History of the station
Old-fashioned piloting
Although the Seine Pilotage Station has few records of its past activities (1), we do know that the river has played an important role since Gallo-Roman times: goods from around the Mediterranean and destined for (Great) Britain and the Nordic countries were loaded aboard boats that sailed up the Rhône, then the Saône, before being unloaded and transported to the ships that sailed on the Sequana river. It was from this time onwards that Rouen developed its role as a port, well protected from incursions, at the bottom of its estuary, at the crossroads of the routes linking Southern and Northern Europe.
It was in the 14th century, around 1339, that the term “laman” or “lamain” (2) pilot first appeared in the accounting documents of Rouen’s Clos des Galées. But this doesn’t mean that the institution didn’t exist earlier – there’s simply no known written record of it.
We had to wait until 1417 to find a receipt that clearly spelled out the services provided by the “laman” on the Seine. Texts from this and later periods mention the existence of pilots in Villequier and Caudebec, as well as in Quillebeuf, which were very clearly organized. There were 100 Quillebois pilots for 40 Villequier pilots. The role of the Quillebois became predominant in the 15th century: the sailors of this town beaten by the waves of the high seas obtained the privilege from their sovereign to be the only ones able to practice the trade from Honfleur to Caudebec and vice-versa. This privilege lasted until the end of the 19th century. Pilotage of the ships – which remained thirty-meter-long sailing vessels until the advent of steam power – was compulsory from the roadstead to La Mailleraye; beyond that point, once the great dangers had been overcome, it remained optional as far as Rouen, and was carried out by retired ship captains.
Until the end of the 19th century, pilotage on the Seine was a somewhat artisanal affair: pilots had no naval equipment and were therefore dependent on their colleagues in Le Havre or Honfleur to board or disembark a ship. It should also be pointed out that a large number of vessels bound for Rouen had to call at one of the two estuary ports, either to lighten part of their cargo or to wait for favorable conditions to enter the river.
Navigation on the Seine remained perilous until the river was dammed: until the mid-19th century, shipwrecks were a frequent occurrence, and the name Rouen was banned from many charter parties. In addition to the violent currents and flood bars, the treacherous bottom generated by the perpetual shifting of the banks, the presence of whirlpools dangerous to hulls, the need for favorable winds necessary for the rational progress of vessels, the risk of fog and ice (up until the 18th century, the Seine experienced harsh winters, causing it to be paralyzed by ice) – all these factors hardly encouraged even the most daring captains to “embouchure” the Seine without the presence of a practician well-versed in all these treacheries.
In 1763, Bougard, in the Petit Flambeau de la mer, recommended: “…there is a passage between these banks and the land, and between them and Anfart: but it is not convenient for anyone to pass there without a pilot, both because of the banks and the large currents that enter and leave with violence in this river” “…there is a village in the river of Rouen, which is called Quillebeuf, which supplies all ships…”.
Although the Seine Pilotage Station has few records of its past activities (1), we do know that the river has played an important role since Gallo-Roman times: goods from around the Mediterranean and destined for (Great) Britain and the Nordic countries were loaded aboard boats that sailed up the Rhône, then the Saône, before being unloaded and transported to the ships that sailed on the Sequana river. It was from this time onwards that Rouen developed its role as a port, well protected from incursions, at the bottom of its estuary, at the crossroads of the routes linking Southern and Northern Europe.
At the slightest sign of danger from a ship, the whole population would rush to the scene, grab their grelin (5) brought by a towing boat, and haul it to safety. In 1758 alone, this system saved over 60 ships. Upstream of Quillebeuf, there were still 2 banks – known at the time as “traverses” – (the Aizier and Flac banks) to be crossed at local high tide. Next, it was necessary to anchor off Villequier to wait for the next tide, so as to avoid the Chaussée de Caudebecquet, the rocks and the banc des Meules, once the pilot had been relieved. The ship was then entrusted to the practical Amonts, who made the best use of the remaining tidal currents and the wind to reach the port of the city of a hundred steeples. Sometimes, if the ship was in a hurry or if the wind was cruelly lacking, it was necessary to call on a local farmer to obtain 2 or 3 horses to tow the vessel.
It could therefore take several days to cover the 120 km separating the port of Rouen from its estuary. This was an obvious handicap for Rouen’s merchants, all the more so as the port of Le Havre was developing at the tip of the Pays de Caux and, with the industrial revolution, in 1847 the railroad was to link the two Normandy cities at a stroke, putting a strain on the port of Rouen, whose access was still a cause for concern (despite this, Rouen remained France’s leading port for coastal shipping in 1840). Hence the mobilization of the Rouen Chamber of Commerce, in the mid-19th century, to obtain from Parliament the funds needed to improve the riverbed. Lamartine’s famous speech to the Chamber of Deputies – he had come to replace at short notice the deputy in charge of presenting the project, who had unfortunately fallen ill that very morning – led to a vote for the 2 million francs needed to build the first embankments (law of May 8, 1846).
Work began at the end of 1847, and 20 years later, the results were more than encouraging, with an increase in permissible draughts that led to a meteoric rise in Rouen’s traffic. With speeds of no less than 8/9 knots, steamers could now sail from Le Havre to Rouen in a dozen hours, day or night. It should be noted that, until 1890, estuary navigation was only practiced by day, as pilots were obliged to avoid the banks using very precise landmarks (church steeples, remarkable trees, farm buildings, etc.). In May 1890, the Chief Pilot, Amédée Dormoy, came up with the idea of experimenting with a lighting system installed on deckboats. This improvement, combined with a perfect knowledge of the fluctuating location of sensitive spots, enabled us to definitively free ourselves from the night-time constraint, while awaiting the installation of the beaconing system that had become indispensable.
Naturally, the improvement in boating conditions on the Seine did not go unnoticed by the port community of Le Havre, which took a dim view of the continued dyking work beyond the Risle. The law of March 19, 1895 allowed the planing of the Meules and Flacques banks (upstream of the town of Aizier) and the extension of the dikes a few kilometers to the west. However, this was not enough to stabilize the channel downstream of Honfleur, and the funds required to continue the work, which was intended to bring the phenomenon of tidal propagation in the Seine under almost total control, were not released until the law of January 11, 1932. Due to the Second World War, it was not until 1960, almost 45 years late, that the new channel was opened to large ships.
Modern piloting
Clearly, ship pilotage in the 2000s is very different from that of the last century, or even from that of the 1950s. However, this profession is still linked to an organization, some of whose structures have survived into the new millennium. Today, maximum draughts for ships are still set daily by a pilot, known as the “pilot-major” (6), on the basis of predicted tidal heights and channel soundings. The pilot station has a launch, equipped with sophisticated sounding and positioning equipment, whose crew (2 people) surveys, 5 days a week, those parts of the channel likely to contain anomalies that could lead to a downward revision of the forecasted draughts or, on the contrary, could authorize greater draughts after intervention by the port dredger.
The pilot-major, in a manner quite comparable to that of his nineteenth-century ancestors, publishes a daily profile sheet of the Seine channel, based on the results recorded by the sounding crew. It’s true that ultrasonic sounders, satellite positioning, computers and modern motorboats have replaced the rowing boats and sounding poles of our ancestors. But they were no less serious and diligent. Indeed, the absence of dikes and makeshift buoyage designed to let pilots aboard ship know of the river’s latest vagaries meant that soundings had to be taken very frequently.
Before the major works, the sea bed could vary by one meter in less than 24 hours. A ministerial decree dated 28/1/1887 required all pilots who had not practised for 4 days to call on a colleague with knowledge of the latest channel modifications to pilot a vessel with a draught of over 5 m. This was to be the case, for buoys marking the channel could well no longer correspond to the latest echo-sounder readings and cause grounding. For buoys marking the channel could well no longer correspond to the latest echo-sounder readings, resulting in grounding or even shipwreck.
It’s worth remembering that, in those days, radio communications didn’t exist, and a pilot setting out to meet a ship might have left his station a week earlier. Hence the unpleasant surprises generated by the extreme mobility of the seabed.
In modern times, the most sensitive points in the channel were known: the “l’engaînement” zone, from the first buoys in the channel to beacon A, which marks the western end of the Ratier dike, and the Fatouville zone, from Pont de Normandie to buoys 27-28. The latter requires perpetual dredging, due to the breach (7) made in the north dike, just downstream of the bridge, at the request of professional fishermen. This opening constitutes a veritable sediment spillway that inevitably “fattens” the navigation channel. These two areas are tricky for deep-draught vessels, as the “pilot foot” (8) can be greatly reduced. The pilot foot can be as low as 70cm, making it imperative to sharply reduce ship speed when passing these thresholds.
This almost daily reality also explains why deepening our navigation channel by a mere 30 centimetres increases the safety of ship transit, as well as improving the productivity of ship calls. Let’s not forget that the Rouen channel has barely 6 to 7 meters of water at low water on spring tides. By way of comparison, the access channel to the Port of Le Havre enjoys depths of around 15 to 16 m at the same times, i.e. more than twice as deep. Despite this notable difference in the port’s facilities for receiving ships, the Port of Rouen regularly sees some 4,000 ships pass through every year, with cargoes totalling over 20 million tonnes, more than a third of which are hazardous goods and/or petroleum products. Cereal exports account for almost 40% of Rouen’s total tonnage.
References
(1) Many of the references to the history of Seine pilotage in this article are taken from the Doctorate in History thesis defended at the Université du Littoral Côte d’Opale (Boulogne/Mer) on 5/01/2006 by retired Seine pilot Jean-Pierre Robichon.
(2) Laman is an archaic form of lamaneur (from the Dutch lootsman), which used to designate the pilot responsible for guiding the ship through difficult harbors and passages. Nowadays, the word “lamaneur” refers to the person ashore in charge of retrieving the ship’s hawsers for docking or undocking.
(3) Engainer: a term still used today by pilots, meaning the moment when the ship passes the first pair of buoys in the buoyed channel.
(4) Touer, toueur, touage: comes from the English word towage. While towing is specific to the maritime domain, touage was more commonly used in the fluvial domain.
(5) Grelin: thick rope.
(6) Pilote-major: appointed by the Minister for a 2-year term, he is the main contact for ship consignees, and is directly responsible for setting maximum possible draughts on the Seine. He supervises and regulates traffic on the Seine on a daily basis.
(7) Breach: when the diking work was completed, the estuary’s fishermen demanded that a breach be made in the north dike, near the current north pier of the Pont de Normandie, to give them direct access to their fishing grounds north of Honfleur.
(8) Pilot’s foot: distance between the ship’s keel and the riverbed.
(9) Tidal bore: A tidal bore is a phenomenon observed during spring tides. The meeting of a strong flood current with the river’s natural ebb current creates a huge wave that travels upstream at the speed of the flood current (around 15 knots, or 28km/h.). Up until the 1960s, before the end of dam construction, this phenomenon was very spectacular in the Caudebec straight, attracting large crowds. Since then, the phenomenon has disappeared from the river, but still occurs in the port of Rouen; during spring tides, safety measures are taken to prevent ships from breaking their moorings when the tidal bore arrives.
