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By Rear Admiral Roberto Benavente
In 1834 he traveled to the Americas, settling in Valparaíso where he worked as the representative of Captain Le Quellec, also from Bordeaux. Their partnership acquired four wooden ships around 1847 for the trade between Chile and the French Atlantic ports. Cargoes were coal outbound from Europe, principally Britain, and nitrate, copper and guano from the Northern Chilean ports back to Europe. The company rapidly prospered. He returned to France in 1855, married in 1856, established branches in Paris, Bordeaux and Le Havre and promptly returned to Valparaíso.
In 1870 he began to import and sell salitre in France, establishing warehouses in Dunkirk, Nantes, La Rochelle and Bordeaux. During the 1870’s Bordes commissioned 27 new ships between 600 and 1200 registered tons, among which he continued to reaffirm his Chilean connections with vessels named Augustín Edwards (a famous Chilean banker) Cerro Alegre, Chañaral, Maipú, Quillota, Rancagua and Valparaíso (mountains, ports, valleys and cities of Chile). With the enormous growth in nitrate exportation in the 80´s Bordes commissioned the construction of his first vessel over 2000 tons a four-master named La Union. This larger vessel prospered in the high bulk transport of nitrate. Early in 1883 Antoine-Dominique Bordes, tired of the hard work demanded by his dynamic enterprise, transferred the company to his 3 sons, Adolfo, Alejandro and Antonin, and retired to Bordeaux where he died on 28 May of the same year.
This was the famous France, of 110 meters LOA and 14.6 of breadth. Her steel masts reached 48.8 meters in height and her hold capacity was 6200 tons. Using four steam cranes this ship established a record in the Port of Iquique, unloading 5000 tons of coal and loading 5500 tons of nitrate in 11 days, making it the largest and most modern sailing vessel in commerce. In 1895 the German merchant fleet of Laeisz commissioned the Potosi which exceeded the size and capacity of the France, and then again in 1902 with the Preussen which was for a time the largest sailing vessel in the world. Preussen was in her turn overtaken by the R. C. Rickmers in 1906. The march to greater sizes was concluded with the construction of France II in 1912, the largest sailing vessel ever constructed – 150 meters LOA, 17 meters of breadth, 5 masts and 6350 square meters of sail area, she was lost off New Caledonia in 1922.
The growth of the French fleet was at least partially the result of a subsidy program of the French Government begun in 1890. The Bordes & Sons fleet had 15 ships of 16,830 registered tons in 1870. It had increased to 38 ships of 119,560 registered tons by 1900 and maximized at 46 ships of 163,160 tons in 1914 when it was the largest French sailing fleet, and the second largest such fleet in the world.
Valparaíso, February, 2000 |
Antoine-Dominique Bordes was born in Gers, France, in July of 1815.
He was the son of a rural doctor and arrived to study in Bordeaux at the age of 11. After
finishing school he worked for his elder brother Antonio in the grain and flour trade.
In 1868 Captain Le Quellec died and
Bordes became owner of the firm, beginning a period of rapid growth. He commissioned 13
ships of between 600 and 750 registered tons, each capable of transporting between 1000
and 1200 tons of minerals, refined or unrefined. To demonstrate his connections with Chile
he named the ships for rivers or regions such as Almendral, Aconcagua, Bío-Bío and
Tarapacá.
The three sons had long been working
in the company and rapidly moved forward. They commissioned the A. D. Bordes, the
Pérséverance another Tarapacá; all large ships similar to La Unión. In 1890, seeing
the future of the Chilean nitrate trade, the Bordes brothers ordered the construction of
the first five masted sailing vessel.
The vessels of Bordes were not only
appropriate for cargo transport, they were truly beautiful and elegant creations of the
sea. The beauty of the ships was not the only distinguishing fleet of the Bordes fleet,
his Captains and crews were known for their excellence; giving rise to rivalry between the
French of Bordes and the Germans of the "Flying P Line", each battling to beat
the passage records of the others.
The fleet of A. D. Bordes & Sons
suffered great losses during WW I, simultaneously the reduction of demand for Chilean
nitrate and various legal changes in the status of French shipowners caused them to
disband the fleet. During 90 years the House of Bordes had sailed 126 ships, resisted the
strong competition of Germans and Britons, overcome the many difficulties of the trade and
given work to thousands of persons. In 1935 the Bordes brothers donated to the Marine
Museum in Paris the beautiful models of their ships and both died in the 40’s.