François Aregnaudeau (sometimes written "Aregneaudeau"[1]) (Nantes, 22 August 1774[2][3] – disappeared with Duc de Dantzig around 1812) was a French privateer captain.
[6] Around July 1798, Aregnaudeau was 4th officer on the privateer Sandwich, under Aimé Durand, taking part in the capture of Marguerite, Bernstorff, and Williams.
[7] In 1799, commanding Heureux Spéculateur,[8][9] Aregnaudeau captured several ships off Dartmouth, notably two transports loaded with iron bars and three merchantmen valued at 1.5 million francs.
Aregnaudeau on 3 August took her and Flirt, a former Royal Navy brig but now a whaling ship that was returning to London from the South Seas Fisheries, into Pasajes.
After several years in captivity, Aregnaudeau was exchanged and resumed his career on the lugger Actif,[14][15] capturing an American merchantman, and later the brig Joséphine.
Damaged by a heavy sea, Duc de Dantzig had to throw her guns overboard to remain afloat and returned to harbour.
A fantastic tale, quoted by Napoléon Gallois,[22] states that a French frigate encountered a ghost ship, an unmanned vessel drifting in the ocean.