Claude Louis Deschiens de Kerulvay (February 1745 in Lorient – 10 September 1796, Modeste, Indian Ocean) was a French slave trader and privateer.
From the age of 11, he began sailing as an apprentice, first on the cargo Rouillé from 1754, and then on Fidèle.
[2] By 1774, Deschiens had achieved command in the merchant navy and the authorities of Île de France gave him command of the schooner Cheval-Marin to reconnoitre the Chagos Archipelago.
In 1776, he was commander of Bouffonne, a 150-ton ship funded by his widowed mother; he departed Lorient on 28 May 1776 and arrived at Île de France on 25 November.
[2] At the outbreak of the War of American Independence, Bouffonne obtained a letter of marque[note 1] and Deschiens set out on 5 June 1779, with 4 guns and 25 men, to engage in the slave trade and to purchase rice.