operates. These were essentially the venture capitalists of the 18th century actively looking for cheap naval assets. That's it, flippers. Exactly. They buy the ship, take her back to the French colony of Waterloo, apply for a brand new letter of mark, recommission her as a French privateer, name her plus on the long and send her back out to sea. Where she promptly runs right back into Captain Martin. Right into him. Who gets to capture her, sell her and collect the prize money all over again. They were legally processing these ships, flipping them for cash and sending them back into the war zone. It is the ultimate recycled asset.

14:26The fluidity of maritime assets in this period was total. A ship was just a tool, holding no inherent national loyalty. If you captured it, you simply put it to work against its former owners. And sometimes that lack of loyalty got completely lost in translation. Oh, the bonetta capture. My absolute favorite detail from your notes is from May 4th, 1796. The British ships HMS Esperance and HMS Bonetta are sailing when they chased down a schooner named Poisson Vouant, heading from OK's to New York. A classic pursuit. The French crew tries all the desperate measures. They throw their cannons overboard. They even cut down their gunnels to lose weight. The gunnels being the upper edge of the ship's side. Cutting them away reduces weight, sure, but it drastically reduces the structural integrity of the vessel in rough seas. They basically destroy their own ship, trying to escape, but they get caught anyway. And when the British board the ship, they realize the architecture isn't French. Not French at all. It was actually the former British ship, HMS Flying Fish. The French had captured it a year earlier, in June 1795, while she was on her way to Jamaica.

15:30And instead of coming up with a new name. The French captors literally just translated Flying Fish into French and painted Poisson Vouant on the side. It perfectly encapsulates the pragmatic nature of the era. The British reclaim their ship, bearing its newly translated French name. The ultimate bookend to this recycling narrative happens in mid-1803. Captain Vanton's squadron captures an American built 12 gun French privateer. Also named Poisson Vouant. Her name was Poisson Vouant. But the British decide not to auction this one off. They commissioned her directly into the Royal Navy. And what are they name her? HMS Flying Fish. HMS Flying Fish. They just translated it back. American built, French operated, British commissioned. A single physical object representing three different global powers in rapid succession. So what does this all mean? We have this massive list of captures, small 12 ton boats and large 14 gun luggers, all bouncing back and forth across the ocean, changing flags like people change coats.

16:31If we connect this to the bigger picture, it forces you to completely rethink how historical conflicts operated. History is frequently taught as a rigid binary. Side A versus Side B. Good guys and bad guys. Right. But the reality of the 18th and 19th century maritime world was an incredibly messy pragmatic web. It was driven entirely by economics. It always comes back to the money. It does. Venture Capital is waiting at neutral ports to flip captured assets. The constant recycling of ships through vice admiralty courts and shifting legal definitions created an environment where a single piece of wood and canvas could be legally British, then French, then American, or Dutch, all within a matter of months. I want you to remember this the next time you feel overwhelmed reading about the complexities of modern global supply chains or the instability of the modern gig economy. It's nothing new. Think about Captain Lattart trying to safely deliver his cargo of wine while moonlighting as a heavily armed privateer. Or think about those speculators in neutral ports, buying up captured ships to fuel the

17:33war machine for profit. The hustle never changes. Exactly. The hustle, the side gigs, and the exploitation of international legal loopholes are hundreds of years old. It provides a sobering historical perspective. And it leaves us with one final, perhaps deeper concept for you to ponder as we conclude our analysis of these records. What's that? What we have talked entirely about the ships changing hands, changing names, and changing flags. But what about the men on board? The actual sailors. In a world where your ship changes its nationality every few months, what did that do to the psychological identity and loyalty of the individual sailors? Their very survival depended on a piece of paper, a letter of their bark that could instantly turn them from a legitimate businessman into a criminal to see. Just depending on whose warship was looking through the spyglass. Entirely depending on that, it is a profound cushion of human identity in an intensely fluid and dangerous world. A piece of paper that defines whether you are a wealthy merchant or a pirate destined

18:34for the gallows. Thank you for joining us in the room today. We hope you enjoyed diving into the chaotic, recycled world of the Poissonville lawn as much as we did. Keep questioning the history you read, and we will see you next time. The Toyota Tundra and Tacoma are built to keep going, blending rugged muscle with precision engineering, all supported by Toyota's time-tested legacy of dependability. Step into a Tundra and feel the unyielding capability with the available iForce Max engine. Tundra puts out impressive power, torque, and towing performance, and the roomy high-tech cabin keeps you connected on the go. Or take a look at Tacoma made for drivers who push past the path, agile, tough and relentless with available features like crawl control, portable JBL speaker, a power lift gate, so gear goes in fast, and the adventure keeps moving. The Tacoma and Tundra are engineered to endure season after season, mile after mile. To drive one home today, visit toyota.com or stop by your local Toyota dealer to find out more Toyota, let's go places. You're listening to a podcast right now.

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