There are a hundred sailors in my garden

Personal difficulties, followed by the years of the COVID pandemic, brought my project, which was to highlight the seafarers of Brest’s commercial port, to a screeching halt.

I met them through the Seamen’s Club, where they are welcomed for rest, relax, and play in the premises on Quai de la Douane. I also visited them at their workplaces on board ships, mainly in the mornings during their coffee breaks.

They agreed to answer my questions about their families, their work and their projects. They also agreed to let me photograph them at the Seamen’s Club or on their ship.

I told them about my plan to publish these interviews alongside their portraits, and they asked me to make it a bilingual publication.

I owe them a moral debt which I want to repay by publishing these few lines, which, although they are a few years old, still reflect the reality of the difficult lives of these men and women who are close to us in the ports but whom we hardly ever see.

I would like to thank them for the trust they placed in me and apologise if my understanding of English has led to any unintentional distortion of their comments.

I hope that, in the meantime, they will have completed some or all of the projects they told me about that were close to their hearts.

They opened my eyes to a world that was foreign to me, and they were wonderful encounters.

With many thanks to Alain for our visits on board ships, and to Diana, Julie, Paul and Terry for their help.