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Trailblazers: Virtual Tours
History's Hinge - 'Ain Jalut

[Administration]

One of the beautiful paintings on display, the seaport is Brest.

[Diving Doc]

Interesting to note that there are Camels alongside the Warship in the background, lightening ship to go across the bar. Don't see that very often.
Doc

[Administration]

[Administration]

[Administration]

This is an exact reproduction of an 18th Century Frigate built according to the original plans. An amazing project and collection of craftsmen.

[Administration]

The only deviation from the original materials is the use of epoxy where timbers of insufficient length and breadth had to be scarfed together to match the drawings.

[Administration]

[Administration]

A very nice scale model of a French ship board cannon of the 18th Century.

[Sovereign]

Truly fantastic images.
Thank you!

[Administration]

To the immediate right of the old drydock is the covered drydock where the Hermione is being constructed.

[Diving Doc]

The French Naval Museum was a most enjoyable research. I was especially fascinated by the demonstration put on for us of the ancient, but functioning, rope walk.
I'm sorry we didn't use the movie camera, kick my self now, I could have captured stills for our members.
Cheers,
Doc

[Solomon]

There's a rope walk you'll be able to see on your visit to the UK, at Chatham.

Sol

[Diving Doc]

I'll do a photo study of same,

Moran Taing!

Doc

[Diving Doc]

Here is a model of Reale de France, a most magnificent French galley built during the reign of Louis XIV in 17th century.  The "Reale" in the name means that the ship belonged to the king. 

Decorated by the famous sculptor Pierre Puget, some of the stern ornaments are displayed in the Mus?e de la Marine in Paris which holds the original plans and many documents about the ship.
Cheers,
Doc
 

[Diving Doc]

In December 1665 Rochefort was chosen by Jean-Baptiste Colbert as a place of "refuge, defense and supply" for the French navy. Its military harbour was fortified by Louis XIV's commissary of fortifications Vauban. Between 1666-1669 the king had the "Corderie Royale" (then the longest building in Europe) constructed to make cordage for French ships of war. The making of cordage ceased in 1867, and in 1926 the arsenal of Rochefort was closed. The building was burned by occupation forces in 1944 and left abandoned for twenty years. Today it has been restored for municipal and tourist purposes. Another infrastructure of early Rochefort from 1766 was its bagne, a high-security penal colony involving hard labour. Bagnes were then common fixtures in military harbours and naval bases, such as Toulon or Brest, because they provided free labour.

Off Rochefort, Napoleon Bonaparte was intercepted and surrendered to Captain F. L. Maitland aboard HMS Bellerophon, on July 17, 1815, ending the "Hundred Days".

Rochefort is a notable example of seventeenth-century "ville nouvelle" or new town, which means its design and building resulted from a political decree. The reason for building Rochefort was to a large extent that royal power could hardly depend on rebellious Protestant La Rochelle, which Cardinal Richelieu had had to besiege a few decades earlier. Well into the twentieth century, Rochefort remained primarily a garrison town. The tourist industry, which had long existed due to the town's spa, gained emphasis in the 1990s.

Cheers,
Doc