Description
Scarce c.20th travel poster for Messageries Maritimes the French merchant shipping company originally created in 1851 as Messageries nationales, later called Messageries imperiales, and from 1871, Compagnie des messageries maritimes. Its rectangular house flag, with the letters MM on a white background and red corners, was famous in shipping circles, especially on the Europe-Asia trade lanes.
The Far East was the private field of the company. Cambodge was the first of three new liners that modernised MM’s Far East route in the 1950s. 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, Yokohama, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Australia and New Caledonia. They had the largest fleet of ships under one flag, with nine combination passenger/cargo liners built in the 1950s for routes across Europe and Africa to areas containing commercial or cultural interests for France’s citizens.
