Saint-Nazaire – a City steeped in Seafaring History
Sunday 4 June – the road trip continues! Another breakfast on the terrace before we checked out of Les Brises and made our way out of La Rochelle towards Brest. Too much driving for one day so we decided to stop off for the night in Saint-Nazaire.
I am so glad we did as even though it is Sunday we were able to immerse ourselves in some of the seafaring history of this town. Our first visit was to Chantiers de l’Atlantique, one of the largest sites in the world to build ships over 300 meters. Tankers, cargo ships and mixed ships carrying both cargo and passengers have been built here, including the largest liner in the world today, the Wonder of the Seas and the longest, the Harmony of the Seas, as well as the notable SS Normandie and the Queen Mary 2. Apparently, each time a new vessel leaves the shipyard on her maiden voyage, a spectacular open-air show takes place in the Loire Estuary to the delight of thousands of locals who turn out to see her set sail. After the 1940 June evacuation of Allied forces during Operation Ariel, this port was occupied by units of the Kriegsmarine - the German Navy submarine base. It stretched 301 metres and used nearly 500,000 m3 of concrete and was built in just 16 months. It housed the fearsome U-Boats plus hundreds of men, until May 1945. The first submarine, U-46, arrived on 29 September 1940. Following the end of World War II in 1945, the Kriegsmarine’s remaining ships were divided up among the Allied powers and were used for various purposes including minesweeping, and the rest were loaded up with superfluous chemical weapons and scuttled!
Part of the Chantiers de l’Atlantique has been set aside as an educational base and museum, so we popped in to see what was going on and were very happy to find out we could book a tour of the Submarine L’Espadon (The Swordfish). Armed with English translation headphones we headed into the building and there in the water in front of us in a huge pen, was this 78 metres long, hulking steel submarine. It was built in Le Havre and put into service in 1960. It was able to dive for up to 5 or 6 days (this was before nuclear submarines) and had a top speed of 16 knots on the surface and 18 knots under water. It was in service until 1985 and during this time spent 1,561 days at sea and 33,796 hours diving. It was active during the Cold War but was never involved in military conflict.
I couldn’t get over how tight all the passages were and how every single space seem to contain dials, knobs, wheels, mechanisms, and it seemed like you couldn’t move without bumping into some (probably very important) part of it. There was also a listening station and a torpedo room. The thought of being down under the water in it, with 64 other companions, doesn’t bear thinking about – claustrophobic wouldn’t quite cover it. Lines of bunks, hot bedding between fellow sailors, a cramped Mess, a tiny kitchen to knock out all of those meals and a single shower! It was so oppressive and confined, and along with the authentic (read eerie) submarine noises which accompanied our tour, it made for a very realistic experience.
In May 1964 the Espadon was sent on a secret mission to the ice fields, along with its sister ship Le Marsouin, to dive into the unknown. It crossed the 70th parallel north into the Arctic where the temperature plummeted to 13 centigrade. It was the first French submarine to cross into the Arctic Circle and this mission had several objectives for the French Navy – testing how the equipment and crew reacted, and ensuring there was a French presence north of Iceland.
Back out of the land of claustrophobia we had a walk around the Shipyard and a bird’s eye view from the Panoramic Terrace where we could clearly see the impressive Saint-Nazaire Bridge which spans the Loire river, and on the other side, a cargo ship coming in for repairs, joining a Carnival cruise ship already undergoing some massive painting and upgrading – no mean feat, all its windows were covered in plastic and sealed.
It was an afternoon well spent and seemed very appropriate given the famous shipbuilding town we are in. Saint-Nazaire is a fairly quiet town and we struggled to find a restaurant open for dinner. However, luck was on our side as we had a lovely walk along the beach front and happened on a small family outdoor café that was serving Breton Gallettes – a speciality of this north western coast of France. Made of buckwheat flour and filled with either savoury or sweet ingredients, we both indulged in delightful savoury chicken gallettes which was the perfect evening meal for us as we sat and watched the sunset from our beach café.
Monday 5 June – there are a number of important memorials on the seafront in Saint-Nazaire and two in particular. The first, unveiled in 1988 reads “in proud memory of more than 4,000 who died and in commemoration of the people of Saint Nazaire and surrounding districts who saved many lives, tended wounded and gave a Christian burial to victims”. This memorial is dedicated to the loss of lives from the HMT Lancastria, a British ship which was mainly used for cruising until it was requisitioned by the Government in March 1940 to be used as a troopship. In June of that year, following the evacuation of Dunkirk and Le Havre, the Lancastria was sent to France to take part in “Operation Aerial” the code name given to the continued evacuations of civilians and British Forces from Western France. On 17 June it was anchored off the coast of Saint-Nazaire and began to board thousands of troops and civilians. Designed to carry only 2,200 passengers, it was chaotic – at least 5000 people on board and some say, possibly up to 9,000. Although full, the Lancastria was told to wait until other ships had finished boarding to leave together with escorts. At 3.45pm a Junkers 88 Germany bomber flew overhead and dropped 4 bombs onto it, causing massive destruction and devastation. She sank in only 20 minutes with the estimated loss of 4,000 lives, the single-ship loss of life in British Maritime history.
The second memorial nicknamed “Sammy” rises out of the Atlantic on Grand Taict Beach, and is almost opposite where we are staying. It commemorates the arrival of 250,000 American troops during World War I. It represents a 19 metre high soldier standing on the back of a 4 metre high eagle and was inaugurated on 26 June 1926, ten years after the arrival of American troops in Saint-Nazaire during World War I. The German army destroyed the monument in 1941 but due to a Franco-American subscription campaign, it was rebuilt in Breton granite in 1989.
And that was it, Saint-Nazaire boxed ticked, we headed off for Brest.
