Galley Slave: Seafarers' Voices No. 1: The Autobiography of a Protestant Condemned to the French Galleys by Jean Marteilhe is a remarkable memoir which tells of the miseries of Jean Marteilhe of Bergerac, a Protestant condemned to the Galleys of France for his Religion, who, after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, attempted, like so many French Huguenots, to escape to the more sympathetic Protestant countries bordering France. In 1700, heading through the Ardennes towards Charleroi, he was captured by French Dragoons and thrown into gaol. In 1707 he then found himself, like so many Huguenots, condemned to serve in the French Mediterranean galleys. Little is known of life as a galley slave on these oared vessels. Certainly no accounts have come down to us from ancient Greece or Rome, though a little is known from the time of the Crusades.
Remaindered, fine
