Goulet de Brest

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File:Goulet de Brest.jpg
Goulet de Brest, with the Phare du Portzic
File:Rade de Brest.svg
The Script error: No such module "Lang". is centred on the left edge of this map (unlabelled, below the compass rose), north of the Script error: No such module "Lang". (peninsula) and south of the starred Pointe du Portzic. The Script error: No such module "Lang".’s northwestern limit, the Pointe du Petit Minou, is outside of the map.

The Goulet de Brest (Script error: No such module "IPA".; Template:Langx) is a 3-km-long strait linking the roadstead of Brest to the Atlantic Ocean. Only 1.8 km wide, the Template:Wikt-lang is situated between the Pointe du Petit Minou and the Pointe du Portzic to the north and the îlot des Capucins and the Pointe des Espagnols to the south.

At each turn of the tide, the ocean refills the roadstead in a current that can attain 4 to 5 knots.[1] Sailing ships would thus wait in the cove of Camaret-sur-Mer for a favourable current to carry them into the Script error: No such module "Lang"..

On 2 January 1793, the Childers Incident – the first shots of the war between Great Britain and France during the French Revolutionary Wars – took place in the Script error: No such module "Lang"..

Military significance

It is the only opening into the roadstead of Brest, and thus the only access to the town. Consequently, successive French governments have lined the Script error: No such module "Lang". with military installations to protect the town and the naval fleet based there, and to keep a watch on shipping using it. The geography of the Script error: No such module "Lang". favours the defenders, as it has a spine down its length, in the form of the Le Mengant rocks, which force ships to sail either to their north or south.[1]

The body of water is surrounded by these areas and sites (nearby or at a moderate distance):

Area around Brest
North shore
Area around Roscanvel
South shore peninsula
Area around Camaret-sur-Mer
Southwest; not directly bordering the Script error: No such module "Lang"., but Camaret Bay

Notes and references

  1. a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".

External links

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