Canadian sailor, merchant, soldier, explorer and colonial administrator, born July 16, 1661 in Villemarie, Montreal, and died July 9, 1706 in Havana, Cuba, victim of yellow fever, a disease that often struck the Caribbean at that time.
A man of action, he is known to have fought effectively against the British army for most of his life, destroying several enemy colonies, in addition to founding forts and participating in the exploration of North America.
He is thus the founder of the French colony of Louisiana, in New France, and of the cities of Biloxi (today Mississippi) and Mobile (Alabama).
In 1706 Iberville captured the English-held island of Nevis and went to Havana to obtain reinforcements from the Spanish, the established enemies of the British, and thus attack in the Carolinas. He was a captain in the French navy, an accomplished sailor, recognized as the hero of Hudson Bay.
The famous high-ranking military man died in Havana of yellow fever in the summer of 1706, aboard his ship El Justo. He was buried the same day in the Church of San Cristóbal de La Habana. Later, his remains were transferred to the Palace of the Captains General, which is now the Museum of the City of Havana, where his tombstone can still be seen.
His brief passage in Cuban history was perpetuated near the fortress of "La Punta", at the entrance to the Bay of Havana. The statue of the overseas admiral, donated by the city of Quebec, was indeed erected in 1999 in a privileged landscape, his gaze fixed beyond the ocean, towards the northern homeland, where he could never return.
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