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THE BUILDING OF SAINT-NAZAIRE

In 1835, a breakwater with docking facilities was inaugurated. It marked the beginning of a long period of expansion for Saint-Nazaire, referred to for a time as the gold rush era.

In 1840, Saint-Nazaire became the home port of a transatlantic postal service. The digging began on the first basin in 1847. Ten years later, the town's population had grown to 2,000.

Saint-Nazaire became the home port of a transatlantic line serving the West Indies, Mexico and Cayenne. With the departure of La Louisiane on April 14th, 1862, the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique inaugurated the first regular service to Vera Cruz, right after Napoleon III embarked on his adventure in Mexico.

The first shipyard was opened at Penhoët, under the management of the Scottish industrialist, John Scott. L'impératrice Eugénie, the first ship to be built at Penhoët, was also one of the last wheeler packets to be built in Saint-Nazaire. The workers in the shops at Penhoët came from the Brière region.

They were familiar with age-old boatbuilding techniques, but made the change-over from wood to iron easily. The town continued to grow and when the Saint-Nazaire basin had just been finished, the question of a second basin arose. It was to be built at Penhoët.

Five years after its start, the shipbuilding industry ran into its first problems with the bankruptcy of the Scott yards in 1866. After completion of the Penhoët basin in 1881, two new yards, the Loire yards and the Penhoët yards were established and started building hulls and engines.

As ships became larger the harbour had to be adapted. The new South entrance was built between 1896 and 1907 and was inaugurated by Le Versailles, the pride of the Penhoët yards. In 1934, the Joubert lock was opened, providing another access to the Penhoët basin and bringing to a close one hundred years construction.