salvage and only the very worst of the wounded and the dead remained aboard, though some possibly stayed aboard in the hope of being rescued by a French ship rather than a British and avoid captivity.Alfred rescued about 100 men; Rattler, about 40; and Culloden, 127, including Captain Renaudin, who abandoned his ship and left in the very first British boat. He was taken to Culloden and served a meal in the officers' mess; as he dined with his son and other French and British officers, a commotion was heard; racing to the gallery of Culloden, the party witnessed Vengeur sink with the remaining wounded aboard. Figures of the casualties on Vengeur are not precisely known, but amount to approximately 250 killed during the battle, 106 drowned in the sinking, and 367 rescued by the British.Cunot (p.432) gives 267 survivors, including Renaudin, his brother and their two sons who served on Vengeur as boys; 250 men killed; and 206 drowned in the wreck. Legacy The sinking of Vengeur du Peuple was exploited for political purposes in France, as several sailors were said to have cried "Vive la Nation, vive la République!" ("Long live the nation, long live the republic") from the bow of the ship as she foundered; this was bloated out of proportion by French politicians, who added that the sailors had waved the tricolour, sung La Marseillaise in defiance, and even continued firing guns until water reached them while the ship foundered, to eventually sink with her rather than surrender. They also extrapolated that the entire crew had disappeared with the Vengeur, a claim disproved by the return of captured crewmembers as they were quickly released from British captivity.Barère, Rapport..., p.4 The origin of the legend is a speech made by Bertrand Barère at the National Convention on 21 messidor (9 July), Rapport sur l'héroïsme des Républicains montant le vaisseau le Vengeur,The World's Famous Orations where he claimed that Vengeur had refused to surrender, nailing her flag, and that all the sailors had died with the ship, giving a last shout of "long live the Republic" and waving all sorts of flags and pennants while the ship disappeared. Lord Howe denies the account entirely, claiming that it never occurred, a position followed by many British sources.Jane, p. 95 Thomas Carlyle originally included the legend in his The French Revolution: A History, prompting Rear-admiral John Griffiths – who, as