Raymond-Jean-Baptiste de Verninac Saint-Maur

[2][a] His father was brother of the diplomat Raymond de Verninac,[7] He was born in Souillac on 11 June 1794.

[8] In 1829 Verninac took command of the corvette L'Astrolabe, with which Jules Dumont d'Urville had made his first voyage around the world.

He went to Alexandria to pick up the mission led by Jean-François Champollion, which had completed three years of exploration and studies in the Nile Valley.

[8] The steam corvette Le Sphinx, a three-masted schooner that was the first steam vessel of the French Navy, was used to tow the specially built Le Luxor barge, which carried the obelisk from Thebes to Paris.

The obelisk remained on the quay of the Seine for two years before being erected in the Place de la Concorde on 25 October 1836.

He was always interested in new ideas, and was quick to recognize the revolutionary impact of steam on naval warfare.

Severe cuts to the naval budget prevented Verninac from implementing his ideas for reform of the navy and construction of modern vessels.

He left office fours days later when Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was announced winner of the presidential elections.

[3] A bust of Verninac was installed in Souillac in 1898, but was removed by German occupying forces in 1942.