October has been a month of unusual but invigorating and interesting experiences for Belem and her crew.
Once the official sailing season ended, the ship took on board, for 3 day sessions of practical training, four successive groups of pupils of the recently recreated “Ecole des Mousses”. This follows the signing of an official convention between the Belem Foundation and the French Navy. The School offers a year's apprenticeship to young people aged between 16 and 18 at the end of their O Levels, who wish to learn a naval profession without necessarily going through general A level or University Studies. Once they have their diploma from the School, they can choose between several nautical branches like Marine Fusilier, naval machine operator, aeronautical maintenance engineer, etc.
A three-day trip aboard Belem was the first of their practical training sessions, since school only started last September. For these young people – some of whom had never actually been on a boat – it was an unforgettable discovery of naval traditions and discipline aboard a large traditional sailing vessel. For the crew of Belem, it was also a novel experience: they are used to training members of the general public, usually a majority of older people, not teenagers, so training these particular youngsters, enthusiastic yet well disciplined and eager to learn meant really passing on their knowledge and experience to the new generation... All in all, a very positive experience for all concerned.
In the middle of all this, another novelty was Belem's taking an active part in the start of a race: not a usual thing for her to do at her respectable age but this time an exception was made for the event that took place in Nantes on October 18th : “La Solidaire du Chocolat”. Chocolate and solidarity are two words that have a lot of resonance for Belem. After all, chocolate, or rather chocolate beans were the cause of her existing, since she was built to carry these tasty spices from Brazil to France on behalf of the Menier Company, an important French chocolate-maker of that time. As for solidarity, it comes with the sponsorship of the race: sponsors' money goes in equal parts to the class-40 boats taking part in the race and to a charitable cause. On top of which, Nantes is Belem's home port so you can imagine how popular she is there – 5000 visitors, no less, from Nantes and Saint Nazaire came to pay tribute to their favourite Tall Ship before she sailed off with a batch of young marine apprentices on board, enthusiastically drinking it all in!
Le Belem participe rarement au départ des grandes courses nautiques. Mais pour la première « Solidaire du chocolat », partie de Saint Nazaire le 18 octobre, il n'y a pas eu de débat : le Belem se devait d‘être là...
Le 22 octobre, le Belem quittait Brest, avec à son bord le quatrième et dernier contingent d'élèves de l'Ecole des Mousses. La convention triennale conclue entre la Fondation Belem et la Marine Nationale ouvre chaque année à quelque 150 apprentis marins d'Etat l'accès à trois jours de stage sur le doyen des grands voiliers français.
