Captain Luc Grandcourt Recounts 1975 Rescue of 15 Passengers from Sinking Schooner
VICTORIA, Seychelles — Captain Luc Grandcourt, now 77, has recounted a chapter of Seychelles’ maritime history that has rarely been told outside Praslin: his role in saving 15 passengers and six crew members from his sinking schooner, the Ero, in 1975. Speaking from his home on Praslin, where he still keeps the schooner’s 70-year-old steering wheel as a souvenir, Captain Grandcourt described how mountainous waves began battering the boat within an hour of leaving Praslin for Mahé.
He recalled that water began pouring into the schooner almost immediately. With the on-board pump unable to cope, he ordered the crew to turn the sails so that, if the boat capsized, the canvas would help to hold it above the surface. He then made a life raft from two long planks of wood and a number of barrels, to which the 15 passengers were tied.
Among the passengers was the first Seychellois Anglican priest, French Chang-Him, who later became Archbishop Emeritus and who died in May 2023. According to Captain Grandcourt, the Bishop kept slipping his ties and drifting away from the raft, and the captain had to swim fast to rescue him on several occasions. “It seems that God wants to take me today,” the Bishop is reported to have said. “We will be saved,” the captain replied.
The group spent seven hours at sea before a small aircraft spotted them in their orange life jackets. They were rescued shortly afterwards. The account forms part of Captain Grandcourt’s contribution to the public memory of Seychelles’ small but rich maritime heritage.
