This trawler built in 1969 by the Ateliers et Chantiers de Dieppe was ordered by Jean-Claude Menu, shipowner of the Association Rochelaise de Pêche à Vapeur (ARPV). The Angoumois had three "sister ships": the Saintonge II (1968), the Valois (1969) and the Flandres (1970).
"The Angoumois is the second stern fishing boat that I had built" he explains. "It was preceded by the Saintonge. I wanted 38-metre stern fishing trawlers with a ramp and tween deck. This arrangement only existed on 55 to 65-metre vessels at the time. The Dieppe shipyards agreed to build them. They turned out to be excellent boats. In fact, I never had a problem with the Angoumois".
From 1969 to 1978, the trawler worked in the north, west of Spain, and west of Portugal up to the latitude of the Berlingues. In the autumn, however, the Angoumois frequented the waters of southern Ireland.
In 1984, Jean-Claude Menu decided to part with the Angoumois. “It was the last boat I kept. I sold it to a Greek shipping company, but the government refused the visa and subsidized SARMA, which bought it.” Joseph Puillon remembers the trawler very well because he was its skipper from 1970 to 1978.
Life on board:
Twelve men for fifteen days,
The Angoumois left for fifteen-day tides,
Two and a half days to reach the fishing grounds.
The crew consisted of twelve men: a skipper, a second, a chief engineer, a greaser, a boatswain, a cook, four sailors and a novice or cabin boy. Originally from Groix, Joseph Puillon started as a cabin boy at the age of 14 and obtained his skipper's certificate at the age of 24. A resident of La Rochelle since 1965, he has always sailed in industrial fishing and ended his career on the Force 17.
Depending on the tides, the Angoumois landed between 25 and 50 tonnes of fish. In 89, it had still landed 620 tonnes, in 90, 460 tonnes (with a two-month stop) and in 91, 200 tonnes until its breakdown at the end of April. The position of La Rochelle, at the bottom of Gascony is a disadvantage for fishing in the North. "Compared to a Concarnois, a trawler from La Rochelle loses 40 hours per tide, or 10 trawl hauls, which represents 30 fewer days of production per year", explains Yves Hédant, director of SARMA. "The 38 metres were not designed for the North and lack a little protection and hold capacity". These difficult conditions were one of the factors in the decline of industrial fishing in La Rochelle.
The 2012 fire:
The Angoumois suffered a fire on July 12, 2012 and the interior and the footbridge were completely destroyed. To contribute to its preservation and restoration, a group of volunteers and professionals formed an association on February 13, 2015. For his part, the Mayor of the City of La Rochelle Jean-François Fountaine decided with the Municipal Council to allocate a credit of €20,000 in 2015 to clean the interior.
