Paquete LAËNNEC da Cie. Sud-Atlantique

Paquete francês LAËNNEC fotografado em Lisboa por N. de Gröer no início da década de 1950. O navio está a largar do cais da Rocha com a maré a subir, abriu a popa e está a rodar a proa com o auxílio do rebocador LIBERTADOR, da Sociedade Cooperativa dos Catraeiros do Porto de Lisboa, que o mandou construir na Holanda em 1948.

Anúncios de Janeiro de 1952 (Diário de Lisboa)

O LAËNNEC foi o terceiro de cinco gémeos construídos para a carreira Havre - Buenos Aires em 1950-52, para as companhias Chargeurs Réunis e Sud-Atlantique, os quais ficaram conhecidos como os navios da classe "Savants", por terem todos nomes de sábios franceses.

Notícia do Diário de Lisboa de 18 de Janeiro de 1952

O LAËNNEC fez a linha da América do Sul durante 15 anos, visitando Lisboa nas suas viagens regulares. Em 1962 foi transferido da companhia Sud-Atlantique para a companhia Messageries Maritimes que  vendeu para a Malásia em 1967.

The French passenger and cargo liner LAËNNEC photographed in Lisbon by N. de Gröer in the 1950s. The ship is seen leaving the Rocha passenger terminal at high tide with the tug LIBERTADOR, of Sociedade Cooperativa dos Catraeiros do Porto de Lisboa, at the bow.

The LAËNNEC was the third of five sisters built for the Le Havre - Buenos Aires service and introduced in 1950-52, by Chargeurs Réunis and Cie Sud-Atlantique, all five know as the "Savants-class", named after French scientists. The LAËNNEC sailed for South America for 15 years, visiting Lisbon on a regular basis. In 1962 she was transferred by Sud-Atlantique to Messageries Maritimes who sold her in 1967 to Malaysia.

Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. Favor não piratear. Respeite o meu trabalho / No piracy, please. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

Paquebot POLYNESIE

Depois da Segunda Guerra Mundial, a frota da companhia francesa Messageries Maritimes foi renovada com uma nova geração de paquetes mistos e de navios e carga modernos, na sua maioria com propulsão por motores Diesel, com linhas aerodinâmicas, facilmente reconhecíveis pelas suas chaminés arredondadas pretas, ou brancas no que se referia a alguns dos paquetes. O mais pequeno dessa nova e derradeira geração de paquetes franceses foi o POLYNESIE, um navio de 3709 TAB e capacidade para 36 passageiros e 4165 m3  de carga geral e frigorífica, entrado ao serviço em 1954 e transferido e 1972 para uma empresa filial das MM, a Union Maritime du Pacific Sud, que continuou a operar este navio até à sua venda em 1975 à companhia Guan Guan Shipping, de Singapura, quando passou a chamar-se GOLDEN GLORY e a partilhar as cores do antigos paquetes portugueses INDIA e TIMOR que então se chamavam KIM HOCK e KIM ANN, respectivamente. 

O POLYNESIE estava baseado no porto australiano de Sydney, de onde partia nas suas viagens de 21 dias pelo Pacífico Sul às ilhas da Polinésia e Novas Hébridas, um pouco à semelhança do serviço costeiro em Moçambique assegurado pelos mini-paquetes LURIO e ZAMBÉZIA da CNN entre Lourenço Marques e o norte de Moçambique até 1968. 

Sydney era por sua vez o porto final do itinerário dos paquetes de longo curso das Messageries Maritimes que partiam de Marselha para o Pacífico Sul, com escalas no Funchal e travessia do Canal do Panamá, com destaque para os gémeos CALEDONIEN e TAHITIEN. A venda do POLYNISIE à Guan Guan possibilitou ao pequeno paquete mais quatro anos de actividade, até que em Junho de 1979 foi vendido a sucateiros da ilha Formosa e desmantelado em Kaohsiung.

Ilustração - cartaz publicitário e postal editado pelas Messagerie Maritimes. 

Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. Favor não piratear. Respeite o meu trabalho / No piracy, please. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

CALEDONIEN e TAHITIEN

A companhia de navegação francesa MESSAGERIES MARITIMES utilizava uma bela frota de paquetes mistos em numerosas carreiras de longo curso, transportando passageiros, correio e carga geral.
Uma dessas carreiras era a linha Marselha - Ilhas do Pacífico - Sydney, assegurada durante cerca de vinte anos pelos paquetes CALEDONIEN e TAHITIENT, que fazia a viagem pelo Canal do Panamá e incluíam escalas pelo porto do Funchal à ida e no regresso, onde me lembro de ver estes navios de casco e chaminé preta.
Acabaram ambos vendidos a interesses gregos e um deles navegou muitos anos em cruzeiros com o nome ATALANTE.
As Messageries Maritimes utilizavam com muita frequência material gráfico de grande qualidade artística, caso deste postal.

Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. Favor não piratear. Respeite o meu trabalho / No piracy, please. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

TRANSVAAL CASTLE and OCEANIEN

An old image of the port of Funchal, Madeira Island with the passenger cargo liners TRANSVAAL CASTLE and OCEANIEN on 24 November 1963. 

Union-Castle mail liner TRANSVAAL CASTLE was brand new while the Messageries Maritimes liner OCEANIEN was the former Holland America liner NOORDAM of 1938. She was chartered by MM as a stopgap until the new liner AUSTRALIEN was delivered. Hoever this new French liner was delivered as the PASTEUR of 1966 for the Europe Brazil River Plate service...

Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. Favor não piratear. Respeite o meu trabalho / No piracy, please. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

A tribute to CALEDONIEN and TAHITIEN

The French sister ships CALEDONIEN and TAHITIEN were two passenger cargo liners built in the early fifties for Messageries Maritimes Marseilles - Panama - South Pacific liner service, a role they did well for two decades. Later both ships found further employment in Greek waters and TAHITIEN survived until 2004 as ATALANTE...

Visit a fine site on those elegant hard working ships here...

Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. Favor não piratear. Respeite o meu trabalho / No piracy, please. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

STELLA SOLARIS in Lisbon

Greek cruise ship STELLA SOLARIS leaving Lisbon in December 1995 on her first visit in early Royal Olympic livery.

STELLA SOLARIS was a regular visitor to Lisbon mostly on positioning cruises between Europe and the Caribbean. A formar ocean liner of Messageries Maritimes used on their Marseilles - Far East service as CAMBODGE she entered service in 1953 with her sisters LAOS and VIET NAM. 

Sold in 1970 to the Sun Line of Greece, she was renamed STELLA V and rebuilt in Greece, being introduced in 1973 as STELLA SOLARIS as a full time cruise ship. In 1995 Sun Line and Epirotiki merged to form Royal Olympic Cruises and STELLA SOLARIS continued in service until 2002 when she was laid up being sold for scrap in late 2003 and broken up in Alang, India.

Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. Favor não piratear. Respeite o meu trabalho / No piracy, please. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

The VIET-NAM class Paquebots

Photos: top - the VIET NAM underway showing her fine looks off Marseilles. Lower photos: the LAOS departing home port of Marseilles with VIET-NAM alongside.

Like most maritime powers, after WW2 France had to rebuilt their merchant fleet and Messageries Maritimes was no exception.
The first stage of this rebuilding was accomplished by refitting and rebuilding surviving pré-war ships including the brand-new MARÉCHAL PETAIN ordered in 1939 at the La Ciotat yard and launched on 8 June 1944. She was completed in 1949 as LA MARSEILLAISE for the Marseilles - Far East liner service.
Three new 12.200 grt "MC"-class passenger cargo turbine steamers with facilities for 550 passengers were introduced in 1953-54 as VIET-NAM, CAMBODGE and LAOS. All were used on the Marseiles - Far East service until 1967.
Very distinctive ships with a French look, all white hull, masts and "Lascroux" funnels, and green boot-topping, they were the fastest post-war MM passenger liners, the two groups of CEM Parsons steam turbines and 3 boilers developing a maximum of 24.000 shp and 23 knots, with 21 knots on 19.500 shp as the cruising speed.
In 1960-62 all three ships were modernized with enlarged passenger facilities increasing the gross tonnage to 13.500 tons and in 1967 the VIET-NAM was renamed PACIFIQUE. After the closure of Suez Canal in 1956 and 1967 the three liners sailed via Cape Town and on the final years were interchanged on several company passenger mail lines, doing several round the world voyages, as well as service on the Australia and Indian Ocean lines. In the end the PACIFIQUE ex-VIET-NAM was chartered by Compagnie Générale Transméditerranéenne for several Medditerraean voyages to North Africa.
They were all sold in 1970: the CAMBODGE on 18 February to Sun Lines (renamed STELLA V, and then rebuilt 1971-1973 in Greece as the cruise ship STELLA SOLARIS, retaining the hull and machinery); LAOS on 25 August and PACIFIQUE 27 August, both sold to Abeto S.A. and converted as the pilgrim ships EMPRESS ABETO and PRINCESS ABETO, based in Singapore under the Panama flag. Both had short careers as such.
The PRINCESS ABETO became MALAYSIA BARU in 1972, MALAYSIA KITA in 1972 and lost by fire in Singapore on 12 May 1974 (scrapped in Taiwan in 1976). The EMPRESS ABETO was renamed MALAYSIA RAYA and also lost by fire in Port Klang on 23 August 1976. As pilgrim ships they carried 1.700 "guests"...

Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

Another poster issued by the French liner company Messageries Maritimes promoting their Mediterranean services linking Marseilles with ports in the Middle East such as Alexandria or Beiruth.

Those posters were really magnificent making me dream about a few days in the Med...
Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia collection. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

THE WORLD WITH MESSAGERIES

One of the great European shipping companies gone busted with the total liberalization of maritime affairs over the last 40 years was the MESSAGERIES MARITIMES. Not as well known as the French Line, the MESSAGERIES had a large fleet of black or white funneled passenger and cargo liners including ships with very advanced design.

This poster dates from the 1930s and depicts one of the famous "square funnel" liners built in the late 1920s and early 1930s for the Far East and Australia services. The more well know albeit less successful was the GEORGE PHILIPPAR (16.700 gross tons, built 1932), lost on the maiden voyage just like White Star Line's TITANIC or Royal Mail Lines MAGDALENA.
The GEORGE PHILIPPAR departed Marseilles on her maiden voyage to the Far East on 26 February 1932 and was lost by fire on the return trip on 17 May off Cape Guardafui. There was the loss of 40 people including the journalist Albert London that were traped in the first class quarters as the escape door was locked to separate the different classes onboard. The ship burned until sunking on 20 May 1932.
Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia