French submarine Minerve (S647)

The Daphné class were second-class submarines, intermediate between the larger, ocean-going submarines of the Narval class and the small, specialised anti-submarine vessels of the . The design was a development of the Aréthuse class, and was intended to keep the low noise levels and high manoeuvrability of the smaller submarines, while also keeping a small crew and being easy to maintain. Minerve had an overall length of , with a beam of and a draught of . Displacement was surfaced and submerged. The ship's machinery and equipment were modular to ease maintenance. Her range was at . Minerve was fitted with 12 torpedo tubes, with eight in the bow and four in the stern. No reload torpedoes were carried. The ship had a crew of 45, composed of six officers and 39 enlisted. ==Service history==

Minerve was ordered under the 1957 French Naval Estimates, ==Loss==

On 27 January 1968, at 07:55 CET, Minerve was travelling just beneath the surface of the Gulf of Lion using her snorkel, roughly from her base in Toulon, when she advised an accompanying Bréguet Atlantic aircraft that she would be at her berth in about an hour. This proved to be the last time the boat and her crew of 6 officers and 46 enlistees made contact. She disappeared in waters between deep. Commander Philipe Bouillot later said that Minerves new captain, Lieutenant de vaisseau André Fauve, had spent 7,000 hours submerged over four years on submarines of the same class and had never had a problem. The only plausible cause for her sinking was the weather, which was extremely bad at the time of her loss. The French Navy launched a search for the missing submarine, mobilizing numerous ships, including the aircraft carrier and the submersible under the supervision of Jacques Cousteau. However, they found nothing, and the operation was called off on 2 February 1968. ==Struggle of the families for the truth==

During the years that followed, the families of Minerve's crew made a concerted effort to find out what had happened. The French Navy did not release any information on the possible causes of the sinking. The file was classified as , which meant that it would not be publicly accessible for 50 years. After having requested access to the files many times, and having been refused each time, Christophe Agnus, who was the son of Minerve officer Lieutenant Jean-Marie Agnus, obtained an exemption to consult the archives in 2007 at the invitation of Nicolas Sarkozy. Agnus discovered nothing; other families were also granted exemptions, but came to suspect the Navy of concealing evidence that compromised its position. In 2018, Hervé Fauve, son of Minerve captain André Fauve, appealed to French President Emmanuel Macron to withdraw the Secret Défense status on the Minerve file ahead of schedule. The file had been in the state archives since 1977, and it would not ordinarily have been declassified until 50 years after the date of the last item to be added to the file, which was 1970; thus, the file would not ordinarily have been declassified until 2020. However, there was a risk that the file's secrecy would be automatically renewed on the scheduled date of declassification, and would extend the duration of its classified status until at least 2030. Fauve argued that the file was 'empty' according to those who had consulted it, that no similar submarine was still in use, that the file contained nothing that might endanger the security of the state, and above all that the families of the Minerve officers lived in hope of seeing the declassification of the file. The French government examined Fauve's request, and the Official Journal of 16 June 2018 announced the declassification of the archival material on the disappearance of the Minerve. == Relaunch of the search for the wreck ==

On 14 October 2018, the French newspaper Var-Matin reported that, on Hervé Fauve's initiative, eighteen of the families of the 52 sailors of the Minerve had sent an open letter to various elected representatives in the Toulon area to request that the search for Minerve's wreck be resumed. The submarine was the only missing Western submarine from the end of World War II not to have been found. After the publication of Var-Matin's report, Fauve succeeded in mobilising all the families of the crew, active and retired sailors, and the French media, to support the request. On 5 February 2019, the Minister of the Armed Forces announced the resumption of the search, 50 years after it had been called off. The French government started a new search for Minerve on 4 July 2019 in deep waters about south of Toulon. On 21 July 2019, The wreck was found at a depth of , broken into three main pieces scattered over a distance of along the seabed. Although Minerves sail was destroyed, it was possible to identify the wreckage, as the letters "MINE" and "S" (from Minerve and S647, respectively) were still readable on the hull. ==Memorial==

on Minerve dive 1 February 2020On the day of her discovery, 22 July 2019, Squadron Vice-Admiral Charles-Henri du Ché, responsible for the search, declared that the remains of the submarine would not be disturbed and would become a maritime sanctuary. A ceremony is to be held in the location where Minerve vanished with the relatives of the submariners in attendance. In December 2019, Victor Vescovo proposed to Fauve a dive on the wreck of the Minerve with his two-seat deep-water submersible DSV Limiting Factor. The Department of Underwater Archaeological Research (DRASSM), a department of the French Ministry of Culture which is responsible for the study and protection of France's underwater heritage, organized the dives on the Minerve wreck. On the first dive, 1 February 2020, Vescovo dived with retired French Rear Admiral Jean-Louis Barbier, who Fauve had contacted, to gather new information on the cause of the sinking. On the second dive, 2 February, Vescovo piloted while Fauve sat in the second seat. At the bottom they placed a granite memorial plaque on a section of Minerves hull at a depth of over – to a recording of "La Marseillaise". Vescovo later stated, "As a former naval officer, I was very honored to partner with our French allies…" ==See also==