Raoul's training
30 December 2017 02:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
igenlodeRan into a couple of facts I really should have known/researched before:
The Borda was not just a schoolship, she *was* the École navale — a moored hulk in Brest harbour on board which the naval college was located. So Raoul would have seen her and her cadets every day while staying with his aunt in Brest, thus explaining Leroux' offhand comment that "une veille tante, veuve du marin, qui habitait Brest [...] donna au jeune Raoul le goût des choses de la mer. Le jeune homme entra au Borda, en sortit dans les premiers numéros et accomplit tranquillement son tour du monde" — it would have seemed a natural progression of events to anyone aware of the ship's name and location.
And the "tour de monde" referred to was in fact the traditional final year of the officer-cadet's training, "l'année terminale d'instruction et de formation à la mer" — hence, again, Leroux' casual reference to this as an unremarkable event: this simply meant that Raoul had successfully completed his studies and would be ranked as aspirant de première class or ensign/sub-lieutenant.
The Borda was not just a schoolship, she *was* the École navale — a moored hulk in Brest harbour on board which the naval college was located. So Raoul would have seen her and her cadets every day while staying with his aunt in Brest, thus explaining Leroux' offhand comment that "une veille tante, veuve du marin, qui habitait Brest [...] donna au jeune Raoul le goût des choses de la mer. Le jeune homme entra au Borda, en sortit dans les premiers numéros et accomplit tranquillement son tour du monde" — it would have seemed a natural progression of events to anyone aware of the ship's name and location.
And the "tour de monde" referred to was in fact the traditional final year of the officer-cadet's training, "l'année terminale d'instruction et de formation à la mer" — hence, again, Leroux' casual reference to this as an unremarkable event: this simply meant that Raoul had successfully completed his studies and would be ranked as aspirant de première class or ensign/sub-lieutenant.