Photograph n°5
Pier piles driven into the seabed, Marine Techer at La Possession, 1999
Photo: Eric VENNER DE BERNARDY DE SIGOYER
Historical and technical data
Located in the northwest of Reunion Island on the territory of the municipality of La Possession, the Techer navy site is located below the national road N°1.
Our historiographical research in the departmental archives of Reunion brought to our attention a plan of the anchorage area of La Possession in 1847. This plan gives us an overview of the projection of the wharf as well as the bathymetric points relating to the anchorages of the boats.
Figure 1: General plan of the Possession landing stage site
Plan drawn up by Marcel Cazal
Computer graphics by Christol Venner from Bernardy de Sigoyer
The website
The underwater archaeological prospecting operation referenced OA: 000619 confirmed the anchor points of the Navy Techer landing bridge. The site is made up of six piles driven into the seabed. Two wooden piles are on the shore and four piles of a ferrous nature are partly submerged. The metal elements are about 2.50 meters and 3 meters deep. Their lengths vary between 5.50 meters and 7.20 meters. Losses of materials are observable on all the surfaces. No connecting element is visible between the structure. On the surface, the ends of these four metal piles are deformed and flattened. They have a rather conical shape, which allows us to say that they were struck with force, a testimony no doubt to the methods used for the installation of landing piles at the time, which was done by ramming. We also observe on the site 57 metal parts with various profiles distributed in several places. The observation of these vestiges allowed us to enrich our knowledge on the coastal structures of the landing bridges.