Company History
In 1851, a ship owner from Marseille, Albert Rostand, proposed to Ernest Simons, director of a terrestrial carrier company, the Messageries Nationales, to merge to create a shipping company, first called Messageries Nationales, then Messageries Impériales, and finally in 1871 the Compagnie des Messageries Maritimes. Two engineers, Dupuy de Lôme and Armand Brehic joined the company, encouraging the purchase of the shipbuilding yards of La Ciotat in 1849.
In the beginning, the Company operated on routes to the Middle East. Its ships were used as troopships during the Crimean War, and were so helpful for the army that the Emperor gave the company the right to operate on the Bordeaux–Brazil route as thanks. This was the first French transatlantic line equipped with steamers. The following year, the Societe Generale Maritime (future Compagnie Générale Transatlantique) received the North Atlantic lines.
From 1871 to 1914, the Compagnie des Messageries Maritimes saw its Golden Age. This was the period of French colonial expansion and of interventionism in the Middle and Far East. The Marseille liners continuously served in the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea, then the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, the China Sea and finally the Pacific Ocean. In the west, the South Atlantic line filled out. Even the North Atlantic knew the ships with the typical double funnel, which made the line London–Dunkirk–Le Havre–Marseille. In the Middle East, the ports of call were Malta, Alexandria, Port Said, Beirut, Syria, Smyrna, Constantinople, and the Black Sea. In the Indian Ocean, the line served Mahé, Seychelles, La Réunion, Mauritius, Zanzibar and Madagascar as well as the French establishments in India. In Pondicherry, the inadequate harbour necessitated the use of "loading boats".
The Far East was the private field of the company. Saigon was rapidly becoming the second home port of the company. The "stationnaires", ships of small tonnage afforded to the local lines departed from there. They went to Hanoi, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Australia and New Caledonia.
In the South Atlantic, the Brazil line went as far as Montevideo. Less important, and above all less known, its home port was Bordeaux.
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