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Origin and history

The Fenoux pilot mast is a marine signaling device designed to facilitate ships' access to harbours in bad weather, when pilots could not board. Invented in 1832 by Julien-Joseph-Hippolyte Fenoux, captain of the corvette, this system used a 12 metre mast equipped with a triangular wing, a black ball and a red orientable flag. These optical signals indicated to the vessels the route to be followed, the manoeuvres to be carried out, or the obligation to take off according to the conditions. A regulation governed its operation, and its usefulness was recognized by the General Councils of Morbihan and Finistère.

The first experiment took place in Port-Louis on 25 June 1839. The Conseil Général du Finistère then decided to build a mast in Audierne, completed in June 1841 near the convent of the Capuchins, but put into service only in December 1843. Despite the reluctance of the Commission des Phares, which saw it as a competition, several other Fenoux masts were installed in France, notably in Saint-Nazaire (1843), Clohars-Carnoët (1847), Plouhinec (1867) and Bayonne (1868). Julien Fénoux, decorated with the Legion of Honor and Order of Saint Louis, died in 1847 in Lorient and was buried in Audierne.

The Audierne mast was moved in 1882 to the Môle du Raoulic to adapt to port developments. Its use ceased in the 20th century, and its metal mast was dismantled in the 1960s, leaving only the base turret, classified as a historical monument in 2022. Thanks to participatory and public funding (Heritage Foundation, Bern Mission, Brittany Region, etc.), a new 14-metre mast with a 7-metre swivel boom was resettled at the end of 2023 by Corlay. The renovated building was inaugurated on 14 June 2024.

Among the other remains of the Fenoux masts, Clohars-Carnoët is now a private home, while Plouhinec, replaced in 1961 by a modern semaphore, remains the last active civil semaphore in France. Managed by the Morbihan Ports Company, it perpetuates the original maritime signalling function. The port of Audierne, deemed dangerous because of its bar and the winds of the south amplifying the waves, thus benefited for a century from this system, extended from Bayonne to Brittany.

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