On 31 July 1761 the French ship "Utile" ("Useful"), a frigate of the French East India Company, chartered by Jean-Joseph de Laborde and commanded by Captain Jean de La Fargue, transporting slaves from Madagascar to Mauritius in contravention of Mauritian law, ran onto the reefs of the island. The ship had departed Bayonne in France with 142 men. After a stopover on Mauritius (then called the Isle de France), the ship embarked 160 Malagasy men, women, and children at Foulpointe, on the east coast of Madagascar, to bring them into slavery on Mauritius, despite the prohibition of trafficking decreed by the governor. A navigation error, due to the use of two conflicting charts, caused the vessel to wreck on the reefs of Tromelin Island (then called the "Isle of Sand"). The ship was a frigate, not a slave ship, and thus was not equipped with the shackles and chains usually found on slave ships.