Par Writing Morbihan
Published on 5 Jun 22 at 11:00
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The seabed is rich. Off Lorient in Brittany, in Locmiquélic precisely, there is a boat with a unique history: the Isère. This French Navy propeller-driven transport frigate participated in the transportation of the Statue of Liberty.
A boat built and… sunk in Lorient
The Isère was launched by the Navy in April 1866 and removed from the lists in 1911 (decommissioned in 1909 at Rochefort). It is one of the first Caudan shipyards to have a metal hull.
After problems with a Mangin-type propeller, the commissioning is effective in June 1868. In April 1924, the frigate was towed to the Lorient arsenal. It will be used as a pontoon. The German navy decided to move it to Locmiquélic at the end of the Second World War.
–But why did the boat sink in 1945? ” It would have been scuttled by the Germans during the Lorient pocket according to Mr. Foulonneau”, explains the Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service of the Navy (Shom). The wreck measures 63 meters.
–Transport of the Statue of Liberty
For the Navy, the boat goes to many ports (Le Havre and Cherbourg Brest, Lorient, Toulon and Oran in the Mediterranean). He took part in significant missions: in April 1871 in Hamburg after the signing of the Franco-German armistice, for example.
But this ship remains in history for its crossing of the North Atlantic (between Rouen and New York) for carry the Statue of Liberty. Present in Paris at the time, it was dismantled and put in crates in the boat (as a kit with 210 crates divided into 80 tons of copper, 20 tons of iron frames). Loaded in May 1885 in Rouen, the frigate arrived in New York on June 17, 1885 with the Statue of Liberty. Despite a storm, the Statue of Liberty arrived safely.
Practice. Latitude: 47.7244286° and longitude: -3.3533118°To go further: https://la-memoire-des-minahouets.neopse-site.com/fr/rb/101337/lisere-et-locmiquelic
Historical novel by a local author: “The three lives of Isère – The ship that transported the Statue of Liberty to New York” by Margerie Bernard.
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