He wishes to awaken the memory of the town, as well as that of a whole section of Breton history.
The mayor of Quemper-Guézennec (Côtes-d'Armor), Gilbert Le Vaillant, launches an appeal to find the families of the 17 children and adolescents shipwrecked from the Clarisse, a topsail schooner which sank on April 7, 1847, off the coast of Saint -Pierre and Miquelon, near Newfoundland.
Children were often “recruited” to work for low wages aboard these ships.
“We nicknamed them the
P'tits Graviers
(a song of the same name by Théodore Botrel pays tribute to them)
, says the elected official.
Their task was to ensure the drying of the fish by spreading them on the gravel, the stony areas of the coast.
At the time, there was great poverty in our area.
It was commonplace.
»
The Norman schooner had capsized
But for all that, he admits, he didn't know the nickname "P'tits Graviers", any more than the names of the 17 little ones from the town who perished when this Norman schooner capsized.
“It was a producer who is making a film for France 3
(broadcast scheduled for the end of 2024)
who contacted me to tell me about this shipwreck.
I have been mayor for 23 years, I was born here and I had never heard of this story!
So we want to remedy that and pay tribute to them.
»
The objective: to find the descendants of the victims' families, to retrace their story through photos, writings and testimonies.
“A duty of remembrance that we owe to the municipality,” concludes the mayor.
List of children's names and information from the town hall at 02.96.95.62.62 or at
glv22@orange.fr