Marga d'Andurain

Marga d'Andurain (born Jeanne Amélie Marguerite Clérisse; May 29, 1893 – November 5, 1948), was a French adventurer and suspected criminal. During her lifetime, she was accused of espionage, drug trafficking, selling pearls and diamonds on the black market, as well as killing her two husbands and godson, but none of these claims have been conclusively proven. D'Andurain is noted for attempting to become the first female European to enter the holy city of Mecca. She was murdered aboard her yacht, the Djéïlan, at the age of 55.

Biography Childhood and youth Marguerite was born in the family of magistrate Maxime Ernest Clérisse, a judge at the Bayonne court, and housewife Marie Jeanne Diriart. She had a younger brother named Pitt and a sister, Mathilde.

Raised in a provincial, traditional Catholic environment, young Marguerite was always considered a rebel in her community. According to her own, perhaps embellished, account, at one point in her adolescence, her family attempted to have her exorcised by the local Bishop of the Bayonne.

While studying at a Spanish convent, she received the nickname "Marga", which stuck with her for the rest of her life.

In 1947 Marga bought the 53 feet yacht Djéïlan, in Nice, France. The yacht was built 1899/1900 in Norway by the famous Norwegian boat builder Colin Archer. In 1948 Marga used the boat to sail several times between Gibraltar and Morocco.

In November 1948, at the age of 55, Marga d'Andurain disappeared while aboard her yacht, the Djéïlan, in the bay of Tangier, off the coast of Morocco. Her body, thrown in the sea by her killers, was never located.

D'Andurain's life has been the subject of several biographies which are often criticized for embellishing her life story for profit, making hard to distinguish what is true and what isn't.

Julie d'Andurain, Marga's paternal granddaughter, is a professor at the University of Lorraine, where she specializes in African and Arab history during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Publications . Réédition Espaces&signes, Paris, 2019