It seems a bit strange to start an page about Brittany by mentioning Normandy, but that is how it all started. A year ago I had filled a spare space on the MV Maureen for a trip to Normandy. We had some good dives including the Murree on the way there and again on the way back and overall a quite memorable trip.
Conversation naturally got round to other destinations and the skipper, Mike Rowley, mentioned his favourite was the relatively un-dived wrecks and good visibility to be found in Brittany. Brittany was apparently a hot hunting ground for U-boats in the First World War, in the same way as much of our own south and east coasts were.
I suggested to Mike that if he had a spare place for a Brittany trip, perhaps he could give me a call, and nice guy that he is, that is what happened.
I turned up in Dartmouth to what seems to have become one of our regular summer gales. Things were looking dodgy, but by the time we were ready to leave harbour it was at least calm enough to spend a day on the Maine and the Persier, heading a little west to get the wind behind us before crossing to Brittany overnight.
Going to a relatively un-dived area like Brittany, an obvious question was “Just how did Mike get started?” It is not like he could nip out of Dartmouth and have a look for a new wreck or two between diving known sites.
Mike was looking for a new area after Normandy began to get more popular. He was also looking for somewhere with less political hassles with the French authorities.
He began by buying the charts and wreck information from the Admiralty database, together with the equivalent information from the French Admiralty, or “Shome”. The BSAC European area coach also helped provide some information from his own records and French diving magazines and guide books.
Armed with this research, Mike struck a deal with one of his regular groups to do some exploratory diving. On the first trip they found the Swansea Vale, Kléber and Saracen.
Exchanges of information with local divers and subsequent trips have extended the list of wrecks found. For example, on my trip Mike located 4 new wrecks, two of which we dived
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Even if you can't read French, an interesting guidebook is Memoires englouties; Plonges - Histories su les epaves du Finistere, Bruno Jonin, Paul Marec. ISBN: 2-9508434-0-9