Portrait. The local official of the National Federation of Merit has just handed over. André Hamel, a former long-distance sailor, looks back on his career and his 60 round-the-world tours.
André Hamel, always attracted by the sea (Photo PN)
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André Hamel, always attracted by the sea (Photo PN)
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On L’Hermione, André Hamel decorates Michel Quesnel. (Photo PN)
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In 1967, André Hamel returned to Dieppe on Fort Saint-Pierre.
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Delegate of the Dieppe sector of the National Federation of Merit since 2015, the Dieppe resident André Hamel has just passed the torch discreetly on December 31, 2020 to another Dieppe resident, Michel Quenel, another chief engineer. A long-distance sailor for thirty-three years from 1962 to 1995, André Hamel was active in the UGICT officer union of the Merchant Navy, affiliated to the CGT, then continued until 2009 as a permanent and voluntary secretary.
“I had set a limit, the time has come for me at 76 to take a step back, considers André Hamel. I remain a member, and I will support Michel for a while ”, while fulfilling his functions of administrator of the maritime circle “Mers et Marines”, member of Admmac (Dieppe association of sailors and veterans sailors), but also of private consultant for maritime organizations. Or, at Dieppe town hall, a member of the local public services advisory commission.
Sixty times around the world
A long-distance sailor, André Hamel is proud of his career, he who, from the age of 4, intended for a career as a sailor. After having studied at the Saint-Charles school in Dieppe, the young André joined the Saint-Joseph school in Mesnières-en-Bray, then continued his studies to become a merchant navy officer. In 1962, at 18, he embarked as chief engineer on a steamboat on Liberty Shop which transports 1,000 Renault Dauphine cars for the USA. Then, he called at the “forts” (Richelieu, Saint-Pierre, Crevecoeur) when Dieppe was still the leading banana port in France. He then continued his career on mixed cargo ships before ending it on container ships. At the time 2,400 boxes to be transported, “Which was already a lot, against more than 22,000 today with still fewer people on board”, he notes. ” I finished on the Pascal on the Singapore-Hong-Kong-Japan line. ” During his career, André Hamel carried out 77 embarkations on 31 different ships, covered 1,290,000 miles, ie 60 times around the world at the equator, going to 62 different countries.
“History of seeing”
Once ashore, at the time of retirement, he made, with his wife Monique, a few trips to some of the countries he had discovered stealthily during stopovers, until his sudden death in 2011. And in 2018, he tested a cruise departing from Marseille on the Costa Diadema, “History of seeing”. “Five thousand passengers, 2,800 crew members of all nationalities… We’re on a big floating hotel, we don’t step on each other, but it’s swarming everywhere. “ André Hamel’s relationship with the sea is far from over.
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