On August 1792 he was a quartermaster aboard the vessel Entreprenant which was a part of a naval division under Rear-Admiral Louis-René Levassor de Latouche Tréville.

Tréville's division joined together with another squadron of Admiral Truguet and took part in attacks on the Sardinian municipalities of Oneglia, Cagliari and Nice.

[citation needed] He took part in the action of 7 October 1795, in which Rear-Admiral Joseph de Richery's squadron met with a British convoy bound for Smyrna, capturing 30 out of 31 merchant ships, and retaking the 74 gun Censeur.

This expedition returned to France the largest collection of plants animals and seeds from New Holland and Timor that Europe had ever seen, including two short-legged emus from King Island who lived out their days in Josephine's garden.

[citation needed] Baudin rejected ideas amongst his crewmen that they should found a settlement there, and he wrote letters back home to this effect.

Hamelin's men initially removed the plate but it was returned on his orders and left intact until a later visit by Louis de Freycinet in 1818.

This marked the start of the Mauritius campaign of 1809–1811 between the French and the British, to maintain control of these well-located islands between the coast of Africa and India.

On 26 April, after orders from the general captain of Mauritius to leave, he sailed off, having under his command Vénus, the frigate Manche, the brig Entreprenant, and the schooner Créole.

[citation needed] The completion of the hero's welcome in 1811 was that his name was inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, on the north pillar, the only naval officer to be so honored from the Napoleonic Wars.