Channelling the Blavet

The Blavet was channelled between 1806 and 1825 as part of the vast Nantes-Brest canal project resumed by Napoleon. It had several goals; to connect the English Channel to the ocean and prevent a blockade by the English, to open up the arsenals of Lorient and Brest, but also to connect Lorient to Pontivy, for a time known as Napoléonville. The river was profoundly reorganised. A channel 40 metres deep was dug into the riverbed. The work was laboriously done using shovels and pick axes by workers, beggars and prisoners, housed in wooden barracks along the banks. Accidents and illness were rife. In total, several million cubic metres of earth was moved and tonnes of stone assembled