Readers of the blog might be interested in a new biographical study of Jean Paul Fonclar
de Grenier, a soldier in the Pondicherry regiment, who was a fellow passenger of Macintosh aboard the Brisson in 1778. The study’s author, Jean-Luc Brachet, was kind enough to get in touch with me during the preparation of the biography, and we were able to share some findings that enrich our respective accounts of life aboard the Brisson. It was Jean-Luc, for example, who spotted that the ship’s cook, about whose cuisine Macintosh frequently complains in Travels, was the unfortunately named Monsieur Rat.