BARTH, JEAN, or BART, a French naval hero, the son of a fisherman, h. in 1651 at Dunkirk, but, according to others, in the Netherlands. At.an early age he entered the Dutch navy, but on the commencement of the war with Holland he passed over to the French service. As persons not of noble birth could not then obtain the rank of officer in the navy, he became captain of a privateer. In this capacity he displayed astonishing bravery, sf, that Louis XIV. dispatched him on a special mission to the 'Mediterranean. Ills exploits at last induced the king to appoint him lieutenant of a man-of-war. In an action agagainstsuperio- English force he was taken prisoner, and carried to Plymouth, from which be made Ids escape in an open fishing-boat to France, where the king now raised hint to the rank of captain. In the year 1696, Louis XIV. received hint with dis tinction at Versailles, but at the same time spoke continually of the mischance which had befallen him the year before. Stung by this, B. hastened to Dunkirk, and in spite of the blockade of the harbor the English, undertook cruise, in which lie was remarkably successful. Louis 'XIV., in a personal audience in 1697, appointed him to
the of a squadron, upon which n. exclaimed: "Sire, you have done well in this." The courtiers laughed, as at a piece of gross rudeness; but the king took the answer in good part, anti B. very soon showed how well lie merited such an appointment. The peace of Ryswi:..k terminated his active career. He died at Dunkirk in 1702. His rough frankness and co.,rse wit, in which he spared neither high nor low, made him popular, no less than his boldness and readiness for battle. When the prince de Conti was nomi nated king of Poland, B. was required, by command of Louis XIV., to convey him to Elsinore, and the ship being attacked by the English on the voyage, was near being taken. After the action, the prince expressed to him his great delight that they had escaped from the enemy. " We had no need," was the reply, "to be afraid of being made prisoners; I had dispatched my son with a match to the powder-magazine, to blow up the ship on the first wink I"