The Fleets

Compagnie Fraissinet was founded in January 1836 in Marseilles The paddle ship, SS Marseillais, inaugurated the line between Marseilles and Agde. The ship sank off Agde on 30 March 1837. The shipowner Théron absorbed the company and appointed Fraissinet as the director of his company. In 1837, two new ships were built, SS Rhône and SS Hérault. In 1841, Fraissinet bought the company and extended the line to Nice. In 1846, Fraissinet appointed his son Adolphe as deputy-director and extended the lines of the company to Spain, Gibraltar and Portugal.
In 1853, the company was renamed Compagnie Marseillaise de Navigation à Vapeur. SS Isabelle inaugurated in 1854 the first line Marseilles-Algiers-Spain-Portugal-Le Havre, which was the first scheduled line between Algeria and Le Havre. SS Isabelle was the first screw-propelled vessel owned by Fraissinet. The Algiers-Le Havre line was abandoned after the collision of SS Normandie with a Dutch ship in 1857.
In 1860, the company owned ten vessels but had to face an increased competition on the Italian market. Fraissinet extended his lines to Naples and Levant, increased the capital of the company and purchased six new ships in 1865. Scheduled lines with Corsica and Leghorn were opened in 1868. On 8 January 1870, SS Asie was the first merchant vessel to transit the Suez Canal to India. In 1870, Fraissinet owned 20 vessels and operated scheduled lines to Bombay, Malta, Port-Said, Constantinople, Italy, Corsica and Languedoc. Due to the Franco-Prussian war, the service to India was suppressed, the service to Corsica was postponed and several ships were sold.

The company resurfaced in 1874 as Nouvelle Société Maritime de Navigation à Vapeur (Compagnie Fraissinet). The company was granted the postal service to Corsica by the French government. In 1878, a line was opened between Sète and Genoa, and the existing Levant lines extended to Palestine and Odessa. On 18 December 1878, the Byzantin sunk off Gallipoli, causing the death of c. 150 of the 250 passengers of the ship. In 1889, Fraissinet was granted the postal service to western Africa and Congo. Fraissinet absorbed the Corsican company Morelli and its five ships in 1892.
At the end of the XIXth century, Fraissinet served lines to Languedoc, Corsica (postal service), Sardinia, Italy, the French and Italian Rivieras, Constantinople, the Black Sea and the mouth of Danube, Oran, Dakar and Libreville (postal service).
On 7 June 1903, SS Liban collided with SS Insulaire a few miles off the port of Marseilles, causing the death of c. 100. The accident deeply affected the city of Marseilles and a violent press campaign broke out against Fraissinet, which lost the postal service to Corsica in 1904. However, Compagnie Française de Navigation et de Construction Navale could not fulfill the contract, which was returned to Fraissinet in 1905.

The Fraissinet fleet was severely damaged during the First World War. SS Balkan (August 1918), Suzette-Fraissinet (May 1918), Marc-Fraissinet (October 1917), Esterel (April 1917), Golo (August 1917) and Italia (May 1917) were sunk by German or Austrian U-boats.
When the war ended, only ten ships had survived. Alfred Fraissinet reorganized his company and favoured the Corsican and Algerian lines. In 1927, the postal contract to Corsica was extended for 20 years, and a new series of modern ships were built (SS Cap-Corse, Ville-d'Ajaccio, Cyrnos, Ile-de-Beauté, Pascal-Paoli). In 1930, Fraissinet set up an alliance with Fabre and Chargeurs Réunis for a joint service to western Africa. The service to the Black Sea, suffering from the Italian competition, was cancelled in 1931 after 50 years of uninterrupted service (including during wartime).
In 1935, the company was renamed Compagnie de Navigation Fraissinet. The Fraissinet-Fabre-Chargeurs alliance dissolved and Fraissinet took over control of Fabre, abandoning Chargeurs Réunis. In 1938, Fraissinet attempted to set up joint services with Paquet. The company then owned 14 ships. The Second World War caused great damage to the company. One of the few ships left by the Germans to the French merchant navy, MS Général-Bonaparte, was sunk by a British submarine on 19 May 1943 off Corsica.

In 1948, the service to Corsica was granted to Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, which incorporated Fraissinet's Corsican fleet. Fraissinet redirected its activity to the western coat of Africa, purchasing banana boats and liners.
In 1955, Fraissinet and Fabre merged into Compagnie de Navigation Fraissinet et Cyprien Fabre, but the two companies kept sailing in their respective domains, western Africa for Fraissinet and America for Fabre. In 1959, they founded Compagnie Ivoirienne de Consignation Maritime and placed two ships under the flag of Côte-d'Ivoire. A succession of incorporations and mergings with Société Générale des Transports Maritimes, Fabre and Chargeurs Réunis could not avoid the lowering of the flag by Fraissinet in 1968, the tanker Alfred-Fraissinet being the last ship of the company, which eventually withdrew from shipping activity in 1974.

Many thanks to Ted Finch for his assistance in collecting this data. The following list was extracted from various sources. This is not an all inclusive list but should only be used as a guide. If you would like to know more about a vessel, visit the Ship Descriptions (onsite) or Immigrant Ship web site.

Funnel: White with black top. Fleet:

Source: Paul Bois. Armements Marseillais - Compagnies de navigation et navires à vapeur (1831-1988), published by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Marseille-Provence.

TheShipsList | Return to The Fleets

TheShipsList®™ - (Swiggum) All Rights Reserved - Copyright © 1997-present
These pages may be freely linked to but not duplicated in any fashion without written consent of .
Last updated: April 09, 2011 and maintained by and M. Kohli