Bart, Or Baert, Jean, a French naval officer, born at Dunkirk, Oct. 20, 1651, died there, April 27, 1702. He was the son of a fisherman, and early took to the sea. The royal navy being at this period inaccessible to persons of his class, he distinguished himself in command of a privateer. Louis XIV. commissioned him to cruise in the Mediterranean, and in 1697, in consequence of his bravery, appointed him captain of the squadron during the French Avar with the Netherlands. Bart became by his unexampled feats of daring the terror of the enemy. On one occasion, a famine existing in France, he recaptured from the Dutch 100 vessels loaded with grain. At another time, when Dunkirk was blockaded, taking advantage of a fog, he sailed through the English and Dutch fleets, and destroyed 86 merchantmen; then making a descent near Newcastle, he destroyed 200 houses, and returned safely with property valued at 500,000 crowns. He was married twice, and had 13 children. His elder son, Francois (born in 1677, died in 1755), became vice admiral. Jean's brother Gaspard was likewise a brave sailor, as were also other members of the familv, the last of whom died in the French West Indies in 1843, with the rank of lieutenant.

M. Vanderest's Histoire de Jean Bart was adopted in 1841 as a text book in the maritime schools of France. A statue of Jean Bart was erected at Dunkirk in 1845.