Abel-Nicolas Bergasse Dupetit Thouars

Who was Abel-Nicolas Bergasse Dupetit Thouars?

Abel-Nicolas Georges Henri Bergasse Dupetit Thouars was a French sailor, vice-admiral, saver of Lima and a hero in Peru.

He was born in Bordeaux-en-Gâtinais, Loiret. He was adopted by his maternal uncle Vice Admiral Abel Aubert Dupetit Thouars, adding the Dupetit-Thouars to his name.

He took part in the Crimean War, where he was wounded and was made a Knight of the Légion d'honneur. In 1868, he commanded corvette Dupleix during the Japanese revolution. In 1870, he commanded a floating battery on the Rhine river during the Franco-Prussian War.

As a Rear Admiral, he was in charge of the 1880 pacification of the Marquesas Islands, which had been conquered by his uncle Abel Aubert Dupetit Thouars forty years before. On the way back to France, he commanded the French Navy observation mission at the War of the Pacific. Promoted to Vice Admiral in 1883, he died at Toulon on 14 March 1890.

A key south-to-north broad one-way street in Lima, Avenida Petit Thouars, is named after him. It runs through Miraflores, San Isidro, Lince, and downtown Lima wards.