27 January 1968, the Minerva no longer responds

July 2019, the wreck of the submarine the Minerve has finally been located.

A half-century riddle

On January 27, 1968, La Minerve had to arrive in Toulon in the evening, he would never arrive.

The same morning the radio contact was abruptly interrupted a little before 8am. Since then, this is the mystery for the families of the 52 crew members. Until July 2019, when the Army Minister announced that the wreckage had finally been located following new research operations started earlier this month.

7:55, the last communication

In service since 1964, La Minerve (Daphne class) is one of the flagships of the French Navy, a high-tech concentrate of the time.

An exercise in the Mediterranean takes place in early 1968. After 9 days of manoeuvres, he returned to Toulon on 27 January, to drop off a crew member, Lieutenant Merlo, suffering from a tooth rage that would save his life.

The vessel then returned offshore for its last voyage to exercise with a Breguet Atlantic aircraft, and the vessel was 46 kilometres from the coast.

From the beginning, weather conditions were very difficult, the military canceled the mission to perform a simple radar calibration, the Mistral then blew at 110 km/h causing a strong swell and disrupting connections.

At 0755, the submarine asked to cancel the next 8 o'clock calibration, the Breguet Atlantic acknowledged receipt and left the area. So far, nothing abnormal, it is actually the last radio contact with the submersible.

In the evening, while the building is expected for 9pm in Toulon, concern is born. The various semaphores responsible for maritime security are questioned but none report the Minerva. The alarm was launched in the night at 2:00 am, the Minister of the Army Pierre Messmer and the President of the Republic, General de Gaulle, were warned. All maritime military forces around Toulon are sent to start the search as soon as possible.

Time goes by, but we have to go to the obvious, the submarine has indeed sunk from the bottom. However, the hope of finding survivors remains that the vessel will have about 100 hours of oxygen in storage. Helicopters, aircraft, ships and even the Clemenceau aircraft carrier are in the area. All staff at rest are called in the streets of Toulon by vehicles equipped with speakers.

To these rescues are added the diving capsule of Commander Cousteau's Calypso. "Even if it's in a month, you have to find this wreck, you have to identify it, you have to know why it sank, you have to," the famous oceanographer repeats.

But the search is abandoned 5 days after the shipwreck, once the oxygen reserves are considered exhausted. The technical means of the time did not allow to search the seabed, which could reach 2000 m off Toulon.

In 1968 and 1969 two other research campaigns were organized without more success, the case then became a defence secret.

The Grand Muette is walled in silence.

Why the silence?

Because military and economic issues are very important at the time. The Daphne class submarines are then a flagship of the French industry, the discovery of ships can lead to the cancellation of sales.

15 days after the tragedy, General de Gaulle made a dive aboard an identical submarine, the Eurydice, to prove that the "Daphne" were safe buildings.

Ironically, the Eurydice will also sink two years later off Saint-Tropez, taking 57 crew members with him again. We'll find him, but no survivors.

Hervé Fauve, the son of the Minerve commander, tells the story. "I remember this morning from Sunday 28 January"

The loss of the Minerva left 52 families in mourning, 28 orphans and 17 widows. Hervé Fauve was 5 years old at the time, he remembers. "This Sunday morning, January 28, my mother does not worry too much, she is used to my father's staggered returns for questions of service that he never details. In the middle of the morning, two Marine officers ring at home and announce the bad news. My mother collapses, I wonder what's going on and in tears, she explains to me that I won't see my father again."

Despite the questions about this tragedy, Hervé Fauve will cease to understand what happened to his father, He created, a website reporting the results of his personal research.