Dr. Bombar was seriously preparing for such a test, studying the stories of shipwreck victims, performing various experiments. His book “Overboard of my own free will”, which I once read, was sold in many languages.
First of all, he was interested in perseverance in the systematic preparation for the test and achievement of the goal. Exhausted, having lost about 30 kg in weight, with skin tearing off his legs, he reached Barbados in 1952 on his “Heretic,” which had oars and was equipped with a homemade sail. After a triumphant finish, Alain Bombard became widely known.
However, his experience was questioned. As is usually the case. Another doctor, Lindeman, suggested that Bombar still used an untouchable supply of food, which was loaded onto a raft in a sealed form when starting from the Mediterranean Sea. But what about drinking water, Herr Lindeman? 3 liters per day at the norm, and for two months 180, well, even 100 liters, where did they come from and how to load unnoticed. It's like 5 ... 9 20-liter canisters for a cooler.
Lindeman is a German doctor, and moreover, a brave man conducted an experiment on himself, as doctors sometimes did, proving the applicability of their own new method. But this is another interesting story. German physicians, always at the forefront of medical science, as well as utterly pedantic, were arguing about the dangers of drinking sea water. But this and Lindemann's voyage can be read in a separate issue of the Chronicles.
First run
After the finish, Bombar was in the focus of attention of the press. Only attention does not leave a person who has become popular, and any incident, especially with a tragic outcome, is another bait for newspaper people. This happened near the mouth of the Ethel River in the Mediterranean Sea, a few years after the famous Bombard crossing the Atlantic. His achievement was popularized, and success was converted into a business for liferaft manufacturers. The competition began with the participation of French companies l'Angevinière, Zodiac, Kléber-Colombes and others. It was spurred on by a decision of the ministry obliging to have inflatable liferafts on board ships with a displacement of more than 25 tons and at sea for more than 72 hours. The decision also affected the fishing port of Ethel, the average displacement of ships there was at the level of 115 tons.
However, this was expensive for shipowners, the cost of the raft was approximately equal to the 10-month salary of a working fishing vessel. In the fight for the buyer wins the one who offers the best in terms of price / quality. The latter must be verified in action. L'Angevinière conducted rafts testing in places with a difficult approach to the shore. Bombar, a technical consultant and representative of this company, was the organizer and participant in such tests. These actions attracted the attention of the media and the public.
In August 1958, near the mouth of Ethel, with a large gathering of public and journalists, an indicative test of an inflatable raft was coming. Weather conditions: the excitement at sea calms down, the flow rate of 4-5 knots, rain, calm. The raft with volunteers from among the fishermen and Bombar is towed from shore to sea and uncoupled, he successfully returns to shore. Everything is normal due to quite favorable weather. The bombard promises to conduct tests in more severe conditions and instructs the director of the fishing cooperative to warn of such ...
Ethel ridge tragedy
In October of that year, Bombard, who was at the World's Fair in Brussels, received a call from L'Angevinière, which in turn was informed by the director of the fishing cooperative. Together with the engineer of this company Mr. Beauvais and its commercial director Mr. Breton (Breton), Bombard urgently arrives in Ethel, and the tested inflatable raft is also delivered there. The conditions are very bad ...
A towing vessel and a rescue boat take part in the tests. Moreover, due to a combination of unfortunate circumstances, dramatic events are played out.
An inflatable raft is lowered from the tugboat, the company engineer and six volunteers board it, all in life jackets. A tugboat pulls a raft along and delivers it behind a ridge of underwater rocks. On the ridge itself, the raft is subjected to incredible shaking. The bombard is not held and the first is overboard. The remaining participants manage to get him out of the water. And then the water shaft overturns the raft. All seven fall in raging waves. Five manage to cling to the raft, they are trying to return it to its normal position. The remaining two volunteers unsuccessfully try to join their comrades.
Then a rescue boat, not without difficulties, reaches the ridge in a quarter of an hour to save five in distress, including Bombar. Noticing another man on the ridge among the underwater rocks, the commander of the rescue boat heading for him. Along both sides of the boat, helical rigging nozzles are stretched to be gripped by hands. And then both boat engines stall. It loses its course and then turns around in waves from the course side to the rocks. An uncontrolled boat flips a wave. In that bottleneck, the bottom is near. An inverted inflatable raft and rescue boat drift.
The inverted boat is exposed to chatter. Four, including Bombar, manage to cling to his inverted body.
A tugboat located far from the ridge enters the business. Several people get off the ferry so as not to aggravate the risks. A lifebuoy is dropped from a tugboat to one of the drowning people, but he, who has lost strength, is unable to grab hold of him. The tugboat manages to approach the four who are hooked on the hull of the boat, take them on board and deliver them to the shore. One of the drowning is pulled out of the water with the help of a hook. After some time, Mr. Breton was transferred from the tugboat to another of the vessels in order to transfer him to the place of emergency care.
Air support arrives at the disaster site - two twin-engine aircraft from a naval base and a civilian helicopter. Aircraft circling over the sea in order to detect drowning. The helicopter in vain attempts to save two people by various means.
A liferaft is dropped from a helicopter. But this turns into a tragic failure. The mechanic of the helicopter manages to drop the raft, but at the same time a cylinder of compressed gas explodes and injures his face. The mechanic also unfolds the ladder, which he must use to save, but seriously wounded, he is forced to abandon further actions. Two exhausted drowning people can neither swim to the raft nor catch the end of the stairs. The helicopter pilot is forced to abandon the rescue operation in order to deliver the wounded mechanic ashore to send him to the hospital. After that, the rescued Mr. Breton is transferred to the helicopter, and the pilot, without a mechanic, delivers Breton to Ethel.
The tug is trying to return the rescue boat to its normal state, but to no avail, the cable breaks. The tugboat together with the ferry, called for reinforcement, and two aircraft continue to search, but it is too late ...
The rescue boat is drifting upside down and stranded in a place remote from Ethel. Several people from the shore are trying to turn the boat over with cables. Attempts continue with three tractors arriving from a nearby farm, but to no avail. Finally, two tractors from a military training ground in Le Havre succeed after several attempts to return the boat to its normal state. In the afternoon, the sea releases the bodies of only three victims. A bombard on the shore is hiding in the room for registration of sailors. The surroundings are terrible.
Three were rescued from the crew of the test raft: Bombard, representative of L'Angevinière Breton and Jung. Four dead: chairman of the cooperative, engineer of the company L'Angevinière, fisherman and sailor. Two rescued from the crew of the rescue boat, five were killed. An investigation into the careless killing was initiated by the district attorney. Interrogation of victims, participants in the events and witnesses of the drama was conducted in order to determine the degree of responsibility of each. But investigations under customary and maritime law were shortened, and no one complained.
Epilogue
Messages were sent from all over France and from abroad expressing support for the families of the victims. The drama in Ethel was discussed along with other serious incidents in October 1958. Reports of what happened in the press, often approximate, sometimes deliberately blocked reports on the real situation. The drama has become an event of national and global scale. The fame of Alain Bombar led to a sharpening of attention to him - the headings of articles containing his name were printed in large print.
Y AT-IL UNE AFFAIRE BOMBARD? (Is all this a Bombard scam?)
Problems of the rescue boat VICE-ADMIRAL SHVERER II
The tipping of the vessel while trying to perform a rescue operation caused a lot of questions regarding its structure and purpose. Numerous testimonies have mentioned that a ship should be considered self-healing. The ambiguity was exacerbated and thereby generated a lot of rumors. What are the characteristics of this ship in reality?
Rescue boat - help
The Ethel port rescue boat, Vice Amiral Schwerer II, was built and launched in 1938 at St Servan with the name Pourquoi pas?. In 1956, at St Malo, the classification of the ship was reduced, and in 1957 it was completely rebuilt at Fécamp in Normandy. The boat arrived in Ethel in May 1958. That is, on the eve of testing the inflatable raft, for basic support.
Characteristics
Length: 11.93 m, Width: 3.46 m, Draft: 0.99 m
Weight: 10,250 tons, engines: 2 x 28 hp, diesel, Beaudouin brands
Speed: 7.9 knots
Why did the rescue boat roll over?
Excerpts from a post by Jean DUMET, 1958
“The rescue boat maneuvered to keep its nose on the wave. Buirep (also called a floating anchor in inflatable and other boats, the hawser of the boat) started on the propellers, which turned out to be blocked. There was no driving force for maneuvering. The ship sided to the wave and rolled over.
There are two types of rescue boats:
- a dynamic model that restores its normal position in the event of a rollover, but which can relatively easily roll over
- stable model, which in the case of turning over is almost impossible to return to its normal position.
Unfortunately, a vessel of the second type was available in Ethel, as the dynamic model was more and more refused.
Why were the propellers not protected? Because it is almost impossible. The propellers of the rescue vessels are located in the “tunnels”, which in principle protect them from impacts, but the rigging, for example, is drawn in by the current created by the propeller and may fall onto the propeller blades. At the same time, rescue vessels are equipped with access hatches that can be opened from the wheelhouse. It is enough to open these hatches in order to have access to the propellers and to release the cables or other objects that may block the screws. But this takes a certain amount of time, and in the case of Ethel, the crew did not have the necessary time to release the propellers. ”
Conclusion
The loss of life and the scale of the drama caused a terrible trauma to the entire population of Ethel. It remained an open wound for everyone; memories excited the minds of people, but they preferred to remain silent about this. Feeling of hostility arose in relation to Alain Bombar. Mention of the events was broadcast by the press, with accusations of “a rescue boat, tracking and security equipment that led to the death”, but this was not accepted by the inhabitants of Ethel. And some of them did not forgive Bombard and did not want him to appear in these places.
Bombar for a long time could not erase from his memory painful memories of what happened, for him it became a taboo. According to his own feelings, his health was deteriorating, and depression led to an attempted suicide five years later, in 1963. And only a meeting with Paul Ricard, who funded the Sea Observatory in the Mediterranean, created for research on the protection of the sea, allowed Bombar to get out of the protracted depression and find a new goal.
Igor Leonardovich Vikentiev, whom I once met, a well-known TRIZ promoter, a leading site dedicated to the study of creative personalities, gives his version of what happened, citing the publication - Aliev A., Alain Bombar: “Believe, you can survive!”, Magazine “ Yachting ", 2002, N 3 . With an unflattering assessment of Bombard in the title itself: The involuntary discredit of the noble purpose and personality of Alain Bombard .
However, is Vikentiev familiar with information containing diary entries of the incident and the assessment of the support rescue boat?
According to the materials: