While the president of the maritime court of Le Havre (Seine-Maritime) begins by going over certain details of the shipwreck, the widow of one of the sailors who disappeared on January 14, 2021 burst into tears. Poignant moment of pain escaped from the silence which has reigned for two days in this courtroom where the names of the three young sailors are constantly mentioned, the “boss” of the “Breiz”, 27 years old, and the sailors, two brothers aged 19 and 26 years old, who perished when their boat sank in the English Channel, off the coast of Calvados.
This silence thickens further when the boss of the lifeboat which towed the trawler, one of the five people on trial, is called to the stand. Philippe Capdeville, 62 years old, looking good-natured but with a very marked face, comes forward. In his “career” he participated in 900 rescue operations, 400 of which he led as boss. Everyone here, whatever side they are on, salutes “a very great sailor”. But the investigation as well as the report of a first expert heard seem unanimous: the conditions of the towing partly explain the fatal sinking.
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