Last modified: 2004-07-10 by ivan sache
Keywords: compagnie des messageries maritimes | letters: mm (black) |
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![[Compagnie des Messageries Maritimes house flag]](../images/f/fr~hfcmm.gif)
by
Ivan Sache
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The Compagnie des Messageries Nationales, a mail-coach service, was created in 1796. Following the industrial revolution in the XIXth century, the mail and parcel services abandoned the coaches for the railway. On 8 July 1851, the Messageries Nationales signed with the French state an agreement for operating four shipping lines to Italy, Levant, Egypt and Greece. On 9 September, the Hellespont was the first ship of the company to leave the port of Marseilles, for Civitavecchia (Italia). In 1852, the shipping company was incorporated in Paris as the Compagnie des Services Maritimes des Messageries Nationales, renamed in 1853 Compagnie des Messageries Impériales. The company bought the shipyard of La Ciotat, where most of its ships were built.
The company efficiently transported French troops during the Crimean War (1854-55). As a reward, it was granted the postal lines to Algeria, Tunisia, and the Black Sea, and to South America (1857). The line Bordeaux-Brazil was the first French line served by steamships. Between 1862 and 1865, lines were set up to Far-East and Japan. A secondary line served the Indian Ocean via the Reunion island and Mauritius.
On 17 November 1869, the Messageries Impériales liner Péluse inaugaurated the Suez Canal, sailing just behind the Imperial vessel. The canal dramatically reduced the travel durations and increased the commercial exchanges, triggering the shipping business. On 1 August 1871, the company took the name of Compagnie des Messageries Maritimes.
In 1880, the lines to Northern Africa were ceded to the Compagnie
Générale Transatlantique. Lines to Australia, New Caledonia and the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) were opened in 1882, via Bombay and Colombo.
Between 1971 and 1914, the company was an essential support to the
French colonial expansion. Saigon became the second home base of the
company, which operated there smaller "stationary ships" on local lines
to Haiphong, the infamous penal colony of Poulo Condor, Hong-Kong and Shangai.
In 1912, the South American line was sold to the Compagnie Sud
Atlantique, a subsidiary of the Chargeurs Réunis company.
During the First World War, the ships of the company were used as
hospital ships and troop carriers. At the end of the war, one third of
the fleet, that is 22 ships, was lost.
In 1919, the ship El Kantara inaugurated the line around the world,
and was the firs