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(excerpt of the book by Marcel
Burel, "Roscanvel, in the Crozon Peninsula", and published with
his agreeable authorization). Thanks to the author.
The wrecks in Roscanvel :
Since an immemorial time, the Roscanvélistes pulled resources of the sea that
an ungrateful earth too often refused to them. Interested spectators, they
rarely left their eyes from the sea in which they could hope for some unexpected
godsend. One reads in the life of Saint-Guénolé that roscanvélistes brigands
raged in the VIème century on the coasts, ambushed to the entry of leGoulet,
robbing on earth and sea". This position privileged in border of a
frequented way of sea provided them good crops ; it is even likely that "These
three good sailors" didn't hesitate to ransom the ships merchants. One
knows how, alerted by the public rumor, the four sons of Catmaglus, crossed the
roadstead in the black intention to sack the attics of the abbey of Landévennec;
but there, the generosity of Saint-Guénolé opened their eyes so they were
converted. This edifying reversal didn't yet prevent this tradition of robbery,
kept by new generations and that enrolls in the toponym of Kerlaër (the village
of the thieves), to maintain themselves for a long time, sign obvious of the
place of the wrecks in the local economic system.
The registers of The admiralty of Quimper indicates that between 1700 and 1800,
about forty wrecks nearly took place on the coasts of the Crozon Peninsula.
Three ships : the "Saint-Jacques" of Dieppe (June 20, 1722), the
"Dauphin" of Saint-Yves (June 6, 1736) and the "Dame Digne
Jeanne" of Midelbourg (June 10, 1770) were stranded on the beaches
roscanvélistes. This frequency is first bound to the importance taken by
Camaret of which the port and the roadstead are a necessary stop for the
sailboats that wait for wind or the favorable tide to enter into le Goulet or to
clear the dangerous passages of the Raz de Sein and the Fromveur. In the bay of
Camaret, stopover of ships come from all over the world, pass in transit of the
various cargos as much that rich, that hardly benefit to the residents, even
though Torrec de Bassemaison who has the monopoly of the import of the rogue and
that arms to the coastal navigation, pull important incomes of his stores of
avitaillement of the Notic. This temporary wealth, multiplied by the growth of
the tonnage of the ships and that encourages a handful only of privileged, can
only attract nearly the lust of the inhabitants of the Peninsula. So, after
years of waiting, the wreck is lived like a providential redistribution, a grant
of the Sky that finally offers lucky residents a part of abundance daily seen.
During the XVIIIth century, the conditions of navigation stay precarious in
spite of the biggest precision of the cards and the best formation of the
pilots; the coasts of the Peninsula is sowed of so many reefs and dangerous
passages that the navigation is there almost always perilous. If the port of
Camaret is appreciated for the safety of its anchorage, it happens that the
ships that could not get in time at the shelter are drossés at the coast : it
is the fate of the "BelleUrsula" of 1'Ile dYeu (January 27, 1741) on
the beach of Trez-Rouz or the "Marie-Françoise" of Quiberon (October
6, 1789) under the cliffs of Quélern. The ships that leave the anchorage of
Camaret take, for embouquer le Goulet, the marks of the Liéval rock and
Capuchins, but there is big danger, when the approach is approximate, to clear
bass Goudron and the tray of "les fillettes", where the high funds
increase the speed of the current. If the wind misses or blows in storm, the
ships, unable to operate, make coast between the Capuchins and the tip of
Cornwall. Such is the fate of the "Saint-Jacques", the "Dolphin"
and the "Lady Worthy Jeanne".
A wreck, occurred on the coasts, is really to be considered like a major event
that modifies the course of the local life deeply. When it occurs the day, the
residents who are held ready followed of the top of the cliffs the despaired
efforts of the ship and the crew ; sometimes the wreckage is discovered the
morning by thevery numerous shore runners, especially in winter. At the instant,
the news of the breakage hawks itself from the inshore villages until the
borough and to the hamlets of the Roadstead, Sometimes even beyond the parochial
limits. A wreck, it is indeed the hope of an immediate gain, sometimes of a
momentary improvement but substantial of the standard of living. It is why,
leaving instantly their occupations of the moment, all valid men hurry toward
the place of the wreck and immediately begin a real depredation of the ship, so
much the hours are counted before the intervention of the Admiralty
representatives, come to impose a stern regulation that disrupts the ancestral
habits. It is true that the law ruins the hopes of a whole population to whom
are imposed a collaboration, of which everybody hopes to pull reluctantly
advantage.
- Copyright 1995, extracted from the book "Roscanvel, in the Crozon
Peninsula" by Marcel Burel,
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