la Concorde on 25 October 1836. Verninac was promoted to Commander. In 1838 he was made director of the steam packet boats carrying mail in the Mediterranean. He was promoted to Captain in 1842. Verninac was appointed a member of a commission to organize and arm steam boats. He was one of the first captains to enter the Admiralty council in 1848. He was always interested in new ideas, and was quick to recognize the revolutionary impact of steam on naval warfare. Political career Verninac was appointed under-secretary of state for the Navy and Colonies on 6 June 1848, and Minister of the Navy and Colonies from 17 July to 20 December 1848 in the cabinet headed by General Louis-Eugène Cavaignac. He became a deputy for Lot in July 1848. Severe cuts to the naval budget prevented Verninac from implementing his ideas for reform of the navy and construction of modern vessels. He was named Rear Admiral on 16 December 1848. He left office fours days later when Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was announced winner of the presidential elections. Verminac chose to remain faithful to Cavaignac. Later years On 8 July 1849 Verninac was elected representative for Lot in the Legislative Assembly. He was general councillor for Lot from 1848 to 1852. Verninac did not sit in the Assembly after the coup d'état of 2 December 1851. Bonaparte named him governor of Réunion, then of the French establishments in India. He retired from active service in June 1856, and returned to France in 1857. On 30 December 1864 he was made Commander of the Legion of Honour. Verninac died at Souillac on 11 February 1873 at the age of 78. The Admiral's son Louis-Raymond de Verninac de Saint-Maur became a Commander in the navy. His son Charles de Verninac was elected Senator for Lot in 1883. A bust of Verninac was installed in Souillac in 1898, but was removed by German occupying forces in 1942. A replacement bust by the sculptor Pascal Peltier was erected on 30 June 2007. References Notes Citations Sources 1794 births 1873 deaths People from Lot (department) Politicians from Occitania (administrative region) Ministers of Marine and the Colonies Members of the National Legislative Assembly of the French Second Republic French Navy admirals