Posted
Update
The trawler wreck has still not been found nearly sixty years after the sinking off Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon. Under what circumstances did the tragedy occur? New research turned up nothing this summer. They must continue in 2022 … Extract from the magazine “1:15 pm on Saturday” of November 6, 2021.
“The Ravenel calls us on 28 [janvier 1962] in the morning at half past eight, to give his catch, his position or the time he had “, tells André to the magazine ‘1:15 p.m. on Saturday’ (replay). The one who was at the time a mechanic on a fishing boat in the same area was one of the last to have been in contact with the trawler missing off Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon with fifteen sailors on board. “He didn’t send out a distress message, nothing at all, so no one took the call.”, specifies the former sailor.
“He thought, ‘Well, the Ravenel, it’s on its way.’ He must have gone up, but when the breeze picked up he must have seen he wasn’t going to be able to fish. The weather got tough. The winds still rose to 110, 120 kilometers per hour. The temperature dropped dramatically. … In five or six hours, the boat can be covered with an amount of ice which can be 50… 60… 70 tons “, estimates André who lost a twenty-one year old brother in this shipwreck.
The State has undertaken to continue research into 2022
Could the trawler, overloaded with ice while the holds are half empty, have tipped over before sinking? “When the boat capsizes, it slowly fills with water. You can’t escape, he analyzes. Sailors are forced to wait for the water to rise. It must be terrible. They mobilized all the trawlers. The Canadian Coast Guard have joined. The helicopters covered a huge area without finding anything on the surface. ”
The sailors of the Ravenel did not send a distress message because “They must have been really surprised. Where? What place? When?” André asks himself. Research was undertaken for a week and then nothing. On February 3, 1962, the Ravenel was declared lost body and property. Research has come to nothing this summer with the help of the DriX surface drone and a robot that can dive to a depth of 100 meters. The state has committed to prosecute them in 2022.
> Replays of France Télévisions news magazines are available on the Franceinfo website and its mobile application (iOS & Android), “Magazines” section.
see all magazines
all the news in video
Receive most of our news with our newsletter
Newsletter subscription
France Télévisions uses your email address to send you newsletters.
articles On the same topic
seen from europe
Every day, Franceinfo selects content from European public audiovisual media, members of Eurovision. These contents are published in English or French.