Born Claude Louis Deschiens to Jean Deschiens and Marie Beauvoir, a merchant family, Deschiens appears in public records with his baptism at Lorient on 21 February 1745. From the age of 11, he began sailing as an apprentice, first on the cargo Rouillé from 1754, and then on Fidèle.[2]
By 1774, Deschiens had achieved command in the merchant navy and the authorities of Île de France gave him command of the schooner Cheval-Marin to reconnoitre the Chagos Archipelago. In 1776, he was commander of Bouffonne, a 150-ton ship funded by his widowed mother; he departed Lorient on 28 May 1776 and arrived at Île de France on 25 November.[2]
At the outbreak of the War of American Independence, Bouffonne obtained a letter of marque[note 1] and Deschiens set out on 5 June 1779, with 4 guns and 25 men, to engage in the slave trade and to purchase rice.[2]
