Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Chantiers Tramasset du Tourne, created in 1837 by Pierre Tramasset, is the last vestige of the six shipyards in the town in the 19th century. Specializing in the construction and repair of wooden boats, they included two workshops: a small boat yard and a large yard for larger ship repairs. These workshops were connected to the Garonne by holds equipped with rails, allowing to lift the boats. An oven for wood bending and a sawmill, added around 1900, completed the whole, which was later electrified.

The shipyards played a key role in local river activity, building gabars, schooners, yachts and fishing boats, while maintaining the barges of the Canal du Midi and the vessels of the Port of Bordeaux. Their activity declined from the 1960s with the advent of steel, replacing wood in shipbuilding. The yards closed permanently in 1983, leaving on site remains like a steam machine and a tape saw, today in poor condition.

At their peak, between 1870 and 1914, the shipyards employed up to 40 workers, a reduced number to 7 marine carpenters in 1963. Among their notable achievements is the Two Brothers gabar, built in 1892 to transport wine, reconstructed a century later and classified as a historical monument. The site, fully registered in 2008, is now owned by the municipality and offers visits, workshops and cultural events.

The Petit construction site housed a workshop for the manufacture of wooden boats, with an office also serving as a drawing room for the plans, while the Grand construction site, built in 1892, welcomed large ships for repair. The oven, steam-operated, allowed to bend the wood, an essential technique for shipbuilding. The sawmill, added around 1900, modernized the production by draining trunks on site, before electrification of the site marks a new technological step.

The Chantiers Tramasset illustrate the historical importance of wooden shipbuilding on the Garonne, at a time when hundreds of gabares linked Langon to Bordeaux for the transport of goods. Their decline reflects the industrial transition to metal hulls, while preserving a unique technical and architectural heritage. Today, the site combines historical preservation and cultural activities, with educational workshops and guided tours.

The location of the construction sites at the Port du Tourne (33550) has direct access to the Garonne, a strategic asset for their past activity. Their inscription in the Historical Monuments in 2008 saved this rare testimony of traditional naval crafts, while offering a place of memory and transmission of know-how related to wood and river.

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