In the Navy - consequences for morale
Testimonials
There are many accounts of the loss of confidence caused by the successive disappearances of the Minerve and then the Eurydice. Some of these come from the highest levels of the Navy.
Just after the Minerve accident, a submarine commander declared:
"I have absolute confidence in the diving safety equipment of these vessels [...] I believe in only one plausible cause: an external cause, that of a collision by a surface vessel, in a sector frequented by commercial vessels".
2 years later, on 4 March 1970, the Eurydice sank. In 2018, some officers recall this period:
"Before the Minerve accident, we had absolute confidence in the quality and reliability of these submarines. After the Minerve we were stunned and didn't understand a thing, but after the Eurydice we were scared to death."
"Every time I went on patrol I thought it might be the last and I was scared in my stomach. That's why I left the Navy as soon as I could. "
-
A former sailor tells the following anecdote:
"When François Querat took command of the Narval in 1970, he had just left that of the Eurydice, which sank shortly after his departure.
There was then, on board the Narval, a guy who did not want this commander. A captain who came from a boat that had just disappeared (just after the Minerve) was for him “a black cat”. The guy wanted to disembark from the Narval so as not to sail with this bad luck Pasha (which was not the case, he was a recognized and respected super Pasha), his disembarkation was refused to him, the guy then deserted, he was a good mechanic, judgment, prison, career over."
-
Admiral Joire-Noulens, head of FOST and future Chief of Staff of the Navy, spoke of the influence of women on their husbands' choice of posting:
‘Wives and their husbands may be volunteers, but they are not willing widows’.
And about the risks involved in being a submariner:
‘3 glitches: one technical problem and 2 human errors, or 2 technical errors and one human error and we're off to the mat.’
-
Admiral de Joybert, who was Chief of Staff of the Navy after the dramas will declare, once retired:
"If we lost 2 classic submarines, the fault lies strictly with the government and the senior staff of the army."
"There was on board the Minerve almost half of the crew who had very little or no experience of underwater navigation. The seasoned and experienced supervisory staff is then insufficient in number to supervise them effectively."
"In the event of an accident, the old know what to do, the young people panic, take fright and then make the wrong order or operate it in the wrong direction"
Admiral Marc de Joybert (1912-1987) was Chief of the Navy from 1972 to 1974. His recorded testimony on the Minerva can be consulted at the SHD in Vincennes under the reference: MVGG 9 GG