Guillaume Delcourt

Guillaume Delcourt (31 March 1825 – 2 February 1898) was a Belgian Royal Navy officer, navigator, naval engineer and maritime advisor to King Leopold II. He was one of the major players of early Belgian expansion around the world. Guillaume Delcourt's parents died young, leaving him an orphan as a child. His mother was Barbara Wittouck, who died in Brussels on 17 June 1830, and was daughter of the jurisconsult Guillaume Wittouck after whom Delcourt was named. His father Napoleon Joseph Delcourt, a brewer born in Ath, was injured while fighting for the Belgian Revolution in 1830 and died three years later in Antwerp on 30 July 1833. After the death of his parents, he was raised by his mother's sister, Jeanne Wittouck, and her husband, Jean-Louis Van Dievoet, Secretary of the Court of Cassation. He descended from the Houses of Serhuyghs, Sleeus, t'Serroelofs, Coudenbergh, and Roodenbeke of the Seven Noble Houses of Brussels through his mother. After a brief career in banking, Delcourt was admitted at the Royal Military Academy in 1842 as an officer candidate of 2nd class. He graduated after two years as an officer candidate of 1st class. In 1845, he started to sail on the Macassar; on board he had to face numerous challenges in the China Seas: typhoons, storms, grounding.etc. He then sailed for Batavia. In route for Singapore in 1847, his ship was attacked by pirates in the Riau straight. On his way back, it was almost shipwrecked. Delcourt, then aboard the Louise Marie, sailed for the Rio Nunez, where Leopold I had created a colony, and arrived there on 10 February 1849. He participated in the Rio Nuñez incident on 23 March 1849. During his return, his ship silted up, found itself in a bad position and took shots from partisans of Mayoré but was saved by the Africans who stayed loyal to the Belgians. After the successful campaign, Leopold I promoted him to the rank of Ensign at sea. He made another trip in 1850 to the Rio Nunez, but the situation had worsened. He then left for the Belgian colony of Santo-Thomas, in Guatemala, which was also collapsing.