Military port of Cherbourg

Cherbourg is a military port since the end of the 18th century.

History

Studied at the 17th century, the construction of the military port of Cherbourg was wanted by the king Louis XVI. Work begins in the years 1780. The Pelée island is strengthened while one immerses, in the presence of the king, of the cones out of wooden filled with stone to broad it port to be used as foundations with a dam. Work is stopped by the French revolution.

They take again at the request of the First consul Bonaparte in 1803 (decree of the 25 germinal year XI), with for objective the invasion of England. It is carried out simultaneously with the construction of the dam which makes roads of Cherbourg, the largest artificial roads in the world. It charges the engineer Joseph Cachin with the digging, in the west of the city, on the military outer harbor, inaugurated on August 27th, 1813 by the Marie-Louise empress, and decides to move the Arsenal at the same place.

With the shelter of the English attacks, the port becomes in 1803 a home port of corsairs.

The basins Charles X (begun in 1814 - 290 X 220 X 18 meters) and Napoleon III (started in 1836 - 420 X 200 X 18 meters) of the military port are respectively inaugurated on August 25th, 1829 in the presence of the Dolphin, and on August 7th, 1858 by the imperial couple.

The port méticuleusement is mined and destroyed by the Germans in 1944, and is rebuilt by the American army to become the principal port of the offensive of the Allies, starting point of the Red ball express train highway , “lace of shoe supporting three million men”.

The military port and the arsenal in 1864

The military port, located in the part NR. - O. city, is surrounded by a powerful belt of fortifications, which develop on an extent of more than 5 kilometers. They themselves are protected by many advanced works, and a broad pit which the sea fills up with each tide. To gain the Large-Port, one follows starting from the place of Weapons, the street of peace and the street of the Abbey, of which one of the east coasts occupied in all its length by the workshop of the rope manufacture. At the end, the road is which leads to the Southern door of the strengthened enclosure. One crosses the ditch by means of a drawbridge, and one arrives in the presence of a high wall, which includes the various maritime buildings, the workshops, the holds of construction and the basins, thus prohibiting the access of the port to any person foreign to the navy, and not provided with a license of circulation. But before penetrating inside, tokens a glance on the beautiful building placed at our left, and wedged in the second enclosure. It is composed of a principal, affected main building with the service of the Majority, and two wings; one contains the offices of the general police chief, the other the library on the first floor, and the maritime court of justice at the ground floor. Very at side a construction rises whose lugubrious aspect is in connection with the destination: it is indeed the house of detention and the disciplinary prison.
While entering the military port, one is struck severity which the whole of the various establishments of the navy has. In spite of the activity of the workmen and sailors, all is cold and imposing there. On the right two immense hangars extend in parallel. One is used to put at the shelter materials intended for naval constructions, while the other contains sail making, the pouliery, the workshop of the boats, the room of the gauges and that of the models. At the end of these hangars is the Chantereine hold, where one builds light steamers, and where the boats of the ships come to seek the daily vivres that the agents of the subsistence distribute to them. Along the fortifications which protect the arsenal on the side of the roads, we meet a vast building, containing the workshop of the forging mills, the trip hammers and a considerable foundry. While following it in all its length, we arrive at the Southern pierhead of the outer harbor that firm during the night an enormous chain drawn at water flower.
The OUTER HARBOR was dug in the sharp rock and did not ask less than ten years of a work supported, before being able to be inaugurated, ceremony which took place on August 27th, 1813, in the presence of the Marie-Louise Empress. It is 292 meters length on 236 of width, and approximately 50 feet of depth below the open seas. The opening of the master key, indicated by two built pierheads, just as the quays, out of granite of Fermanville, small village located near the course Lévi, is of approximately hundred meters. Not far from the Northern pierhead, that the battery of Hello surmounts, one sees a démâtée frigate, on which fleet a house. It is a place of penitence to the use of the officers, satirically named the Admiral. In the southern part of the outer harbor, four covered holds rise. Their frame, of a remarkable work, rests on granite pillars of approximately 30 meters height. They are used to guarantee the vessels in construction of the disastrous alternative of the rain and of the sun, who, by deteriorating the quality of the principal pieces of wood, harm the solidity of the unit, and especially at the duration of the hull. These holds are separated by a beautiful dry dock.
The OLD WET DOCK, in the north of the outer harbor, with which it communicates by a lock of 20 meters, furnished with flood tide gates and surmounted by a revolving bridge, is 291 meters length on 217 of width.
WET DOCK NAPOLEON III. - The greatest hydrographic curiosity of the arsenal consists in the immense basin which one inaugurated, on August 7th, 1858, in the presence of the Emperor. Dug in the sharp rock, with 17 meters of depth, it was finished, or about, in the five years space, and recommends itself by the seven dry docks and the seven holds which cut with regularity the line of its quays. Two flood tide gates put it in communication, one with the outer harbor, the other with the first basin. It is side of the basin Napoleon III, in all the Western part of the port, that the offices of the engineers, the police station are, of the inspection, and those of the various directions of the maritime service. Along largest of these establishments, one sees, arranged symmetrically, these enormous anchors whose weight is expressed per thousands of kilograms.
If we regain the Southern pierhead, we meet soon on the left the artillery direction. Inside, one must visit a splendid room of weapons, where the eye is dazzled by the glare of the rifles laid out with a perfect order on their racks, and where the guns, daggers, sabers and axes of boarding form the most correct drawings and most capricious. Beyond the park of artillery and with the north of the arsenal the workshop of the mast is. It is there that one assembles, by narrowly uniting them by means of iron circles, the various parts which constitute the lower masts of the ships of first rank.
With the North-eastern angle of the strengthened enclosure, one gains by a broad roadway the Fort of Hommet, whose balls, crossing with those of strong outsides, contribute to the defense of the master key of the West. Casemate and this fort, bomb proof, high in 1779 on the rock of Hommet, does not count less than three formidable batteries|Emile Tessier|Extract of the Guide of the tourist in Normandy

Buildings based

Since the departure of the Fleet of North (FLONOR), Cherbourg is not any more one home port of first importance for the military buildings.

It is the home port of the Abeille Freedom.

The patrol craft of the National marine the Flamingo , Grèbe and the Cormorant , are also attached there.

Arsenal

See also: DCNS, List of the submarines built in Cherbourg

The arsenal of Cherbourg is specialized in the construction of submarines. Those are with nuclear propulsion for France (standard SNLE “Triumphing It” and Classe Barracuda in project), or with diesel-electric traditional propulsion for export (standard Scorpène).

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