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In May 1850 the Zeebrugge tugs GRAAF VISART and BARON DE MAERE were requisitioned for the Belgian Corps de Marine, which assembled at Dartmouth in June and sailed to Lorient, arriving on the 17th. The two tugs were taken by German forces in the following week - their German service is summarised in Gröner Vol.6.

Two questions:

GRAAF VISART was sunk by a mine on 7/9/1940 at "Port Lucis" (and raised 12/1940).
Where was "Port Lucis"? I suspect that is Port Louis, Morbihan, at the entrance to Lorient.
Was it a defensive French or German mine (too close in, and maybe too early for an Allied-laid mine)

Hello,
Yes, it is Port Louis at the entrance to Lorient.
The mine is probably German. Indeed, the French minefields were on the ocean side and not on the harbor side.
In June 1940, the Luftwaffe laid magnetic mines in the access channels inside the roadstead.
This is how the trawler La Tanche, with between two hundred and two hundred and fifty people on board (the exact number is not known) jumped on one of these mines in the western channel around 4:00 p.m. There were only twelve survivors, eight of whom were seriously injured. In the following days, only one hundred and seventeen bodies were fished out.

@+
Alain

Thanks Alain
Though not good to hear about TANCHE

David

Hello,

Indeed, the word 'tench' is an insult but it is first and foremost the name of a river fish. This trawler had been built during the WWI as a patrol boat by the Compagnie Générale de Matériaux Naval in La Rochelle in 1918.
After the war, she served as a fishing warden in Marseille and then as a research vessel for the Office Scientifique et Technique des Pêches Maritimes in Lorient. In 1930, it was sold to Merriène Frères in Fécamp who converted it into a drifter. In 1839, she was required for a few weeks but was returned to her owner. He sail from Fécamp to escape the Germans. In the company of the trawler Saint Pierre, he made a stopover in Lorient to coal the 19th at 06:00.
The rest is unfortunately known.

@+
Alain