«Here is an account of what happened aboard the schooner “La Blanche Marguerite” from SARZEAU near Vannes, 79.57 tons under the command of Captain LE BIBOUL during the voyage from ROUEN to GOTHENBORG.
The ship was well equipped when we left ROUEN.
We left QUILLEBEUF on August 31 with the steam tug, following several French ships on the same route in westerly winds. We had lost sight of the French mainland by 8.30 in the evening, and by two o'clock we were at BEACHYHEAD (Beachy Head, or Cap Béveziers in French, is a chalk promontory on the south coast of England, near the town of Eastbourne).
At 8 a.m. we were at DUNGENESS (British cape on the Kent coast), at 10.30 a.m. at Pas de Calais, good breeze, heading north-east, misty weather. In the evening at 9 o'clock went to GALLOPER. The next morning at 10 o'clock reached CROMER. We find North-Easterly winds. Strong wind. In the evening we were obliged to put to the cape by the strong North winds and heavy seas all night. The next morning at 8 o'clock we set sail. In the evening at 7 o'clock we tacked to Texel Bank. The wind was from the north-north-west, with a light breeze, and the sea was looking a little more beautiful. We walked for two days between FLAMBOROUGHEAD (Flamborough Head is an 8-mile rocky promontory on the Yorkshire coast at Flamborough in the east of England, between Filey and Bridlington bays in the North Sea) and SUNDERLAND (Sunderland is a city and port in England situated in the administrative region of the North-East and in the county of Tyne and Wear) with North-Easterly winds.
With North-North-West and North-East winds we had seen the coast of Norway on Thursday 8th September.
We sailed with south-south-easterly winds until 17 September when we entered GRUNDFJORD (near Randers in Denmark?) thanks to the BERGEN pilots.
We left GRUNDFJORD at 8 a.m. on the morning of 26 September with northerly winds - good breeze until 4 a.m. We had collected the mainsail and all the other sails except the topsail.
At 7 o'clock we picked up the topsail and put on the staysail. The westerly winds are still freshening. At 8 ½ hours we picked up the staysail and left to run dry of canvas.
At 11 ½ hours the ship ran aground on the rocks at the tip of KLEPP in JORDUN .
We immediately worked on the longboat to get it
afloat. The waves came on deck and filled the boat with water. We couldn't get it afloat.
We hung on to the keel of the dinghy for a long time, the sea was very rough. Finally the dinghy righted itself. We managed to get into the dinghy. After a while the dinghy went ashore. We threw ourselves on the rock
and abandoned the dinghy at about 3 o'clock in the morning. There remained on board the ship LE BIBOUL Vincent- Marie, ship's boy, son of the captain, aged 12 and a sailor, named MADEC, Jacques Magloire - aged 49. In the dinghy remained the captain LE BIBOUL Félix - aged 50 - another sailor named LE DOUARIN Joachim Marie aged 30. The ship's boy who disappeared when the boat overturned was named BLANCHO Jean Marie, aged 16. They all perished together from midnight until two o'clock. 1st October 1853 "
GICQUEL Jean Vincent,
LE GUERANNIC Louis Marie
Le Courrier du Hâvre, October 19, 1853:
The steamship "Le Paris", which arrived in our port last night from Hamburg, repatriated GICQUEL and DURANEC (Editor's note: LE GUERANNIC), sailors and sole survivors of the crew of the schooner Blanche-Marguerite, from Vannes, which was wrecked on Tadder Reef (Ndlr Jaeren Reeve) on September 26 during its voyage from Rouen to Gothenburg. Le Courrier du Hâvre, October 19, 1853.
The loss of the schooner BLANCHE-MARGUERITE was caused by bad weather; she was running downwind when she ran aground. A wave capsized the lifeboat into which the crew had jumped, leaving them with no means of steering. The men who boarded the boat tried to keep it stern to the waves by dismantling the benches, but another wave capsized it.
The two sailors, GICQUEL and LE GUERANNIC, managed to stay on the keel. When it landed, the boat capsized and they saw that the captain and a sailor were trapped under the benches; they had drowned! The current carried the boat to a point of land, where it ran aground around midnight. The two shipwrecked men hurried to find shelter, which they struggled to find, as the nearest habitation was more than two leagues away.
Blanche-Marguerite, Coastal Schooner