January 29 2025
In May 2021, following the indications of an old Breton song, researchers succeeded in locating a beam from the wreck of the Catharina, a sailing ship that disappeared in 1896 in the Raz-de-Sein (Brittany, France).
A short while ago, we looked at the astonishing story of the construction of 'la Jument' (the Mare) lighthouse, which was necessary because of the many shipwrecks that occurred in the region. One of the shipwrecks in question was that of a Swedish three-master: the Catharina.
Sailing from Senegal to England, the Catharina was swallowed up by a storm in the Raz-de-Sein in 1896. After a few years, the event was forgotten, as the Iroise Sea had long since swallowed up all that was left of the ship. Or so it was thought.
However, in 2021, shipwreck researchers from the SAMM (Société d'Archéologie et de Mémoire Maritime) based in Fouesnant looked into the matter, and one thing led to another, as they approached local residents, and became interested in the lyrics of a Breton song that tells the story of the grounding of this Swedish ship in a more or less fabulous way.
The Breton gwerz (traditional song) ‘Catharina Stockholm’ is a three-step roundel, fragments of which tell us that once the storm had passed, a garrison was deployed to prevent looters from getting their hands on what was left of the cargo, but they looted the wreck themselves, stealing the silverware and ‘everything that glittered’. The three-master was carrying paint and it was easy to spot the looters among the others, as their houses were the only ones to be repainted after the disaster.
However, it wasn't these amusing details that put the researchers on the trail of the wreck, but rather the mention of a name, which we have already mentioned recently on YachtingArt: Ar-Gazec, the Mare's rock.
Following this lead, in May 2021, with the permission of the DRASSM (Département de Recherches Archéologiques et Subaquatiques et Sous-Marines), the SAMM wreck searchers dived not far from the rock, hoping to find traces of the Catharina's sinking, and they discovered a beam that could have come from the sailing ship. And as they got closer to the Ar-Gazec rock, the divers also found other pieces of wreckage, which would lead us to believe that this is indeed where the Catharina ran aground, and that it has therefore surely been found.
This discovery, made possible by the words of a traditional Breton song, raises a number of questions: What else could we discover if we took an interest in the words of traditional songs, which tell us a whole host of stories we no longer pay attention to?
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