With Fortune de mer, Clément Belin and Costès have us embarked on the Bourdon, an ocean-going tugboat that watches over the coast of Pointe Bretonne. If the Bumblebee looks like the Bourbon Bee, we quickly understand that the authors really sailed on this Saint-Bernard des mers. The bridge, the pace of life on board, the landscapes are too precise not to feel the experience.
Rather than a great sea tale, Fortune de mer tells above all an expectation. Waiting at anchor for a cargo ship to call on him to avoid a disaster. But this story also shows the background of the sea rescue where the protagonists fight to get a boat in tow. Using ploys, sometimes even risking their ship, to tow one to the port.
Even if the names of the characters are changed, even if the trogans and characters are caricatured, Fortune de mer is above all a documentary rather than a beautiful story. The drawings with very few colours further describe the real side of Breton sailing in bad weather.
By trying to tell "a story", this book gets lost in social considerations. The story lacks the strength to be totally attractive. Lovers of tugboats or the merchant navy will find their place in the story. The most novice sailors sometimes have difficulty finding their way around these sailors' exchanges.
Fortune de mer received the Bravo Zulu 2018 Marine Literary Award, an annual prize for books related to the maritime world.
- Futuropolis Edition
- 19.5 x 26.5 cm
- 120 pages
- 20,00 €
