Lorient is a town (commune) and seaport in the Morbihan department of Brittany in western France.
Nivôse is a Floréal-class frigate of the French Navy. The frigate is the third ship of the class and the fourth French vessel named after the fourth month of the Republican Calendar. Nivôse was constructed by Chantiers de l'Atlantique at Saint-Nazaire,France,in 1991 and entered service in 1992. The frigate is stationed at Réunion in the Indian Ocean for patrol duties.
The arrondissement of Lorient is an arrondissement of France in the Morbihan department in the Brittany region. It has 58 communes. Its population is 312,063 (2016),and its area is 1,461.8 km2 (564.4 sq mi).
Droits de l'Homme was a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy during the French Revolutionary Wars. Launched in 1794,the ship saw service in the Atlantic against the British Royal Navy.
Naval trawlers are vessels built along the lines of a fishing trawler but fitted out for naval purposes;they were widely used during the First and Second World Wars. Some—known in the Royal Navy as "Admiralty trawlers"—were purpose-built to naval specifications,others adapted from civilian use. Fishing trawlers were particularly suited for many naval requirements because they were robust vessels designed to work heavy trawls in all types of weather,and had large clear working decks. A minesweeper could be created by replacing the trawl with a mine sweep. Adding depth charge racks on the deck,ASDIC sonar below,and a 3-inch (76 mm) or 4-inch (102 mm) gun in the bow equipped the trawler for anti-submarine duties.
SMS Regensburg was a light cruiser of the Graudenz class built by the German Kaiserliche Marine. She had one sister ship,SMS Graudenz. The ship was built by the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen,laid down in 1912,launched in April 1914,and commissioned into the High Seas Fleet in January 1915. She was named for the German town of Regensburg. The ship was armed with a main battery of twelve 10.5 cm SK L/45 guns and had a top speed of 27.5 knots,though in 1917 she was rearmed with seven 15 cm SK L/45 guns.
MFV Bugaled Breizh is a French trawler from Loctudy,Finistère,whose sinking with all hands in 90 metres of water in the English Channel on 15 January 2004 remains unresolved. While it appeared possible that the ship was pulled under by a submarine,a specific submarine could not be identified from among the number of submarines of several nations operating in the general vicinity of the accident site. Moreover,the condition of the ship's recovered trawling equipment was reported by a technical inquiry to not be consistent with a submarine entanglement.
Lorient Submarine Base was a submarine naval base located in Lorient,France. It was built in 1941 by the German Kriegsmarine,and was continued to be enlarged until 1943. After the German defeat it was used by the French Navy. It was decommissioned in 1995 and converted to civilian use.
Raymond Rallier du Baty was a French sailor and explorer,from Lorient in Brittany,who carried out surveys of the subantarctic Kerguelen Islands in the southern Indian Ocean in the early 20th century.
The Biscay campaign of June 1795 consisted of a series of manoeuvres and two battles fought between the British Channel Fleet and the French Atlantic Fleet off the Southern coast of Brittany in the Bay of Biscay during the French Revolutionary Wars. In late May 1795,a British battle squadron of six ships of the line under Vice-Admiral William Cornwallis was sent by Admiral Lord Bridport to enforce the blockade of the French port of Brest,the home port of the French Atlantic Fleet. On 8 June,Cornwallis discovered a convoy of merchant vessels travelling from Bordeaux to Brest under the protection of a small squadron under Contre-amiral Jean Gaspard Vence. Cornwallis attacked the convoy,Vence retreating under the protection of batteries on the fortified island of Belle Île as Cornwallis seized eight ships from the convoy. As Cornwallis sent his prizes back to Britain the main French fleet at Brest under Vice-amiral Villaret de Joyeuse put to sea to protect Vence's remaining ships.
Élodie La Villette,born Elodie Jacquier,was a French painter. She is said to be one of the few women to have an artistic career when many routes were denied to them.
In 2021,a dispute erupted between French fishermen and the Government of Jersey about the licensing of French fishing boats to fish in Jersey's territorial waters. Jersey is a British Crown Dependency,and despite not being part of the United Kingdom,the licensing of European Union fishing boats to fish in Jersey's territorial waters has changed after the UK exit from the EU. On 6 May 2021,French fishermen held a protest in the waters off Jersey's main harbour. The UK is responsible for the defence of the Channel Islands and sent two patrol boats to Jersey in response to the fishermen's threats to blockade it. French politicians suggested that Jersey's electricity supply fed by undersea cables from France could be cut off in retaliation for Jersey placing limitations on the extent to which French boats can fish in the island's waters.
Premier-Maître L'Her (F792) is a D'Estienne d'Orves-class aviso in the French Navy.
Commandant Ducuing (F795) is a D'Estienne d'Orves-class aviso in the French Navy. The vessel is home ported at Toulon.
Zieten was a German fishing trawler that was requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine in the Second World War for use as a Vorpostenboot,serving as V 213 Zieten and V 204 Zieten. She was scuttled in January 1945 but was raised later that year and rebuilt as the survey ship Astrolabe. She served with the French Navy 1947–48 and was sold for use as a fishing trawler. In service until 1953,she was scrapped the following year.
Sfax was a French Navy Redoutable-class submarine of the M6 series commissioned in 1936. She participated in World War II,first on the side of the Allies from 1939 to June 1940 and then in the navy of Vichy France until a German submarine mistook her for an Allied submarine and sank her in December 1940.
Rauzan was built as the British fishing trawler Earl Hereford. Sold to the Faroe Islands in 1912,she was purchased by the French Navy in 1917,serving as the patrol boat Guénon. She was sold in 1919 and was renamed Pen-er-Vro. Renamed Rauzan by 1930,she was requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine during the Second World War for use as a vorpostenboot,serving as V 421 Rauzan. She was sunk in June 1944.
Kergroise was built in 1918 as the German patrol vessel SMS Bunnemann. Allocated to the French Navy in 1920,she was sold in 1921,becoming the fishing trawler Kergroise. She was requisition by the French Navy in 1939 for use as a minesweeper. She was sunk in June 1940. Subsequently refloated in April 1941 and repaired. In October 1942 was requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine for use as a vorpostenboot,serving as V 422 Kergroise. She was sunk in June 1944.
The roadstead of Lorient is a roadstead located to the west of Morbihan in Brittany,France.
The history of Lorient begins with the town's foundation in 1666 as a base for the French East India Company. This role was reinforced in 1675 during the Dutch War,when it was decided to abandon the company's other base in Le Havre in favor of Lorient alone. Other monopoly trading companies subsequently moved in and used the port and surrounding enclosure until the end of the Ancien Régime,helping to provide the town with its facilities;the site thus became the main agglomeration in southern Brittany from the mid-18th century onwards. From 1688,the port was also used by the Royal Navy,which had its ships built and armed there.
