La Recouvrance puts to sea, on a day when white horses roam blue seas and few venture out.
A black squall lays her on her beam ends, as she clears the point, which shelters Camaret.
Swirling over and around the high cliffs of Toulinguet. Our wavebreak five miles to seaward.
La Recouvrance's slender clipper bow rises to meet the storm sent swell. Her long bowsprit spears skyward.
Before smiting down. In a welter of salt spray.
The coxwain spins her mighty wheel. La Recouvrance heels to the breeze. Plunging and rearing. Broadside to the waves. Hestitating; uncertain and vulnerable.
Before she steadies to her new course. Wind and wave on her quarter. Galloping toward the Goulet and on to her home port of Brest.
La Recouverance is a rare female French ship (usually they are masculine). In this case named in honour of Brest's La Recouvrance neighbourhood. Site of the naval dockyards, before their relocation, across the Rade, to Le Fret. La Recouvrance is a recreation of the swift sailing Packet ships, which carried news and intelligence, from French interests in Africa and the Antilles. The Topsail schooner launched during the 1992 Fete Maritime de Brest.
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