Par
Géraldine Lebourgeois
Published on
Nov. 20 2024 at 6:47 am
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Dismasted and put out to dry for a large fairing one year ago, November 2023the terre-neuvier Marité, emblematic maritime heritage and ambassador of the Manche department, is not about to return to sea at this time end of year 2024.
However, he was going out of a record season (5,000 passengers), also the one where its centenary was celebrated with pomp. But three mushrooms who have nibbled its hull impose expensive work. THE damage are consequentialas we can see where the hull of the three-masted ship is waiting, in Port-en-Bessin-Huppain (Calvados).
It's hard to see
Today placed alongside a hangar of the Bernard shipyard, on its Port-en-Bessin site, the hull of the 45-meter boat is indeed difficult to see. A spectacle that recalls the dark hours experienced by this survivor and witness to the great era of the Newfoundlands.
Built in Fécamp in 1923the three-masted ship has crossed many stormsin every sense of the word. Like the Phoenix, however, it is reborn from its ashes each time, where pessimists thought it was lost forever.
What will happen this time? Despite the gloomy voices, the members of the Public Interest Group (GIP) which has owned the boat for twenty years do not want to give up.
“The presence of the Marité at the Rouen Armada in July 2027among the 50 most beautiful sailboats in the worldconstitutes the objective to be achieved! », they defend, appealing to the generosity of everyone through a fundraising organized with the Heritage Foundation.
The GIP Marité is made up of the Department of Manche, with a majority of 81%, the municipalities of Granville (9%), Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue (5%), Fécamp (5%), the Maritime Heritage Foundation and fluvial and the association Les amis du Marité.
One hundred years and seven lives
Built in Fécamp in 1923, the Marité only completed five cod fishing campaigns.
Sold for the first time in 1929, it was used for cabotage between Denmark and the Faroe Islands. During the Second World War, requisitioned by the Allies, it was used to transport goods. Abandoned for years, it was found in 1973 at the bottom of a port in the Faroe Islands, bought in 1978 by three Swedes, passionate about this boat to which they devoted ten years to its restoration in order to charter it.
In 1999, on sale again, the three-masted ship was saved thanks to Gérard d'Aboville, navigator and president of the Maritime and River Heritage Foundation. A tour of ports begins for the Marité.
In June 2004, it was bought by the Norman GIP (then Rouen, Fécamp, Manche, Eure and Agglomération Seine-Eure) for 2.4 million euros. In 2006, the boat had to be extensively renovated. It ultimately cost 5.5 million euros. On May 14, 2011, Marité, refurbished, took Granville as her home port.
On June 24 and 25, 2023, we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Newfoundland dog which is entering into a major refit. In view of the damage caused by a wood-eating fungus, the 2024 navigation program is canceled.
From 2012 to 2024, Marité will have carried out commercial missions benefiting more than 200,000 passengers.
Victim of three mushrooms
” There is a strong attachment to this boat, the last cod tanker. It's a iconic maritime heritage and it was for several years, even if the youngest do not know it, the boat offlagship show on TVThalassa”, evokes Gilles Ménard, the mayor of Granville, home port of Married since the May 14, 2011.
We never imagined he was in this state. We couldn't see anything!
The launch of the collectionthe October 25, 2024is notably justified by numerous reactions, individuals, associations and companies who questioned “the means to act, to make their contributions », evokes on this occasion Marie-Pierre Fauvel, vice-presidenton the Manche departmental council and president of the GIP Marité.
The Married is ultimately the victim of not one but three wood-eating fungi. They colonized the wooden hull of the Marité, mainly composed of oak: Coniophora puteana, Antrodia sp., Trechispora farinacea.
The frames that are affected are those that had not been changed 20 years ago.
“But the fungi also attacked the wood installed during the restoration . But there is no doubt on the materials usedand the restoration carried out according to the rules of the art. » The GIP likes to emphasize that the Married is not the only victim such damageciting Hermione as an example.
In question: another use made of the old rigging, “with the breathing of people who descend where we did not descend 100 years ago”, where salt cod was stored, and rainwater infiltration. “The lifespan of Newfoundlands was around twenty years anyway. To have kept the Marité alive for 100 years is already an achievement,” remarked the director of the GIP.
“You have to believe it”
“The call for crowdfunding is the only solution today to restore it. » Asked, Gilles Ménard has no doubt:
We must save him! You have to believe it. But in the current context, with the scarcity of funds, communities cannot carry out the work alone.
The GIP, which relies on the support of the Heritage Foundation, will also have to resort to borrowing to close the budget.
It is therefore well and truly beyond the end of this year 2024 that we must plan to hope to see the Married sail under full sail.
Already restored almost 20 years ago
Many people still want to believe it. And we remember the words of the mayor of Louviers in July 2008 a year when the City of Rouen left the ship while Newfoundland already required a major restoration.
“Le Marité can still last 80 years! », affirmed Frank Martin loud and clear, while the financial weight of the restoration project was controversial.
This work, heavier than expected, already entrusted to the Bernard shipyard, will have lasted almost six years. We then kept only 15 to 20% of the elements of the original boat. Already a subscription was launched to help with financing.
The Married was blessed byBishop of Coutances and Avranches the June 30, 2012in the presence of his godfatheractor and author Jacques Gamblin.
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