Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Krohn, Joseph Hyacinthe

KROHN, Joseph Hyacinthe, French mariner, b. in Neuville, France, 16 Aug., 1766; d. in Saint Jean d'Angely, 21 March, 1823. He entered the navy in 1782, was wounded in an engagement with the English in the waters of St. Croix, and served in Santo Domingo from 1789 till 1795, where he won the commission of frigate-captain. He commanded the French navy in Guadeloupe under Hugues from 1795 till 1799, and fought several successful engagements with the English fleet, which enabled the captain-general to reconquer all the French colonies in the West Indies. Krohn would have risen to the highest ranks had not his education been neglected. In 1801-'2 he com- manded a division of the expedition to Santo Domingo, but he lost all his crew from yellow fever in Havana. The admiral gave him orders to burn his ship, but Krohn opened the prisons in Havana, and recruiting 500 outlaws, maintained such strict discipline that he captured three English men-of-war. From 1804 till 1808 he commanded the station of Santo Domingo, and inflicted great damage on English commerce. He resigned in 1814, when he received the rank of commodore.