DO YOU BRANCH, YOU, THE EPAVES?

The mood of Francis Le Guen

Because sometimes, do not mess around!

Music credits: Erwan & Eric Le Guen

Well, the first dive on a wreck, I don't mind: a little treasure-hunting aspect… Good. But the second? The third ? Others ?

I have dived so many wrecks that I have lost count. Moreover, during my first dive in the sea, I found a wreck. Beginner's luck! It was around the rock of Skeis, in northern Brittany, with a group of clearance divers; in a current of eight knots which forced us to wander on the stems of the kelp under the foliage of the algae, two meters higher ...

I only had two introductory dives in the port on the clock but I understood that to stay the course in these conditions, you had to hold on seriously. In this case, I had just found a good grip: a piece of wood protruding from the bottom of coarse shell sand, rippled by the current. There were bits of wood all around elsewhere. And shards of glass too. My mentor was bordering on apoplexy as he waved his finger at the ground. And I deduced that the wreck of La Sainte Marthe with its cargo of rum, the one they had been looking for for months, it was there!

What was that a wreck? That pile of rubbish? I had been promised a galleon, all sails out, with chests, gems, you want some… Good…

But wrecks fascinate divers. This is how. For my part, what has always bothered me is the artificial side of the thing. Like a foreign body coming from higher up to die in the sea… And those that we intentionally sink make me even more uncomfortable: so this is Disneyland! Divers love landfills! Put a bike or a motorbike under the water and it's riot… In their defense, there are very poor funds and they must be enriched with junk to be able to play… By the way, please stop with the toilets ! It's crazy this fascination with wreck toilets. We can no longer count the number of photos circulating on the subject ...

Dive into scrap metal: there are some who believe in it! And yet, initially, it is pollution. Everyone is crying out for the drama. The Amoco Cadiz, the Haven… But as soon as the ships are underwater, the divers come in and it becomes a sanctuary!

Who would prefer cemeteries to scrubland? Let us dare to draw a parallel with life "on the surface" ... It turns out that my Marseille neighbors of La Cayolle (a poorly pacified district) burn stolen cars every weekend - must understand, they are young people - in a valley of virgin nature (well almost). I happen to go for a hike there ... Let’s imagine for a moment that instead of turning my back on the wrecks of cars to enjoy the cades and wild thyme, I crawl on the contrary in the charred skeletons: you would hold me crazy, is not it ? So !

Ancient wrecks are even worse: you can't see anything! You have to suck! So what do we discover: at best, a cargo of amphorae, at worst, pitiful frames that look like the remains of a fish on the plate ...

However, there is no shortage of arguments to explain their passion: the atmosphere, the reservoir of life, the vestiges of the past, the memory of the tragedy… And patati et patata…
Let's talk about the atmosphere. Wrecks are often deep. But do not get me wrong: it's the nitrogen that creates the atmosphere, not the wreck: try a bit of the same trimix dive, you'll see. A depressing dive with often this leitmotif in the head: "But what am I doing here?"

In addition the wrecks are super dangerous. It's still a heap of junk! That rust! And who collapses for a yes for a no. You just have to see the last Call of Duty: Ghosts “Into the Deep”… Especially since we can not help entering, going to get stuck in the smallest dead end. I understand that, notice: I am a troglodyte. The slightest hole I sink into. So, obviously, a wreck… It's full of holes! With Yves Gladu, filming in the bowels of the Amoco Cadiz, we had been sucked in by a breach in the wreck. Involuntary traveling in the immense holds with the green light of day in the distance, ten meters in one direction, ten meters in the other, taking the postures of a toreador so as not to end up impaled on the rusty swords. Diving? Suicide, yes!

Concentration of life? Yeah. Well. It is true that wrecks are fixing points for flora and fauna ... fixed. And that there are a mess of fish around. It's teeming. In Bali, on the Liberty wreck, there are almost as many fish as there are Japanese! Hey, by the way, I'll have to tell you about my dive in the holds of an unknown ship in Djibouti where I crossed a loach of more than 3 meters. Only one small hallway to get out… It was her or me.

Memory of the drama? No doubt… It's true that at Truk Lagoon, the big game was to be photographed with Japanese skulls. Very fine. Well yes, it's full of dead, a wreck; most of the time there were people on the boats, before they sank… Diving with stiffs, yeah. Finally, it's you who see ...

No, the real reason for our fascination with wrecks, I'll give it to you: it's the hut at the back of the garden, the treasure cave, the nostalgia for childhood. And perhaps also, through the frames which slowly return to the sea, the mirror of our existence. A premonitory journey into our destiny ...

Well, I'll leave you, it's almost time to go diving in Egypt. A cruise. Special wrecks ...