The ship was attacked and captured by the Albanian pirate Ourochs, who took its passengers prisoner and sold them separately to various Ottoman officials.

Bessières Poitevin and Charbonnel were sold to Ali Pasha and in 1800 the three men were imprisoned in the Fortezza Nuova on Corfu, from which they escaped on the night of 21/22 November that year.

In 1804 he went back to meet Ali Pasha, becoming his agent, and in 1805 he was made France's consul general to Venice.

From 1807 to 1810 he served as French imperial commissaire (i.e. in charge of all civilian affairs of the French-ruled Ionian Islands) back on Corfu.

An ordinance of 3 October 1837 made him a peer of France and on his death in 1840 he was buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery.