Five Masted Ship "LA FRANCE" : Press Review

Across the Channel, the France II Renaissance project, under the expert and dedicated guidance of Bernard Bouygues, is gathering pace at an exciting rate. For those of you are not yet familiar with the plan to build La France, the world’s largest Tall Ship, watch the pages of this magazine over the coming months ! Bernard and his team have taken the lines of the 150 meter France of 1911 and designed an entirely new ship around her measurements. (...). It is often said that we and the French share a common national pride, a sense of history, un sens de l’histoire. The last time the French took such a splendid initiative, the British quickly responded in kind. In 1858, the first French ironclad, La Gloire, was launched, much to the alarm of the British Admiralty. As a result, just one year later, the First Lord of the Admiralty commissioned HMS Warrior, a revolutionary new concept in warship construction ; part iron clad, part iron hulled, a truly innovative ship. This century it was the turn of the merchant ships of our two great seafaring nations to compete against each other, with the United States adding a third, fresh dimension. The Blue Riband of the Atlantic for the fastest crossing was hotly contested by some of the most beautiful passenger ships ever built. The majestic Normandie and Queen Mary and the mighty France and Queen Elizabeth, eventually competing against the United States for the coveted trophy. Alas those heady days of elegance have long gone, the Blue Riband becoming nothing more than a trophy for power boat racers ! Surely the time has come to revive the tri-nation racing tradition, only with Tall Ships, crewed by the young people of our great seafaring nations ? (...)

Surely the time has come for the great maritime nations to build new ships (...) in which our young people can experience the sea and all its many challenges, while developing the life skills of young citizens ? The French have set us a fine example with La France ; surely therefore the time has come for a "Great Britain", and a "United State". New sailing ships for the New Millennium. Ambassadors of peace and understanding to the nations of the world. (...)

Commander Nicholas Messinger, Editor


Planned Replica Will Recreate World’s Largest Sailing Ship

What must be the most ambitious project yet to construct a replica vessel is currently being planned in France. The proposal is to rebuilt the world’s largest-ever sailing vessel, the mighty five-masted barque France. The France was launched at Bordeaux in 1911 for the New Caledonia nickel ore trade to Europe. Although not the last commercial square-rigged sailing vessel to be built, the France represents the apogee of merchant sail and her great size and powerful performance can be seen as a culmination of technological developments from the second half of the 19th century which gave such impetus to the evolution of the square-rigger over that time. France measured 5,633 tons gross on a length of 419 feet. Her beam was 56 feet and her depth 25 feet. She was fitted with oil engines of 295 nominal horse power driving twin screws, but under sail alone she was capable of making 14 knots. Her engines were too feeble to make a significant contribution to her performance and they were removed shortly before the vessel’s loss in 1922.

Richard Woodman


 la Gazette du Val d’Oise ,  week of January 14-20, 1998

In the middle of some sad and dilapidated towers in Argenteuil, the shop reminds one of the open sea: compasses, photographs of boats, fishing lines… One would almost think that we were in Douarnenez, or rather on the open seas of Argentina or South Africa. In reality, the Association was created to complete a project: the construction of the greatest ship to sail Cape Horn, a five-masted tall ship 150 m long, with sails totaling 6,350 m²: the worthy heir of "La France", a ship launched in 1911. (…). Admittedly an almost impossible project, one of the instigators, Bernard Bouygues, remarks: "I am anything but a dreamer. We are engaged in a project that many believe to a crazy one. There are about fifteen of us, each one adept in a specialized area of expertise. We asked ourselves how we could enter the third millenium with a million hours of work. We wanted something intelligent, something beautiful, befitting the economic and social context of the end of the 20th century."

Thierry Tazé-Bernard


"It generally appears that the France is lacking in great unifying projects and most of all, in ideas. Not so for Bernard Bouygues, who wishes to revive the greatest tall ship in the world… For five years now, a team has been working toward the construction of this gigantic ship. His plan is complete save for a few finishing touches: an agreement with the city where the construction site will be built (this will soon take place) and funding. The ship, set for completion early in the year 2000, will offer a large spectrum of functions. The people who conceived this project wanted above all an on-board naval training school that will benefit marine trade. Its conception will also permit the ship to act as ambassador to France worldwide, serving to promote its culture, traditions and innovations. At the same time, "La France" could encourage skill training in maritime tourism and cruising, as well as receiving some 200 passangers for cruises to New Caledonian seas, notably, skirting the Capes. But the most passionate aspect of this adventure which has captured thousands of curious people from Brest 96 to the most recent Boat Expos is the quality and intelligence of its preparation. For Bernard Bouygues, an essential feature of the project is the guarantee of 750,000 working hours and more than 250 jobs. (…) The total budget, estimated at 400 million francs, will be met through national subscriptions in addition to other sources. Each gift will be converted immediately into units of working hours. Everyone may contribute what they can, be it through time or money, as an act of direct participation in both the construction of the ship and the creation of a job.

François de Guillebon


 On the stand of "France II Renaissance"

 For a good number of visitors, the Boat Expo 96 remains a place of dreams, of the unreachable. This year, however, visiting the stand of "France II Renaissance" will remind those passionate about the sea of the meaning of the word "adventure". They will also learn that the greatest tall ship that ever navigated the world’s seas, under the French banner, was run aground in July 1922 on the Térembra reef, 60 miles north of Nouméa, carrying a mixed cargo transporting nickel toward France. The had ship passed Cape Horn several times.

On Friday evening, Eric Tabarly made an appearance to inaugurate the stand of "France II Renaissance" by ringing an exact replica of the ship’s bell. Harboring a personal passion for tall ships, the French navigator supports the project: "a passion that goes back to my childhood," and later rediscovered through his readings. "This ship," he explained, "was the pride of French Sailing: it is part of our heritage and if we could reconstruct it, it will serve as an extraordinary ambassador to our country; wherever it docks, noone will be able to ignore it."


An ambitious project

Former owner of a shipyard in Southeast Asia, and equally having traveled in New Caledonia, Bernard Bouygues expects to reconstruct this splendid tall ship that is 150 meters long with 6,350 m² of sails. It has been two years since he has created an association with others who are passionate about their maritime heritage. The goal is to revive a symbolic tall ship and to turn in into a naval school manned by a 90-member crew of cadets in training.

On the stand, one can admire the superb model of the five-masted ship, the result of 12,000 hours of painstaking work of its maker, Gilbert Carrouget.

 Marie-Laure Bernard


"France II Renaissance": the Project of the Century

"How can you gather thousands of visitors around the Sails of Freedom and the Armada of Liberty without the desire to give them the means of an ambassador ship flying the colors of France?" explained Bernard Bouygues who asked the French whether they were ready to create thousands of hours of work "for the price of four movie tickets, and to simultaneously endow our country with a great training ship which, outside of its official cruises, would offer training in the trades of the sea?"

(…) it refers not only to reviving a symbolic ship that will carry the name of its home port to all the harbors in the world, but also to giving renewed respect to the expertise and the spirit of perfection of the carpenters of old on a shipyard that is open to the public. Visitors can witness the daily progression of the work through various phases of construction. (…) The model of the ship (to which Gilbert Carrouget poured over twelve thousand hours of meticulous work) did not fail to evoke a certain infatuation for the project when it was presented at Brest 96. The model has since found its home at the Drugstore Matignon where it is expected to seduce as many Parisians into this enterprise, actively supported by Eric Tabarly who, as all sailors know, never speaks for the sake of speaking.

Alalin Sarraute


see more in French language...


 mail:
France@Grand-Voilier.com

Grand-Voilier.com
19/07/2004
© French Ship Academy