On July 24, 2023, the French ensign was lowered for the last time on La Glorieuse, which has now become a hull in the official name of the French Navy.
The 400-ton patrol boat La Glorieuse began construction in January 1984 and was floated on 25 January 1985 in Cherbourg. Sponsored with the town of Dumbéa, the patrol boat was admitted to active duty on 18 April 1987. In 36 years of operations, La Glorieuse will have traveled 665,040 nautical miles, or 31 round-the-world trips in 2900 days at sea and 309 stopovers in 22 different countries.
Disarmament operations began as soon as the patrol vessel retired from active service on 11 May 2023. For 2 and a half months, the entire crew took direct part in the dismantling and handing over of the equipment that took place at the Nouméa naval base. A dry passage in the hold of Nouville will have made it possible to complete the operations of securing the hull.
The decommissioning of La Glorieuse also marks the end of the 400-ton patrol boats, a class of emblematic overseas vessels, replaced by the Antilles-Guyane patrol boats in the Caribbean departments and by the overseas patrol boats (POM) in New Caledonia, French Polynesia and Reunion. The first in the series, the Auguste Bénébig, recently arrived at the naval base in Noumea.