There were five on board. Captain Yves Gloaguen, sailor Pascal Le Floch and mechanic Patrick Gloaguen were discovered dead, drowned. As for Georges Lemétayer and Eric Guillamet, their bodies have not been found. Forever known as the “Bugaled Breizh”, that is to say “the children of Brittany”, the five sailors all perished in the sudden sinking of their trawler on January 15, 2004.
Unknown to the general public before this tragedy, the Bugaled Breizh has become in twenty years one of the most enigmatic shipwrecks in our contemporary society. Registered in Loctudy, in southern Finistère, the fishing boat had suddenly disappeared while sailing in the waters of the English Channel. Since that date, the relatives of the five sailors have continued to fight to know the truth. As the twentieth anniversary of that sad day approaches, they still do not know how or why the Bugaled Breizh sank. Barred by defense secrecy, the families continue to think that it was indeed a submarine which hooked the boat and suddenly dragged it to the bottom.
“Come quickly, we’re capsizing. Come quickly ! »And then nothing more. These words were the last spoken by Yves Gloaguen to Serge Cossec, captain of the Eridan, who had received this alert message on January 15, 2004. “His voice was not as usual, he seemed like he was ask himself what was happening to him,” the captain testified before the High Court in London in 2021. This final hearing led by British justice represented the last hope of the sailors’ families to obtain the truth. They will only come out more frustrated. Seized of the investigation because bodies were found in the waters of Cape Lizard, the London court did no better than its French counterpart, even ruling in favor of a fishing accident.
Titanium found on cables
Seized by the families, the French justice system preferred to opt for dismissal of the case, without ruling out any theory. That of a fishing accident calling into question the professionalism of the crew. Or that of a submarine, which allegedly snagged the Bugaled Breizh’s net. On the day of the accident, at least one exercise involving several submarines was underway in the area. Facing defense secrecy, the families never knew if the Dolfijn (Netherlands), the HMS Turbulent (England) or a US Navy submarine could have taken the sailors. However, some reports leave a lot of room for doubt, notably the one mentioning the 37 short seconds it took the Bugaled Breizh to sink. Or the traces of titanium found on the cables. A rare metal found in the hull of famous submarines.
By observing the hull of the trawler which had just sunk, the soldiers and investigators carrying out the investigations concluded that there had been a collision with a foreign vessel. For months, they pursued a Philippine container ship called “Seattle Trader” and tracked it to China. Six months after the sinking, French justice decided to refloat the ship in order to examine it closely. The impacts at the front of the ship leave no doubt: the Bugaled Breizh was not struck by an object on the surface.
The trail leading to a fishing accident is then favored, based on the picking of an object on the seabed. But clues give the families a glimpse of an external intervention. How can we explain that one of the cables is completely unwound without the other having really moved? The submarine’s track could never be proven.
“The families I represented have turned the page”
After twenty years of hoping and crying, the families now seem to have given up. “The statute of limitations has expired. Even if there was a new element, there is very little chance that the procedure will be reopened,” points out Me Christian Bergot, who defended four families of sailors. “The families I represented have turned the page. There is a great resignation on their part. »
Only Thierry Lemétayer, 56 years old, son of Georges, still wants to believe it. “The case continues. The fight is not in vain. I am almost convinced that I will know the truth in my lifetime,” he says. Laid for 19 years in the port of Brest, the wreck of the Bugaled Breizh was dismantled in the spring of 2023, taking its secrets with it. Waiting until one day the truth comes out.