MOTTE, Guillaume Toussaint, Comte Picquet de la, generally called MOTTE PICQUET, French naval officer, born in Rennes in 1720" died in Brest, 11 July, 1791. He entered the navy as midshipman in 1735, and in 1745-'50 served in Canada. During the war of 1756-'63 he was employed there and in the West Indies, with the rank of commodore, and was promoted rear-admiral at the beginning of the war of 1778, and charged with escorting to the United States a fleet of eighty vessels. In the following year he brought re-enforcements to Martinique, and, joining d'Estaing, contributed to the capture of Grenada in 1779, and the victories over Admiral Byron in June of that year, being afterward sent with a division to Savannah. On 18 December, 1779, he defeated Admiral Parker off Martinique. In the following January he made a successful cruise around the Bahama islands, capturing many English merchant ships, and escorted a convoy safely to Cape Haytian, after a successful engagement with the English. He then joined de Guichen, but returned a few months later to Europe, capturing on his arrival a fleet of twenty vessels that, carried booty that had been taken in the Dutch colony of St. Eustatius. He was promoted vice-admiral in 1782, but retired from active command after the conclusion of peace in 1783.