Antoine Choquet de Lindu

Antoine Choquet de Lindu (7 November 1712, in Brest – 7 October 1790, in Brest) was a French architect and military engineer in the service of the French Navy.

Life

Choquet de Lindu was born in Brest on 7 November 1712, into a family of administrators.^[1] Entering the Navy as a clerk, like his father, he executed a very large number of very important buildings at Brest, well known for their solidity if not for their elegance and so perfectly fitted to their purpose. Made sous-ingénieur in 1743, he then became chief engineer in 1746.^[2] From 1764 to 1767, the Ministry of the Navy and the Ministry for War were merged, and Choquet de Lindu was attached to the royal corps of engineers, with a commission as an infantry captain (though he was kept on as director of the maritime works of the port of Brest, under Amédée-François Frézier).

Between 1743 and his retirement in 1784, Choquet de Lindu was chief engineer of the royal navy.^[3] In this role, he devoted himself to the rebuilding and expansion of the port of Brest, producing "works of all kinds" – barracks, hospitals, magazines, dry docks, shipyards, theatres, prisons, sail and rope factories, dams and docks. It has been calculated that the buildings built by him over his whole career have a total area of 4,400 square metres. His main works were a Jesuit chapel attached to the hôpital Saint-Louis, the Brest prison and the three basins of Pontaniou (work on which he restarted in 1751, completing them in 1757).

Works

Buildings

(List drawn from )

• 1738–1744 : Four Bordenave shipbuilding docks
• 1740 : Chapel of the Jesuit seminary, known as the chapelle de la marine
• 1740 : Naval forges
• 1740 : Second prison of Pontaniou
• 1740 : Bakery, washroom, laundry and offices of the navy hospital
• 1740 : Iron and carpentry store
• 1744–1745 : General magazine
• 1745–1747 : High ropewalk
• 1747 : Lead, locks, iron and tar store.
• 1747 : Shooting range on the quai aux vivres
• 1747 : Five-furnace bakery on Parc aux vivres
• 1747 : Expansion of the provision bakery on the lower ropewalk
• 1750–1751 : Brest prison, closure of the Arsenal of Brest
• 1751–1757 : Formes or basins of Pontaniou
• 1753 : Fountain on Quai de la Corderie
• 1753 : Masts store
• 1756–1761 : Barrack-block in quartier de la marine
• 1763–1764 : Second mole at Pontaniou
• 1766 : Théâtre de la marine – built in 8 months, with a favourable acoustic and good sight-lines throughout
• 1766–1767 : Matelot barrack-block (second depot) up to the first floor
• 1766 : Upgrade of the mast-machine
• 1768–1769 : Iron-store along the first Pontaniou basin
• 1768–1770 : Four-furnace bakery
• 1769 : Fountain on quai de Kéravel
• 1770–1771 : Two mast hangars at Le Salou
• 1775 : Cover over the third Pontaniou basin
• 1777–1779 : Barracks behind the hospital
• 1780 : Pontanézen hospital
• the theatre in Brest

He also completed projects outside the port of Brest :

• 1756 : port of La Hague
• 1772 : shipyard at Landevennec, on the Châteaulin river.
• the tower of the phare du Stiff on the island of Ouessant

Writings

He wrote the "bagne" ("prison") article in Diderot's Encyclopédie, and was appointed as a member of the académie de marine in 1752.^[2] He published two works:

• 1757 : La Description des trois formes du port de Brest
• 1759 : La Description du bagne de l'arsenal de Brest