- On Thursday May 5th, four days after leaving Madeira, the Belem sailed her 1000th nautical mile since her departure from Bordeaux – a third of her voyage to Boston. It's been a quiet and pleasant voyage for the moment, with obstinately blue skies and very ... short-winded winds. The crew took advantage of the prevailing calm and concentrated on a complete make-over of the ship – scrubbing, sandpapering and varnishing – so as to ensure a totally glamorous arrival on the American shore.
They also took the time to do a bit of fishing, landing one or two prize specimens who ended their fishy lifespan at the hands of the ship's cooks...
The Captain and the First Mate decided on the Tuesday that they would do a spot of “back in time” exercising so they took the Belem's old sextant out of its wooden box and used it to take a shot (position) – a bit of a change from the state of the art GPS normally used on board.
This coming and going between past and present continued throughout the week thanks to First Mate Gabriel Lelant Saint Cast: upon leaving Madeira, he had cast a bottle with a message on the waves. They carried the bottle up to a beach in Galicia, Spain, where it was picked up by a young girl. She answered the message ... by e-mail. Whereupon the First Mate proceeded to send off another message in a bottle! And don't we wish somebody would tell us what these messages were all about ?
- The second volume of the adventures of the Belem by cartoonist Jean-Yves Delitte has just come out. “Enfer en Martinique” tells the true story of the eruption of the Montagne Pelée volcano, on the island of Martinique in 1902 and the near miraculous escape of the Belem, one of only two ships who survived the inferno that destroyed a whole town and took 28 000 lives. The first volume “Le Temps des Naufrageurs” was a great success – to the extent that Delitte and the Belem Foundation have decide to aim for a set of four volumes: the last one will have a very “British” ending... and that's all you're being told for now!
You can order the book to the Fondation Belem :
click here (pdf)
Parti de Madère le 31 mai, le Belem a franchi jeudi le cap des 1 000 milles depuis Bordeaux, soit le tiers de son voyage vers Boston puis le Québec. Cette première phase de navigation s'est faite sur un Océan Atlantique qui aurait pu aussi bien s'appeler la Mer de la Tranquillité compte tenu d'un ciel voué au bleu et de vents paresseux... L'équipage a donc profité du calme environnant pour soumettre le Belem à toute la gamme des soins esthétiques – récurage, ponçage, vernissage – indispensables à sa réputation de navire élégant et racé.
Le deuxième album des aventures du Belem en bande dessinée sort ces jours-ci en librairie. Après « Le Temps des Naufrageurs », Jean-Yves Delitte a scénarisé et dessiné « L'Enfer en Martinique » édité chez Glénat-Chasse Marée. Le récit s'appuie sur l'épisode véridique de la survie du Belem lors de l'éruption de la Montagne Pelée en 1902 en Martinique. Dans une interview exclusive l'auteur confesse son attachement grandissant à son héros « de bois et de métal » !
