French 'calamity' carrier heads for sea - again By Julian Coman in Paris (Filed: 11/03/2001) ONE of the most embarrassing sagas in French maritime history took a further twist last week when France's most accident-prone warship began the countdown to another attempt to take to the high seas. In the Ministry of Defence and on the quayside at Toulon, where the 40,000-ton aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle had been dry-docked, sceptical observers crossed their fingers and prayed for a fair wind. The idea of France's first nuclear-powered carrier was dreamt up in 1986. It soon became a pet project of...