Cafeteria table from the Jeanne d’Arc
Brest
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Enlarge image : Full view with table and chair
Cafeteria table from the Jeanne d’Arc © Musée national de la Marine / LLL -
Enlarge image : Detail viw of a chair
Cafeteria table from the Jeanne d’Arc © Musée national de la Marine / LLL
On post-war ships, the crew compartments, in which the sailors ate and slept in the same place by setting up tables at meal times, disappeared. A cafeteria system was adopted instead, with distribution ramps and four-person tables. A single kitchen fed the crew and petty-officers, but the officers still had their own kitchen. This cafeteria table is one of the many items collected by the Museum when the Jeanne d’Arc helicopter carrier was decommissioned.
the Jeanne d’Arc
Enlarge image : Poste de pilotage de la Jeanne d’Arc
Built at the Brest naval shipyard between 1959 and 1961, the Résolue helicopter carrier (R97) was designed during the “Glorious Thirty” in the midst of the Cold War, in order to meet high operational standards. In the early 1960s, the helicopter carrier concept was very much in vogue in European navies. In 1964, the Résolue succeeded the cadet training ship Jeanne d’Arc (1931-1964), whose name it took. Intended to be a training ship in peacetime and a command and troop transport ship in wartime, the new Jeanne d’Arc could accommodate up to 200 officer cadets in its “school” version.
Career
A great many young sailors and officers made their initiatory voyage on the helicopter carrier over the course of its career. It also acted as a floating French embassy, welcoming distinguished guests from around the world on board along with the simply curious.
The Jeanne d’Arc carried out a number of humanitarian missions, including the rescue of forty boat people in the China Sea in 1988, the mission in Guatemala and Honduras after Hurricane Mitch in 1998, evacuation work following Hurricane Katrina in the southern United States in 2005, Operation Béryx in the Indian Ocean following the tsunami of 24 December 2004, and liberation of the Le Ponant hostages in 2008.
Officer cadets now complete their training during a placement known as “Mission Jeanne d’Arc”, carried out on board an Amphibious Group composed of an AHC (Amphibious Helicopter Carrier) and its escort frigate.
Model of the the helicopter carrier Jeanne d’Arc
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Enlarge image : Full view
Model of the helicopter carrier © Marine nationale/A. Monot
Collection highlight
The essential works to see during your visit to the Musée national de la Marine in Brest, Port-Louis, Rochefort, Toulon, and soon in Paris.