Last modified: 2024-10-26 by olivier touzeau
Keywords: compagnie generale transatlantique | normandie | blue riband |
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![[Flag]](../images/f/fr~hfcgt.gif)
House flag of the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique - Image by Ivan Sache, 11 January 2012
See also:
The Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, aka Transat was founded on 14 October 1854 and registered on 24/25 February 1855, as the
Compagnie Générale Maritime, by the bankers Émile and Isaac Péreire; the main shareholder of the new company was the Société Générale de Crédit Mobilier, the credit bank founded by the Péreire, which funded several industrial projects during the Second Empire. The statutes of the company listed it aims as "the building, equipping and chartering of all kinds of ships, and, in general, all operations linked to maritime trade".
In 1860, the company was granted a 20-year state contract for the
postal service. The contract required the company to operate its own
fleet on two scheduled lines: Le Havre-Brest-New York and Saint-Nazaire-Panamá (with three secondary lines to Guadeloupe, Mexico and Cayenne. The next year, the company was renamed Compagnie Générale Transatlantique and the Péreire founded the
Penhoë:t shipyard near Saint-Nazaire. The Transat was so important for
Saint-Nazaire that locals used to say "Saint-Nazaire is sick when the
Transat coughs". The Le Havre-New York line was inaugurated in 1864 by
the paddle steamer Washington; the journey lasted 13 days. The
Péreire bankrupted in 1868, which did not stop the development of the company, which experienced on 22 November 1873 its first accident,
when the Ville du Havre collided with the Loch Earn, the accident claiming 226 lives.
The Transat was granted in 1879 a state contract for the postal service in the Mediterranean Sea, purchased from the Valéry company, together with its 22 ships; the state contract for the transatlantic service was renewed in 1882-1884. The Bourgogne sailed from Le Havre to New York in slightly more than 7 days. The Touraine made the first leisure cruise of the company from New York to Constantinople in 1894. Following harsh years marked by increased competition in Europe, wreckages (the Bourgogne collided on 4 July 1898 with the Cromartyshire, the accident claiming 564 lives, that is the worst accident experienced by the company in peace time) lost and strikes, the company was reorganized in 1904 by its new president, Jules Charles-Roux. The company launched a series of new liners, favoring comfort onboard rather than speed, whose name has remained associated with the Gilded Age of the company; the three most famous of them were the France, the Île-de-France and the Normandie.
The France (II), inaugurated on 20 April 1912 (5 days after the loss of the Titanic), was then the biggest French steamer (211 m x 23 m) and the only one with four funnels; it was the third fastest steamer
in North Atlantic after the Lusitania and the Mauretania operated by the Cunard Line. Nicknamed "Versailles of the Atlantic" or "Palace of the Atlantic", the France was used as an hospital-ship during the First World War, as a cruise boat in 1929-1932 and eventually scraped in 1935.
The Île-de-France, inaugurated in May 1927, was the most famous steamer of the Transat, and, then, the biggest steamer launched in the world since the end of the First World War, also the biggest French
steamer (subsequently superseded only by the Normandie). Designed as
a slightly increased version of the France (232 m x 28 m), the Île-de-France was fitted in art deco style, which made of it the most modern steamer in the world; it was nicknamed "Rue de la Paix of the Atlantic", as a reference to one of the poshest streets in Paris.
Seized by the Brits in 30 June 1940 in Singapore, the Île-de-France was managed during the Second World War successively by P & O and
Cunard to transport troops. Retroceded to the Transat in February
1946, the liner was completely revamped and reinaugurated in 1949.
Contributing to several rescue operations in the Atlantic Ocean
(Greenville, September 1953; Andrea Doria, 25 July 1956), the Île-de-France was then nicknamed "St. Bernard of the Atlantic". It was eventually scrapped in 1959.
The Normandie was the biggest and most luxurious liner ever
launched by the Transat. Then the biggest liner in the world, the
Normandie was also the fastest, winning the Blue Ribbon award for
its inaugural journey (less than 4 days), and for a second time in
1937. Its main competitor was the faster but slightly smaller Queen
Mary; the size record was confirmed in 1936 when the ship was
increased to 83,000 tons. Also used for cruises in South America, the
Normandie was popularized by three movies shot on board in
1937-1939. After having completed its 139th scheduled transatlantic
journey, the ship was laid up in New York on 6 September 1939, close
to the Queen Mary. Seized in December 1941 by the US Maritime
Commission, the ship was allocated to the US Navy to be transformed in a troop carrier under the name of Lafayette. On 9 February 1942, a solderer inadvertently set up fire to the ship, which sank capsized one day later. The revamping operations being deemed much too
expensive, the Normandie was eventually scrapped in 1946-1947.
After the Second World War, the fleet of the Transat was reorganized,
with the incorporation of several liberty-ships. The sales increased
but airlines emerged as potential competitors. The Transat entered the
cargo transportation market and built a brand new, luxurious liner,
the France (III). Launched on 11 May 1960 and inaugurated on 3
February 1962, the France was patroned by Yvonne de Gaulle, the
General's wife. It was then the longest liner in the world (316 m).
Operating on the line Le Havre-Southampton-New York, the France also
circumnavigated the globe twice, in 1972 and 1974, this being the only
two circumnavigations ever organized by the Transat. During the
second circumnavigation, it was announced that the French government
would no longer subsidize the France. On 11 September 1974, after
having completed its 202nd transatlantic journey, the France was
blocked by its seamen off Le Havre; on 9 October, the liner was moored
in the Tancarville Canal, the place being quickly nicknamed "Quay
of Oversight". On 18 August 1979, the ship, renamed Norway by tis
new owner, Kloster Rederi, left Le Havre to be transformed in
Bremerhaven into the biggest cruise liner in the world (70,000 tons, increased to 76,000 tons in 1990). The ship was eventually scrapped in India in 2007-2008.
The abandon of the France was perceived as a national tragedy and a
symbol of the progressive loss of industrial heritage, and, therefore,
of sovereignty of the country. The singer Michel Sardou wrote in
November 1975 a song dedicated to the ship (Le France), selling more
than one million records.
On 23 February 1977, the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique merged with the Compagnie des Messageries Maritimes to form the Compagnie Générale Maritime, reestablishing the name of the Péreire's first company.
Ivan Sache, 11 January 2012
The house flag of the Transat (photo, photo) is white with a red disk in canton and the red writing: CIE GLE (for COMPAGNIE GÉNÉRALE) TRANSATLANTIQUE.
The flag is shown on different items related to the company: advertizing posters (image, image, image, image), passenger's tickets (image, image) and program (image), corporate mailings (images), and calendars (image).
Ivan Sache, 12 January 2019
![[Flag]](../images/f/fr~hfcg1.gif)
Flag shown in the Liverpool Journal of Commerce - Image by Ivan Sache, 11 January 2012
The Liverpool Journal of Commerce chart (1885) shows the flag with the red letters "CG" over "T".
![[Flag]](../images/f/fr~hfcg5.gif)
![[Flag]](../images/f/fr~hfcg6.gif)
Two flags shown in Album de Pavillons (1889) - Image by Ivan Sache, 12 January 2019
Album des pavillons nationaux et des marques distinctives des marines
de guerre et de commerce (1889) shows another two variants of the
company's house flag:
- the first variant is similar to the regular house flag, but with the
writing in small letters, except the initials;
- the second flag is white with the red letters "C.G.T.", to my
knowledge the only reported flag lacking the CGT's emblematic red disc.
![[Flag]](../images/f/fr~hfcg2.gif)
![[Flag]](../images/f/fr~hfcg3.gif)
Two flags shown by Reed - Image by Ivan Sache, 11 January 2012
Reed (1891) shows two different flags, one having "Cie Gle" in chief and the second having the top letters replaced with the larger "CG".
![[Flag]](../images/f/fr~hfcg4.gif)
Flag shown in Lloyd's - Image by Ivan Sache, 11 January 2012
Lloyd's book of house flags and funnels of the principal steamship lines of the world and the house flags of various lines of sailing vessels, published at Lloyd's Royal Exchange. London. E.C. (1912) [LLo12], also available online thanks to the Mystic Seaport Foundation, shows the flag with dots under "IE" and "LE".
Neale Rosanoski &qmp; Ivan Sache, 12 January 2019
Launching of the Normandie liner
When the liner Normandie was launched at Saint-Nazaire in 1932 she went down the slip-way with what appeared to be a Breton style flag at her jack-staff; four equal horizontal stripes which, in a black and white photograph, appear to be dark/white/dark/white.
Is/was this sort of flag normally flown when a ship is/was launched in France?
David Prothero, 2 April 2007
Blue ribband
![[Flag]](../images/f/fr_ssnor.gif){kind=small}
Blue Riband of SS Normandie - Image by Ivan Sache, 11 January 2012
The Blue Riband was an unofficial accolade given to the ocean liner which crossed the Atlantic Ocean in regular service with the highest recorded average speed. At least two ocean liners were known to have flown an actual blue pennant, bearing the ship's name in white letters, on the main masthead, upon the conclusion of a Blue Riband-winning voyage: SS Rex, owned by Italia di Navigazione (westbound Blue Riband in 1933) and SS Normandie, who won the westbound Blue Riband in 1935 and in 1937, and won the eastbound Blue Riband in 1935 and twice in 1937.
Miles Li, 18 November 2022
