Historedia
Episode 1 of 4

Grounding off the Banc d'Arguin

When
2 July 1816
Where
Banc d'Arguin
Part of
French frigate Méduse runs aground off Senegal; the raft scandal

The Méduse ran aground on 2 July 1816, more than 160 kilometers off course, due to navigational errors.

The ship ran into increasingly shallow water near the Banc d'Arguin. Neither the captain nor the navigator noticed dangerous signs such as the mud bottom becoming visible, leading to the grounding.

Sources

  1. French frigate Méduse (1810) Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-05
  2. The Raft of the Medusa Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-23

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.