06/20/2026
Many Thanks to Nick & Agnes Madarasz for stumbling upon this ship and map while touring France 🇫🇷.
Translation from ChatGPT
These photos commemorate one of the most important connections between France and the American Revolution: the departure of the young Marquis de Lafayette for America in 1777.
Translation of the Main Historical Marker
A merchant ship built in Bordeaux in 1771 was renamed La Victoire by a nineteen-year-old young man on March 7, 1777: Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette.
Lafayette needed a ship to travel to America and fight alongside the American insurgents (the future revolutionaries).
From Bordeaux, La Victoire sailed to Pauillac, where Lafayette discreetly joined the ship, despite King Louis XVI having forbidden him from leaving France.
On the night of March 25, 1777, Lafayette secretly boarded with the hope of reaching America.
After a stop at Le Verdon-sur-Mer on March 26, Lafayette loaded weapons aboard the ship at the small Spanish port of Pasajes (Pasaia). Defying all prohibitions, the ship finally set sail for America on April 26, 1777.
Fifty-four days later, on June 13, 1777, La Victoire arrived at South Inlet in South Carolina.
Lafayette was assisted by Major Benjamin Huger and traveled on to Philadelphia, where he met the man who would become the hero of the War of Independence: George Washington.
The ship that carried Lafayette to America later sank on its return voyage to France, and its wreck is believed to still rest off the American coast.
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Translation of Map Callouts
Pauillac
* Lafayette boarded the ship here on March 25, 1777.
Le Verdon-sur-Mer
* Stopover on March 25, 1777.
* Departed on March 26, 1777 for Pasajes (Pasaia), Spain.
Bordeaux
* La Victoire departed on March 24, 1777.
South Carolina
* “Friday, June 13, 1777, Lafayette and La Victoire anchored at South Inlet near Georgetown, South Carolina.”
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Translation of the Granite Plaque
“From here, on March 25, 1777, Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, embarked aboard La Victoire with the hope of reaching the Americas.”
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Why This Matters to Georgetown
This is particularly meaningful for you as someone from Georgetown County.
Lafayette’s arrival point was North Inlet / South Inlet, just south of present-day Georgetown. Most Americans associate Lafayette with Philadelphia, Yorktown, and Washington, but his first landing in America was actually on the South Carolina coast.
The South Carolina Connection
After arriving:
1. Lafayette stayed briefly in the Georgetown area.
2. He was welcomed by Major Benjamin Huger’s family.
3. He traveled north to Philadelphia.
4. Congress commissioned him as a Major General in the Continental Army.
5. He became one of Washington’s most trusted officers.
6. His support helped secure French military and financial assistance that proved decisive in defeating Britain.
Without Lafayette, many historians believe American independence would have been much more difficult to achieve.
