This is the story of my life so far: 67 years and counting.
Prequel: A Brief History of my Family in France

The story starts here
Previous episode: Part 37

The BDC Trieux

The ship I was posted on in Tahiti in 1971-1972 was a "BDC", that is a "Bâtiment de Débarquement de Chars", or in English a "Tank Landing Ship" (LST).

BDC Trieux in Papeete Harbor
source

There have been five BDCs built in Nantes in 1958-1960. They were basically bad copies of the LST built by the USA during World War II.

They all had names of small French coastal rivers: Trieux, Argens, Blavet, Dives and Bidassoa.

Like the American LSTs, the BDCs their bow had a large door and a ramp that were used to load and unload various material and vehicles, on beaches or in ports.

Because of this design and the fact that the BDCs had small diesel engines, their maximum speed were around 10 knots and could be much slower when the sea was rough.

The BDC Trieux at Sea

There were two other BDCs in Tahiti then: the Blavet and the Dives.

The BDC Trieux crossing the BDC Blavet

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In 1967, the Trieux was equipped with an hangar suited for two helicopters Alouette III.

Alouette III Marine
source

The helicopters were used to transport material on different atolls in French Polynesia, where it was impossible for any ship to dock anywhere or even to anchor.

Cargo-Sling on a BDC

In the next episode, we will see what kind of operations the BDC Trieux was doing during my post.

Continue to Part 39

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Summary
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8
Part 9 - Part 10 - Part 11 - Part 12 - Part 13 - Part 14 - Part 15 - Part 16
Part 17 - Part 18 - Part 19 - Part 20 - Part 21 - Part 22 - Part 23 - Part 24
Part 25 - Part 26 - Part 27 - Part 28 - Part 29 - Part 30 - Part 31 - Part 32
Part 33 - Part 34 - Part 35 - Part 36 - Part 37