In the category of old riggings, the Marité has a good place. Known to all for having served as a set for a season of the TV show Thalassa the tall ship is still sailing. A century of history can be seen in her immaculate white sides. A short retrospective of a long life on the waves.
A ship built for the great fishing
Starting from a herring hull, the shipowner Charles Le Borgne, from Fécamp, had heavy work carried out to transform her into a three-masted schooner, named after his daughter: Marité. Launched in 1923, she is a ship of almost forty-five meters long and eight meters wide.
With its three masts and sixteen sails, it was destined for cod fishing on the banks of Newfoundland. She took part in five campaigns of this very hard and demanding fishery for the sailors. Too small and quickly overtaken by steamers, it was sold in 1930 to a new Danish owner.
The Marité continued its cod fishing career in the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland. Then she carried out transport missions in the North Sea, in particular to supply England during the Second World War.
The Marité loses its masts
Some time after the war, the Marité was sold. Its new owner decided to transform it into a motor boat and removed its three masts. Thus transformed, she continued fishing, first herring, then shrimp. It was eventually disarmed and left to be abandoned.
An unexpected restoration
As the Marité began to rot in her anchorage, young Swedes decided to buy her back in 1978 and restore her to her original form. It was only eight years later, in 1987, that the Marité, once again equipped with its masts, could take to the sea. She is no longer a fishing vessel, but an elegant and comfortable cruising yacht.
The return home
A few years later, the Marité is for sale. A Public Interest Group was created in France to buy it in 2004. It became an ambassador for the Normandy region during major events and hosted the filming of the TV show Thalassa .
Six years of restoration, in Cherbourg and then in Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue, and several million euros are still necessary to bring the Marité back to perfect condition and to national and international standards. In 2012, at the end of the works, the Marité returned to Granville, her new home port. She benefits from the label Bateau d'Intérêt Patrimonial.
In 2023, the Marité celebrates its 100th anniversary!
