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Deconstructing ‘The Raft Of the Medusa’
A true tale of hope and despair.
‘Géricault allowed me to see his Raft of Medusa while he was still working on it. It made so tremendous an impression on me that when I came out of the studio I started running like a madman and did not stop till I reached my own room.’ ~ Eugène Delacroix, Diaries 1817
Delacroix was not the only one who was driven close to madness by the Gericault’s painting. Since its creation ‘The Raft of Medusa’ instilled a fanatical and even religious devotion among its admirers. This is not surprising since it is impossible not go mad, when you face unimaginable horror that it depicted.
Towards the Catastrophe.
In June 1816 a French frigate named Medusa with two other ships in its convoy departed from the French port of Rochefort. Medusa carried 400 people on board and was bound to the port of Saint-Louis in Senegal.
The captain was Viscount de Chaumereys, an aristocrat appointed to the position by the king Louis XVIII, but who had not sailed in the last 20 years.
In an attempt to make a good time, de Chaumereys decided to overtake two other ships, Echo and Argus, but due to his inexperience and poor navigation the ship drifted 100 miles off its course.
A day later, on the second of July, de Chaumereys ran Medusa aground off the coast of West Africa. Due to lack of lifeboats on board it was not possible to evacuate all 400 passengers at once, the plan was to make two trips to the shore and back. The supplies that remained on board were planned to be towed with the use of a small makeshift raft.
Alexandre Corréard, a young engineer from Paris, started constructing the raft. It had to be strong enough to carry many barrels of wine, food, passengers’ belongings and no more than 10 people who will help to stir while it was being towed.
Not long after the construction of the raft, Corréard noticed that Medusa’s front was beginning to slowly collapse and leak. The fear among those who remained on board increased as the weather…
