Equipages. Life on Board and Traditions of the Sailors of La Royale

La Marine nationale (La Royale) is one of the last institutions that can pride itself on the human dimension of a crew. When the last mooring line of one of its vessels slips into the water, a very particular world comes into being in an instant. A group of men and women leaves dry land to live a collective experience in a closed environment, far from any family life, with a specific mission in service of France. Weeks and months of absence. The constraints of communal living. Sometimes demanding working conditions. And yet, an endlessly renewed desire to set sail again. For a sailor, daily life at sea is an ordinary experience in an extraordinary world. It is also a remarkable blend of contrasts between action and tradition. But a crew is not merely a group of sailors: a crew forms and lives in an environment that shapes it, built around three essential elements — the vessel, the sea, and the ports. Together with the men, these are the guiding threads of this work. The photographs were taken during embarkations aboard the principal vessels of the French Navy, from the most famous — such as the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle and the helicopter carrier Jeanne d'Arc — to the more anonymous patrol vessels, avisos, frigates and schooners, as well as nuclear attack submarines and missile-launching submarines.