Pierre Douville (August 7, 1745 – July 17, 1794) was a French-Canadian naval captain and lieutenant who served in the American Revolution and French Revolution. Born on present day Prince Edward Island, Douville survived the 1758 Acadian deportation to France. He joined the French Navy and lived in Rhode Island during the American Revolution. During the American Revolution, he served as a French military intelligence officer who provided General George Washington with British ship and troop movements. Douville also took part in a smuggling mission in 1775, when he brought weapons and gunpowder from the French West Indies to the United States. Douville was one of the original members of the Society of the Cincinnati. Douville died in 1794 fighting for the French during the Glorious First of June.
Early life (1745–1758) Pierre Douville was born on August 7, 1745, in the town of Havre-Saint-Pierre, otherwise known as St. Peter's, on the island of St. John, which is present day Prince Edward Island. He was the youngest son and the tenth child of François Douville and Mary Roger. François Douville was the first inhabitant of Havre-Saint-Pierre and came to the island in 1719. Originally from Normandy, France, François and Charles Carpentier were shipwrecked on the island in 1719, "farther to the east [from where Havre-Saint-Pierre would be settled], at Naufrage." In a 1752 census, François Douville was one of the wealthiest inhabitants on the island, who made his living as a "fisherman, navigator, and ploughman or farmer."
Deportation and life in exile (1758–1763) In 1758, Pierre's family was forced to leave Havre-Saint-Pierre in what is known as the "Grand Dérangement", or the Expulsion of the Acadians. During the French and Indian War, the siege of Louisbourg Fortress in 1758 resulted in the British expelling the French-Canadians from St. John. The British put Havre-Saint-Pierre's inhabitants on a ship to St. Malo and destroyed the town.
The ship Pierre and his family were on landed at St. Malo in January 1759 after three months at sea. Within a few months of arriving at St. Malo, Pierre lost three sisters and one brother from disease.
Return to Canada (1763) Until 1763, Douville and his family lived in Saint-Servan. By 1763, the French and Indian War had ended. Even though France ceded its former colonies in North America, the British returned "the island of archipelago of St. Pierre and Miquelon" to the French. Douville and his family left Saint-Servan for France's last North American colony in June 1763 on the Marie Charlotte.
When the Douville family arrived at Miquelon they were granted land on the Ile-aux-Chiens, or the "Island of the Dogs," which was located in the harbor of Saint-Pierre. At an unknown date, the family moved to Saint Pierre and Miquelon.
Life at sea (1763–1775) In 1764 Douville left his family for a life at sea. His first job was aboard the fluyt The Nanny. The ship was contracted by the French crown to transport "displaced Acadians from Europe to Cayenne in French Guiana."
In 1765, at the age of twenty, Douville was promoted to second lieutenant aboard the ship Two Friends. The Two Friends transported 45 Acadians to France from Saint-Pierre and Miquelon in 1765. The 45 Acadians were forced to leave the French colony due to the colony's overpopulation.
Between 1765 and 1770, Douville worked on merchant ships that traded goods between Saint-Pierre and Miquelon and New England. Around 1770, Douville moved first to Pawtucket, and then to Providence, Rhode Island. He became "a shipmaster working for wealthy merchant houses" up until the American Revolution. Douville's knowledge of the New England coast would make him an important asset in the war.
American Revolution (1775–1783)