The three-masted 44.90 m is in its third participation in the quadrennial gathering of sailboats in Rouen. "I'm happy to be here for the international and popular side, it's a global event," says the 45-year-old sailor.

Built in Fécamp in 1923 for shipowner Charles Le Borgne and named in honour of his daughter Marie-Thérèse, the Marité took about twenty sailors for six to eight months of cod fishing off Newfoundland, hence the name Terre-Neuvier.

"The crossing lasted a month and a half, he embarked six doris, six-meter rowboats that were launched to anchor lines of 2,000 hooks with pheasant whelks as bait," says Mr. Alluin. "There were two per doris, a full night of compass fishing with the only landmark to bring in the distinctive bell of their morutier, many never returned."

"Here comes the dirter," he exclaims in the cod hold of the Marité, where the cod fillets were thrown through an opening in the deck after being lifted. "This sailor has all the wages in his hands: not enough salt, the fish spoils, too much salt, it becomes inedible."

Fifty tons of salt were transported in the hold to be able to salt 150 tons of fish.

The living conditions on board were disastrous: "The crew slept five hours a day, all at the same time, we did not know how to conserve water for eight months so we drank mainly alcohol," describes the captain.

On the menu, always the same recipe: cod head soup (the body had to be sold) and potato with, sometimes, the luxury of a gull steak for meat.

The helm of the "Marité", moored in Rouen for the Armada, June 9, 2023 © Lou BENOIST / AFP

"It does not make you dream", laughs the man who has been running the Marité for ten years now, "a passion but nervously tiring job, to make Granville Fécamp before the Armada we did not sleep for 40 hours" because of the rough sea.

Coveted by Bill Gates

During the Second World War, the Marité was used to transport goods, then she left for a time in "deep fishing" before being abandoned in the Feröe Islands, rendered useless by the motor of trawlers and overfishing.

A group of Swedish friends then stumbles upon a photo of the morutier and decides to buy it. Arrived on the archipelago, everything does not go as planned: the ship is silted and no longer looks at all like his portrait of youth.

The enthusiasts will still sail the seas of the globe for 20 years until the year 2000, when they sell it to a public interest group (GIP) after having afforded themselves the luxury of refusing an offer from Bill Gates, "they wanted to see him return to Normandy," says Matthieu Alluin.

A few years and a few shootings of the show "Thalassa" later, the Marité is bad: it will be renovated from top to bottom for six years before returning to sea in 2012 for its new life.

Today based in Granville, the Marité, owned by the department of Manche, the cities of Granville, Fécamp, Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue, and the Seine Eure community, takes more than 70 passengers for day trips or hosts events.

On the bridge of the "Marité", in Rouen, June 9, 2023 © Lou BENOIST / AFP

Operated by five people, the 250-ton assembly powered by sixteen sails will celebrate its 100th anniversary to the day in Granville on June 24, 2023. "It will be a great celebration," concludes Matthieu Alluin.

© 2023 AFP