France (ship, 1911)
The France shortly after commissioning in Bordeaux
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
The French steel Bark France was the largest ever built Windjammer . She was the second tall ship of this name after the France of 1890 and is therefore also known as France II .
history
The France was built in 1911 at Chantiers et Ateliers de la Gironde in Bordeaux for the shipping company Société Anonyme des Navires Mixtes (Prentout-Leblond, Leroux et Compagnie) from Rouen . The shipbuilding engineer Gustave Leverne designed it according to the special wishes of the shipowner Henri Victor Prentout-Leblond (1850–1915). It is considered his personal masterpiece. After it was launched on November 9, 1911, the maiden voyage under its captain Victor Lagniel went to Thio , New Caledonia in January 1912 . Then she was used twice in the nickel ore trade between Europe and New Caledonia. She then transported coal and wool , general cargo and crate oil from Australia , North and South America ( Rio de Janeiro , Montevideo ). She was considered a fast ship; in 1913 she reached New Caledonia from Glasgow with a load of coal in 92 days, the return journey took 102 days.
After Prentout-Lebland's death, the large barque came to the Compagnie Française de Marine et de Commerce (French shipping and trading company ), also based in Rouen, in November 1916 .
For its own protection, it was equipped with two 9.0 cm guns during the First World War . On February 21, 1917, she left Glasgow on behalf of her new owner for a coal trip to Montevideo . On this trip she was attacked by a German submarine on February 27 as part of the submarine war , but was able to escape when it got dark. During the last two years of the war, the France sailed between North America, Australia, New Caledonia and Africa, only to then call at European ports such as Bordeaux and Le Havre again from 1919 . On these trips she transported various goods such as grain , rawhide , coffee , crude oil , mahogany wood , peanuts and again nickel.
In September 1921, on a voyage from Wellington to London , she delivered the largest cargo of goods that ever left New Zealand on a sailing ship. It comprised 11,000 bales of wool and 6,000 barrels of tallow.
Stranding
On the night of July 12, 1922, the ship was on its way to Pouembout in the South Pacific when it hit the Ouano Reef by the swell , about 43 nautical miles northwest of Nouméa off the province of La Foa at position 21 ° 48 ′ 29.8 " S , 165 ° 38 '47.8" O . The Australian Salvage Company initially sent a mountain tug for salvage , but this project was discarded due to the expired freight rates . Finally, in December 1922, the damaged ship was sold to a local scrapping company for cannibalization. France was a well-known landmark on the reef until 1944, but was then used by American bombers as a training target and destroyed. The remains of the rusted wreck can still be seen today.
technical description
The steel, 5,633 GRT ship was designed as a three-island ship . The steel used was manufactured using the Siemens-Martin process . It was easy to recognize thanks to its striking deck line. This was characterized by a long 34.5 meters back , followed by a 35.36 meter long midship island with bridge and cut off from the 43.2 m long poop . The islands left two short areas of the deck open, each with a large hatch . All decks were connected with walkways. At first it was painted in the color scheme preferred by the large French shipping company Antoine-Dominique Bordes & Fils, with a gray hull and a classic black and white porte ribbon . This often leads to the ship being attributed to this shipping company. Later the hull was kept one color, either gray or black. Two lifeboats each for around 15 people were housed on the poop and midship deck. There was a separate wheelhouse at the stern . In the figurehead it was the Marianne as an allegory on France. There were seven cabins for passengers, as well as a wood- paneled saloon with grand piano and library, luxuriously furnished with leather armchairs, sofas, wooden furniture and carpets . A special feature were a darkroom and a sea water therapy system . The France initially received two Schneider diesel engines that drove its two propellers ; however, they were removed in 1919. This significantly improved the sailing properties of the ship. She ran an anniversary rig .
Others
In France there has been the France II Renaissance project since 1995 , with the aim of collecting money for a replica of the ship.
See also
literature
The information in this article is based on:
- Lyman: Five-Masted Square Riggers . Villiers & Picard, Bounty Ships of France
- Jochen Brennecke: Windjammer. The great report on the development, travels and fate of the "Queens of the Seven Seas" . 3rd edition Koehler, Herford 1984; Cape. XXII - The largest of the sailing ships in the world, ISBN 3-7822-0009-8 , p. 299
- Hans-Jörg Furrer: The four- and five-masted square sailors in the world . Koehler, Herford 1984, ISBN 3-7822-0341-0 , p. 93
- Jean Randier: Grands voiliers français 1880-1930. Construction, gréement, maneuver, vie à bord . Editions des Quatre Seigneurs, Grenoble 1974, ISBN 2-85231-012-0
Web links
- France in the Miramar Ship Index
- Photo of France 1912 at the equipment quay in Bordeaux
- Photo of France under full equipment
- Pictures (french)