Capt. Louis Allaire

The 7th inductee is the French Capt. Louis Allaire, the founding President of de l’Amicale Internationale des Capitaines au Long Curs Cap Horniers, the forerunner to the International Association of Cape Horners.

The French association of Cape Horners came about during a lunch held at the Hôtel de l’Univers in St Malo attended by some 30 sailing ship captains who had all rounded Cape Horn. Three captains, Yves Menguy, Auguste Briand and Alfred Jean were charged with setting it up, and in May 1937, 35 fellow French Captains were invited to Marie Turmel’s hotel-restaurant Aux ajoncs d’or, in Saint-Malo. The first committee was made up of Louis Allaire, President, François Hervé and Francis Lhotellier, vice-presidents, Auguste Briand secretary, along with Yves Menguy and Eugène Allée. They created the first Cape Horners magazine Le Courrier du Cap.

Capt Allaire spent 24 years at sea starting as a 17-year-old apprentice aboard the French 3-master Circle carrying nitrate from Chile and iron ore from New Caledonia. His first command in 1910 was the 3-masted Germaine bound for New Calendonia. In 1912/13, he commanded the 3-masted Yves de Kerguelen on hydrographic surveys and meteorological research in the Indian and Pacific oceans, and also made an expedition to the French islands of St Paul and Amsterdam.