Contenu du sommaire : Les petits ports

From the 17th century, Fréjus was a coastal town without a harbor. Nevertheless, the city still took great interest in maritime affairs and to claims of people living off the sea in small neighboring harbors. The bay was home to a wide variety of maritime activities along its beaches and transient marinas or harbors. Local sailors served in the King's navy or were involved in coastal fishing and inshore navigation, while others undertook longer journeys collecting goods for Marseilles' merchants or local maritime ‘companies'. The Bay of Fréjus, with its string of small ports, was one link in a complex chain of ports around Marseilles whose growth relied heavily on the Provencal coast. During the 19th century, these scattered ports underwent many changes but the arrival of new business opportunities allowed many to remain in activity or encouraged smaller and downgraded ports to take on a new lease of life.

Arles is located on the Rhône estuary, but its only access to the sea lies across a wide sandy and shifting delta known as the Camargue. Its long flat coastline cannot offer the secure shelter required by ships and that lead to the establishment of small harbors. Trading ships looked for safe harbor in the river's mouths under the protection of watchtowers. The coast was mostly inhabited by fishermen living in beach cabins for part of the year, while other residents settled in the only port on this unwelcoming coast, the town of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. Nevertheless, the delta's inland area was home to numerous market towns where the delta economy was based on harvesting and supplying the mas.

The construction of wooden ships was an important part of the Provencal maritime economy during the 19th century. There were shipyards not only in the large ports such as Marseilles and Toulon, but also in the smaller ports. In fact, the shipyards in the smaller or secondary ports produced nearly 85 % of the ships built in Provence, each having its own specialty. Some built only small fishing boats (for example, Six-Fours, Saint-Raphaël, Cros-de-Cagnes) while others specialized in ships for coastal trading ships (Martigues, Arles) or in a wide variety of larger vessels (La Seyne, Saint-Tropez and La Ciotat). These towns established strong interdependent relationships with Marseilles, which was unable to meet demand from its long-haul shipping companies.

Studies of Breton maritime communities reveal the presence of a number of small harbors which led to the local population's close relationship with the sea, until recent changes in maritime systems. Through research into coastal navigation between large ports (cabotage) and small fishing harbors, it was discovered that these smaller harbors were in fact essential for understanding the way the coast was organized. However, each small port has its own specificities and, like the harbors in the Bay of Morbihan, became part of the local systems where relations with the principal port were far from one-way. By examining specific situations, we can see how the context determined how harbors sought to promote, integrate or withdraw, without actually disappearing altogether, even if little is known about these small ports.

Between the 15th and 18th centuries, the Saintonge coast was open to maritime trade. These shores were attractive because the islands of Oleron and Ré offered fleets real protection from Atlantic storms and for this reason, this coastline was known as the “Mer des Perthuis” (the sea of gaps). In the late Middle Ages, merchants from Northern Europe came to buy salt from Brouage and wine from Cognac. With their new-found wealth from this trade, many of the small Saintonge ports launched fishing expeditions for cod in Newfoundland's waters during the 16th century. This was a time of great prosperity for the small towns of Marennes and Brouage. The French Wars of Religion undermined this local economy. In the 17th century came the sugar revolution, but this new market required larger ships and greater capital investment than those required for coastal trading or cod fishing. So the small Saintonge ports returned to their core markets of coastal fishing and shipping, which they maintained until the end of the 19th century.

During the 18th century, the Baltic region had a very wealthy economy. It supplied raw materials for shipyards in Western Europe and in return received farm produce and manufactured and colonial goods. The Baltic had a well-developed but patchy network of harbors: dense in the North and scattered along the continental coast in the South. Despite this somewhat difficult commercial situation, these small Scandinavian harbors found their niche in the maritime trade. They became indispensible for major ports by collecting goods for export and developing their own commercial shipping. This dynamism allowed them to contribute to the expansion of Scandinavian navies during the second half of the 18th century.

Since Antique Times, Roman harbor space has been shaped by wheat supplying. Nevertheless, pontifical Tyrrhenian coast does not rely only on cereals. At Modern Times, a harbor dissemination distribute also wood and food. Goods are loaded at estuaries ends along the rivers or on the beaches. These traffics, integrated to local seaside trade, have to adapt themselves to geographical and political constraints : silting-up, low interest of the pontifical power for sea matters. This study underlines the original aspect of this harbor sowing and the flexibility of coasters who animates exchanges.