Compagnie Fraissinet
The Compagnie Fraissinet, a Marseilles-based shipping line, played an important role in trade and immigration flows in the Mediterranean, Black Sea, Western Africa and Latin America.
The Compagnie Fraissinet added Northern America (New York NY, Providence RI, Chicago IL, Cleveland OH, Detroit MI and Montreal Quebec) to its routes after a merger with the Compagnie Française de Navigation à Vapeur Cyprien Fabre & Cie (Fabre Line).
The Compagnie Fraissinet operated for close to 150 years through two World Wars, several revolutions, and the colonization and decolonization periods.
Initially supported by the French government, Fraissinet's projet of a line to New York and the Gulf of Mexico eventually aborted.
In 1846, Fraissinet appointed his son Adolphe as deputy director of the company; the lines were extended to Spain, Gibraltar and Portugal.
In 1870, Fraissinet owned 20 vessels, operating scheduled lines to Bombay, Malta, Port Said, Constantinople, Italy, Corsica and Languedoc.
The accident deeply afflicted the town of Marseilles and a violent press campaign broke up against Fraissinet, which lost the postal service to Corsica in 1904.
In 1927, the postal contract to Corsica was extended for 20 years; a new series of modern ships was built: Cap-Corse, Ville-d'Ajaccio, Cyrnos, Île-de-Beauté, Pascal-Paoli.
The Fabre family, originating from La Ciotat, was involved in trade and shipping in the Mediterranean Sea and to the West and East Indies since the 15th century.
In 1885, the company operated 16 steamships to Middle East, Algeria, Brazil and Argentina (specifically, for the transport of Portuguese and Italian emigrants, 1882–1905), New York and New Orleans, West Africa (line extended in 1902 to Lagos, Nigeria).
Fabre was also involved in the transport of fishers from Saint-Malo to Newfoundland (1887–1906), of pilgrims to Mecca, and of troops to China and Madagascar.
The company was renamed Compagnie Générale de Navigation à Vapeur Cyprien Fabre & Cie in 1933.
The lines to the Black Sea, suffering from the Italian competition, was suppressed in 1931 after 50 years of uninterrupted service (including during wartime).
In 1931, the Italian government decided a monopoly on the transport of emigrants, which resulted in the suppression of the Fabre line to America.
One of the few ships left by the Germans to the French merchant navy, MS Général-Bonaparte, was sunk off Corsica by a British submarine on 19 May 1943.
After the war transatlantic lines were re-established, serving New York and the Gulf of Mexico, and, from 1950, Canada and the Great Lakes.
