Sailors, captains and Cape Horners

In the 19th century Trentemoult lived by the sea. Boys went to sea as cabin boys from the age of 12, became sailors, then, with the certificates created in 1817, coastal masters or deep-sea captains. Around 1850, half the coastal masters of the Nantes maritime district lived here. In 1911 there were about forty deep-sea captains and Cape Horners, men who had rounded the terrible Cape Horn under sail.

The price was heavy: more than 210 men from the village died at sea, and many streets still carry their names.

• Julien Chauvelon (1875-1941)

  Captain of the Belem for 25 campaigns to the West Indies. In 1902, with no room in the port of Saint-Pierre (Martinique), he anchored further out and so escaped the eruption of Mount Pelée.

• The Viaud brothers

  Joseph, honoured for defending a ship against a submarine in 1917; Amédée, a cabin boy on the Belem, then an officer on a steamer carrying convicts to French Guiana.

• Georges Aubin (1889-1981)

  Around the world at 14 as a cabin boy, captain in 1913, then a teller of sea stories.

• Alphonse Kervégan (1878-1965)

  After 26 years at sea he ran the Roquios and watched his boats, watch in hand, from his window.

• Raphaël Lancelot (1832-1890)

  A sailor who became a shipowner, then mayor of Rezé: secular schools, a library, the Morinière bridge.

• Admiral Emmanuel Ollive (1882-1950)

  Born in rue Bruneau, he commanded the Mediterranean squadron.

• Jean-Baptiste Codet (1900-1991)

  Born and died in the same house on quai Surcouf. Trained at the Nantes hydrography school, he was first officer at 20 on a cargo to Algeria, then sailed to Buenos Aires on the Duquesne (83 days out, 89 back). In 1935 he was among the officers of the Normandie when the liner won the Blue Riband, crossing the Atlantic in a little over four days. He ended as a trial captain at the Dubigeon yards, with one regret: sail vanished too soon for him to become a Cape Horner.

See the captains’ houses

Sources: Rezé Histoire no. 97 (April 2026), “3 walks to understand Trentemoult”, Rezé Histoire association – rezehistoire.fr. Texts rewritten by trentemoult.com; for more, get the magazine.