Louis Joubert Lock - History

History

As an historic major seaport on the western edge of the Atlantic, the closest for ships coming from the western Atlantic to France, Saint-Nazaire had played a major part in World War I as a disembarkation point for United States Army troops. The US Army had undertaken various development projects around Saint-Nazaire, including the construction of a refrigeration plant in the docks for storage of imported meat and dairy products.

At the end of the First World War, the Port Authority of Saint-Nazaire envisaged the construction of a third basin to mitigate the port's then lack of large scale ship facilities. However, due to the post-war recession and resultant down turn in shipping traffic, the idea was abandoned. However, scale problems encountered during the construction of the SS Ile de France, and the opportunity to build the proposed super passenger liner which would become the SS Normandie, resulted in a reassessment of the project.

Designed and engineered by Albert Caquot, work started in February 1929, and final acceptance took place in 1934. The facility, then the largest dry dock in the world, connected the Penhoet basin with the Loire River. It was named after the former president of the Saint-Nazaire Chamber of Commerce, Louis Joubert, who had died in 1930.

With the fall of France in 1940, the dock took on new strategic importance for the Germans, as it was the only dry dock on the West Coast of France capable of servicing the battleships Bismarck and Tirpitz. The location gave access to the Atlantic Ocean, by-passing the Royal Navy's defensive lines organised along the GIUK gap. Of course the battleships had to get there though. Bismarck broke into the Atlantic in 1941 but was damaged in the Battle of the Denmark Strait. She was heading for St Nazaire for repair when she was brought to battle by the Royal Navy and sunk, leaving Tirpitz as the largest surface threat from the Kriegsmarine.