A few months ago, on December 21, 2024, Admiral Bernard Antoine Morio de l'Isle left us for what submariners modestly call his last patrol. I wanted to pay him a final tribute here by recounting the circumstances that led me to come across him and his contribution to the discovery of the Minerve wreck (biography in french).
It was November 27, 2018, French Submariners' Day.
For a few weeks already, I had succeeded in mobilizing the media around the families' desire to relaunch the search abandoned since 1970 to discover the wreck of the submarine that had been missing for 50 years. The feedback I received from the Ministry of the Armed Forces was not favorable. The fear that a new campaign would fail tipped the balance in favor of refusing the families' request.
However, in a highly unusual move for a civilian with no official responsibilities, I was invited to speak at the ceremony in front of the national submarine monument in Toulon, on the initiative of the ALFOST (commander of the submarine forces and strategic oceanic force), Admiral Bernard Antoine Morio de l'Isle.
I gave a speech in which I expressed the determination of the families, who were waiting for the search to resume so that they could finally mourn, despite the half-century that had passed since the disappearance of La Minerve. I also mentioned the recent discovery of the wreck of the Argentinian submarine San Juan, found a few days earlier after a year's uninterrupted search (text of speeches).
The next speaker was Admiral Morio de l'Isle. Part of his speech was in response to mine. It expressed the official position of the Ministry. It was more positive than the echoes I'd been hearing.
However, a few hours later, at the cocktail party that followed the ceremonies, in private, the same Admiral Morio de l'Isle gave a great deal of advice on how best to continue the fight for a resumption of the search.
I realized then that the active submarine forces were on my side, and that he was the first to help us succeed in our quest. Behind the scenes, the submariners were working to help us. There was real hope.
I've always been grateful to him.
Hervé Fauve
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