S. G. T. M.

The vacuum, that Napoleon I left France in his wake, saw a country in political turmoil for the rest of the 19th century, being split into two camps, the radical liberals and the conservative monarchists. The country interspersed with a series of internal revolutionary outbreaks and an embarkation of military expansionism outside its borders, while at the same time huge advances in industry, medicine and the arts were taking place.

These often troubled times engulfed the underprivileged, hungry, and war weary peoples of Southern Europe and led to a mass migration by sea in the 20 years either side of 1900.

After the events of 1815, the government and its military establishment were determined to regain an empire and influence. In 1830 France invaded Algeria, creating a foothold in what became the start of the Franco speaking empire on the continent, their continued expansion continued by invading Senegal in 1850, and eventually spreading as far south as the Congo. Algeria became an administrative department, run and settled not as a colony but as an extension of France itself.

For this they needed a large infrastructure of transport systems, to trade and service the needs of the garrisons of troops and settlers. In this period of French history, their influence also expanded into Indo China (1859), Guyana and Polynesia. This was followed by a disastrous foray into Mexico which ended in 1867. Within three years they were at war with the Prussians in 1870-71 who lay siege to Paris. After this the French Army redoubled its efforts to regain overseas prestige. The turmoil led to the abdication of Napoleon III in 1873, and the creation of the 3rd Republic.

Against this background Société Générale de Transports Maritimes (S.G.T.M.) of Marseilles, was created on 18th March 1865, with a capital of 20 million francs. It would become one of the most important shipping companies based at the country’s premier port in the Mediterranean. The company’s founder was one of the country’s leading industrialists of the era, Paulin Talbot, who had founded the P. L. M. (Paris-Lyon-Mediterranean) railway. The shipping company had secured a 13 year contract to transport 120,000 tons of iron ore each year, from the mines at Mokta-el-Hadid, near Bone to Marseilles or Sete. On 7th April l865 the company ordered nine ships, each of 1,200 of deadweight tons, from Forges et Chantiers de la Mediterranee at La Seyne, thus creating the shipping arm of this industrial empire. The next year he expanded the company’s operations by starting a passenger service from Marseilles to Algiers and Oran with four second hand vessels.

However the ore production levels fluctuated, so some of the ships were chartered to provide Ferdinand de Lesseps with materials etc. for the building of the Suez Canal, and bringing cotton back to France on the return voyages. One the company’s ships the Touareg was chartered by prominent businessmen to witness the official opening.

By this time Simon Bolivar had died, and the South American continent broken up into independent republics after years of conflict, as they shed the Spanish and Portuguese feudal systems that had dominated their political and social landscape for centuries.

Several French lines had unsuccessfully tried to open up trading to South America from the 1850s but it wasn’t until September 1867 that S.G.T.M. managed to gain a foothold. By offering a monthly passenger service to cope with what was to turn out to be a flood of people escaping from the troubles of Europe, to a better life elsewhere. Four second hand ships were bought and renamed. Bourgogne which opened the service on 15th September 1867, she was joined by Savoie, Picardie and Poitou with a small shallow draft paddle steamer based in the River Plate, Ville de Buenos Ayres which acted as a feeder vessel.

The trading results to the River Plate were very good, along with the highly profitable service to North Africa, that the company ran three departures a week for Algiers, Phillippeville and Bone.

The Savoie had a particularly eventful career prior to joining the French company. The ship had been built at John Laird’s shipyard at Dingle in 1852, for South American & General Steam Navigation Co. of Liverpool, for their monthly express mail service to Rio de Janeiro. Followed by a series of charters, from 1854 she was used as a transport to the Crimea, followed in 1856 with trooping duties to Cape Town. The next year she was taken up by the East India Company in a similar role to India and China, returning to the UK in 1858 with invalids from the Chinese campaigns. In 1859 she was chartered by R. S. Newall of Birkenhead, for cable laying. She went back to Laird’s yard where she had three able tanks and laying equipment fitted. In August 1859 she sailed for Singapore, from where, beginning in November, she laid a telegraph cable to Batavia (Java) for the goverment of Dutch East Indies. On her return to the UK she took up several small term charters. In 1862 she was one of several steamers taking cargoes of cotton from Liverpool to New York, as supplies had been disrupted during their Civil War. Her sale and renaming brought her back to South American and Caribbean routes. Followed by a major refit with new engines and lengthening prior to sale to S.G.T.M. in 1867 who she served with until 1890, being broken up the following year.

In 1870 S.G.T.M. became a public limited company, with seventeen ships either on the South American routes or servicing the ports along the North African coastline.

The development of steamships with faster passage times encouraged the ship owners to expand, and in 1871 bought La France which became their flagship, remaining with the fleet until broken up in 1895. For her first ten years she was the longest merchant ship in the French Marine.

In 1874 S.G.T.M. was transformed into a joint stock company. In 1881, at the start of the third republic, the government started a system of subsidising its merchant marine, similar to other Europeans, that was to last up to the First World War.

In effect for every 1,000 miles covered, the owners were paid a sum for every registered ton of the ship, providing that they periodically called in at a French port.

This and other laws, and contracts for the carriage of mail, meant that enormous sums were distributed to the shipping companies by the Government.

They also placed an embargo on foreign ships plying within its coastal limits, as they considered the North African territories Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco as departments of the motherland, rather than occupied territories, which protected the lines trades.

Because of this the Company grew little by little in importance until the end of the century.

In 1883 their South American route ships had added Senegal, to their itinerary supporting their commercial interests and ex-patriates, together with two calls a month at Dakar. One route started from Marseilles to Buenos Aires via Barcelona and Montevideo which took 20 days sailing time, whilst another ran in tandem with Genoa and Naples being the starting ports.

La France another emigrant carrier built in 1871 by Forges & Chantiers de la Mediterranee, La Seyne, collided with and sank La Veloce’s ship Sud America, built by J. Wigham Richardson, in Las Palmas harbour in September 1888. While lying at anchor with 261 passengers and 69 crew on board, in Port Luz, Grand Canary, the Sud America was rammed in fine weather at 5am by La France. Sud America sank in 10 fathoms with the loss of 87 lives. The passengers, mainly emigrants, were bound for Genoa from Rio de Janeiro, after working in South America for some years.

In 1889 there was a crop failure in Algeria, which effected trans-Mediterranean cargoes badly.

In 1893 S.G.T.M. set up a joint service with Cailloi of Marseilles for a rationalised service to Algeria. The partners supplied nine ships for North African, Adriatic and Black Sea routes.

The routes across the Mediterranean were to serve the settlers and large military garrisons based in North Africa whilst bringing wines, fruits, phosphates and sheep and in later decades, oil on the return leg.

Three years later they gained concessions to run a weekly mail service from their home port to Oran.

A shipyard on the River Wear built the Aquitaine in 1890. During 1898 she was chartered to the Spanish Government to bring home troops from Cuba, after their war with the Americans.

During 1896 the company obtained a concession to run a weekly postal service to Oran. They also ordered two more passenger cargo ships for the South American routes, increasing their service to three departures a month, and by 1900 they had a fleet of 22 ships.

One of the reasons for the explosion of the trade was what has been termed the ‘revolution of the pampas’ which made Argentina the world’s leader in grain and meat production between 1825 and 1900. In this time the population grew from 630,000 to 4. 7 million, with over seventy five per cent of whom came from Southern Europe.

In 1900 the cost of passage from Marseilles to Dakar was 500F (1st class) and 160F (3rd class), while the journey to Buenos Aires would cost 750F and 200F respectively.

The extent of the flood of humanity westwards, can be judged by the number of berths available on the route. If it is assumed that ships completed six round voyages a year.

Six lines sailed under the French colours between 1890 up to the outbreak of World War I and provided 132,000 berths per year, with 25 ships.

Compagnie Nationale de Navigation had the lions share of the custom while S.G.T.M. had around 22% of the market share.

Adding the four Italian lines to the equation, 312,000 berths were available per year from those two countries alone.

These numbers were more than equalled by the operations by the flood of emigrants from Northern Europe with British and German Lines being the main carriers to new worlds beyond Europe. Accommodation for the majority was in cramped and unhygienic accommodation in these emigrant carriers, with thousands crammed into dormitory type accommodation. Even the more prestigious lines, were to treat their human cargo with limited respect or facilities.

At the turn of the century the company expanded their operations to include dry cargo ships, joining the fleet of passenger and ore carriers.

In 1903 the company bought a twenty one year old ship from Dutch owners, and renamed her Ile de France. She was eventually converted for a highly successful cruising role, which she maintained until broken up in 1916.

In 1907 the Spanish Government imposed new conditions on French Lines as they were dissatisfied at the conditions in which the emigrants were being transported. This led to the formation of Cie. de Nav. France-Amerique. This company was a subsidiary of S. G. T. M. which ran a total of eight ships from within the S. G. T. M. fleet on a service which would run until 1942.

In 1913 the shipbroking company of H. E. Moss & Co. of Liverpool, set up a tramping subsidiary, Sefton Steamship Co. Ltd., with whom S. G. T. M. forged ties, to facilitate the supply of cargo ships to be built in British yards, for the Marseilles company’s fleet.

Prior to World War I, the West Indies sugar producers signed a contract for the Austrian Company Cosulich to transport their output, sugar and rum, to Mediterranean ports. The deal fell through on the outbreak of war. S. G. T. M. took over part of the contract and opened a monthly service to the West Indies, which was extended in 1915 to include the Guyana, Gulf of Mexico and New Orleans. To service this route they bought a small steamer, Aster. She had been built on the Tyne as the Cayo Mono for the Cuban S. S. Co. Ltd. of London, E. Bigland & Co. managers, in 1893. In 1904 she was sold to the first of a series of French owners. The war hampered the S. G. T. M. route and the ship was sold yet again and for a while she was used as a prison ship. With the number of accommodation spaces available, it can only be assumed that she was on the run to Devil Island in French Guiana. Eventually she was reconverted to a cargo ship.

On 1st September 1929 she was badly damaged by a fire when in drydock in her home port. She was laid up in 1931, and sold for breaking in Italy in February 1933.

During the war the Company lost seven mail ships and five cargo ships through enemy action out of the fleet of twenty five that they had in 1914. Ten were sunk by U-boats, one was mined and Mont Agel was captured and sunk by the German armed merchant cruiser Kronprinz Wilhelm. Another of the South American liners the 7,384 grt Salta was taken over by the British Admiralty for use as a hospital ship in February 1915, with Union-Castle Line as managers. On 10th April 1917 she struck a mine and was lost at Le Havre, 1.6 km outside the port in bad weather and heavy seas, in which only three lifeboats were launched. Of the 209 passengers and crew, 9 nurses, 42 members of the Royal Army Medical Corps and 79 crew were drowned.

However the most devastating loss was that caused by the Mont Blanc, fully loaded with wartime explosives, which on 6th December 1917, blew up after she collided with the Norwegian vessel Imo in Halifax (N. S.) harbour. A fire on board the French ship ignited her cargo, causing a cataclysmic explosion that devastated Halifax. Approximately 2,000 people were killed by debris, fires, and collapsed buildings, and an estimated 9,000 others were injured.

As part of S. G. T. M.’s rebuilding programme, they ordered a pair of twin screw, turbine passenger refrigerated cargo ships from Swan Hunter’s Neptune Yard in 1919, for their South American service, with accommodation for 74 first, 80 second, 48 third, 983 emigrant class and 54 crew.

On 18th February 1941, the Mendoza was captured off the coast of Puerto Rico by the British auxiliary merchant cruiser Asturias of the Royal Mail Line. During June 1941 she was transferred to the Ministry of War Transport with Alfred Holt Co. Ltd. acting as managers. After undergoing major repairs in Glasgow and conversion for trooping in Liverpool, she was one of forty seven ships moving troops to India, Burma, Java & Australia. She was used mainly on the shuttle from Durban to India. On 1st November 1942 she was sunk by U-178 when about 100 miles east of Durban en-route from Mombasa, with 253 service personnel and 153 crew of whom 28 were lost. Her sistership Alsina was lost on 13th November 1942, at Bougie, when she was bombed and set on fire during an Allied air raid.

As compensation for their war losses the company received from Germany the former Prinzregent and Rendsburg which were renamed Cordoba and Mont Kemme respectively. A third vessel, Mont Aigoual, which was in such a poor state when handed over in 1922, that she never traded and was broken up after two years lay up. Two of the company’s ships were chartered and commissioned as hospital ships, Pampa, for the French, with Valdivia joining the British relief operations. Salta with 209 patients, medical personnel and crew on board was mined just outside Le Havre in April 1917, with the loss of 130 of her complement.

During 1921 the company took delivery of the Guaruja and Ipanema from Forges & Chantiers de la Mediterranee, La Seyne, which were the first French ships to be fitted with turbo-electric propulsion.

By 1925 the Company had 30 ships in its fleet, of 126,409 gross tons, and was considered to be the fourth most prestigious Line under the tricolour of France.

The North African routes were busy as well, with three mail, two dual and two cargo only ships running on an almost daily service to Oran, where there was a large military base. Two more ships serviced Algiers, while one ship ran to Bone, Bougie and Phillippeville. The cargoes they brought back to Europe included cereals, fruits, hides, wine and phosphates.

After the war there was a lot of competition on the South American routes from the Chargeurs Reunis subsidiary, Cie. Sud Atlantique, the Royal Mail Line and Germany all putting new large ships onto the route, and it took a few years before the numbers of passengers picked up again. The seasonal workers travelled this way to harvest crops or shear sheep in the southern continent and then returned home to work on their own land.

In 1926 the company took delivery of a twin screw turbine liner for the South American route, the 9,330 grt Florida. On 1st April 1931 she was involved in a serious collision with the British aircraft carrier H. M. S. Glorious in thick fog off Malaga, when en-route to Marseilles with 642 passengers and crew on board, sadly with the loss of 32 lives. Both ships were badly damaged, it took seven months to repair the Florida. Repaired and returned to service in due course, she was sold to Grimaldi-Siosa Lines in 1955 and renamed Ascania running between Italy and Venezuela.

The 4,471 grt Formosa assisted in rescuing the crew and passengers of the 1909 built, 9,210 grt, Italian vessel Principessa Mafalda of Lloyd Italiano, which foundered off Bahia, Brazil with the loss of 303 lives in October 1927.

However the revival was short-lived and lasted only between 1921 and 1929, with the Italian market share dropping away as the global recession started to take hold.

In 1929 the company took delivery of the Sidi bel Abbes, for their North African routes with accommodation for 98 first, 104 second, 90 third, and 600 steerage class, as well as numerous pens for sheep. On 9th November 1942 she was scuttled at Oran during the American landings in North Africa in Operation TORCH. She was raised and repaired and put back in service. On 20th April 1943 when returning from Dakar with 973 passengers, she was torpedoed by U-565, the bunkers exploded, and she sank in three minutes, near Cape Habib, with the loss of 800 lives.

Campana was built in 1929 by Swan Hunter. She was the largest of the S.G.T.M. fleet, and was one of four ships for the South American service operating in consort for the next ten years, with two arrivals at Buenos Aires per month, running with Alsina, Mendoza and Florida. She was interned when lying at Buenos Aires in 1940. In due course she was run by the Argentine Government, and only returned to her owners in 1946. She was sold in 1951 to Chargeurs Reunis for their Marseilles to Indo China service, wearing that company’s funnel markings. During 1955 she was bought by Sicula Oceanica Societa per Azioni of Palermo (Siosa Line), a subsidiary of the Grimaldi Line and renamed Irpinia.

The ship underwent several major refits, transforming her appearance. In 1981 the old ship was finally laid up and subsequently arrived at La Spezia in September 1983 for breaking up.

The career of Campana was comprehensively covered in an article by Norman Middlemiss in a recent issue of this publication. Despite a world trade slump, the trade passing through Marseilles in 1937 was 33 million tons, of which 10 million was merchandise, along with 800,000 passengers.

In 1938 the largest refrigerated banana carrier under the French flag was built on behalf of the Ministry of Mercantile Marine and allocated to S. G. T. M. However the trade proved uneconomical and the Victor Schoelcher was transferred to Cie. Fraissnet. At the start of the war she was commissioned as an auxiliary cruiser in the 4th Squadron, but resumed commercial service in the spring of 1941. In December 1941 she returned to her military role under the name Bougainville, based at Diego Suarez. This strategically placed Island in the Indian Ocean was being run by the Vichy French Government. On the Island there was an airfield and a port. The British Government were worried that it might well be being used as a base by German U-boats and Japanese submarines to attack shipping. An operation was set up to capture the Island, and on the 5th May 1942 a force of 13,000 troops landed from six troopships, supported by a covering force of battleships etc. In the ensuing battle Bougainville which was moored in the harbour was destroyed by fire.

By 1939 there were just 12 French ships in total on the South American route, offering only 135,000 berths a year.

After the armistice in 1940 there was a fear in Marseilles about the continuation of food supplies, and had to rely upon goods from distant territories.

Following the Vichy Government’s takeover of the country, and with their German allies occupation, shipping in the port was brought to a standstill. During November of that year the occupying forces had deported the large Jewish community, and took it upon themselves to systematically destroy the housing and business infrastructure of the old port. Also over 150 ships were scuttled in the harbour and its approaches.

As the fortunes of war changed Marseilles once again became the target to be bombed during the allies advance. This took place in December 1944, prior to the American 7th Army invasion in Operation “Dragoon”. The retreating Germans continued to destroy what was left of the devastated city.

The Company once more took heavy losses during the second World conflict, losing nine ships out of seventeen ships in the fleet.

At the onset of peace the line had to reorganise, but with meagre assistance being available from the war-torn state trading was difficult.

In January 1947 they were awarded three liberty ships on bare boat charter from the French Government while plans were being formulated for the future.

Despite this, the Company pressed ahead to try and recapture the market by ordering two handsome liners in August 1947, the Provence and Bretagne.

The 15,719 grt. Provence was another product of Swan Hunter’s Neptune shipyard in 1951, while her near sister, the Bretagne of 16,355 grt, was completed by Chantiers & Ateliers of Saint Nazaire, a year later.

Provence was laid down in May 1949 and was completed in February 1951. However the build period was hindered due to the lack of raw materials available after the war, such as steel, electric cabling, timber, auxiliaries etc., all being rationed by National Government which had to allocate such items to industries to help rebuild their economies in a war ravaged island. Large numbers of redundant Royal Naval warships were sent to the breakers yards to recycle as much as possible. The situation was still a thorn in the side of UK shipbuilders into the mid 1950s!

The Tyne built ship was to have the longest career. However, on 17th September 1954 when en-route from Buenos Aires to Montevideo, she collided with the 1953 built, 12,843 grt Liberian tanker Saxonsea, part of the Niarchos fleet. The liner suffered a severe bow damage and had to have temporary repairs carried out in Buenos Aires, prior to her limping home to Marseilles.

In 1960 Bretagne was chartered to Chandris, who bought her in January of the next year, and renamed her Brittany. She could carry 1,200 passengers from Europe to Australia in two classes. In the spring of 1963 she was taken to Hellenic Shipyards at Skaramanga for modifications and engine repairs. On 8th April she caught fire and was gutted, and the burning wreck was beached at Vasilika Bay. She was raised, but ultimately was too badly damaged and arrived at La Spezia for breaking up in March 1964. In 1960, S. G. T. M. was amalgamated with Comp. de Nav. Fraissinet et Cyprien Fabre.

In March 1961 the remaining sister was modified for a charter to Giacomo Costa fu Andrea of Genoa, later styled as Costa Amatori SpA, at the yard of Officine Allestimento e Riparazioni Nav. SA. of Genoa.

Costa bought Provence in 1965, following an overhaul at Genoa, she emerged as the Enrico C, with many cruising programmes along the South American coastline.

By 1973, with the airlines gaining an even bigger stranglehold on the routes, Costa were forced to curtail their passenger service to Buenos Aires, and sent the ship into refit once more, specifically for cruising. Another $20 million renovation took place in 1990, which also included new engines, and the Enrico C was frequently seen in the Eastern Mediterranean. In 1995 she was sold to Star Lauro, and renamed Symphony. Over the next few years the old ship, now looking past her best, passed onto several other companies, with subsequent name changes. In July 2001 she berthed at Dover as the Ocean Glory, where she was impounded with noncompliance of her seaworthy certificate. The crew walked off claiming they had not been paid. The Admiralty Marshall arrested the ship. and she was sold to interests associated with Carpental Holdings Corporation of Panama, who renamed her Classica, for her delivery voyage to Goyal Traders, of India where she was beached at Alang on 4th November 2001, a sad demise for one of her builder’s best looking ships.

In my opinion both ships looked their most attractive, when painted in their white cruising livery.

The profitable South American route did not re-materialise after the war and this had a catastrophic effect on S. G. T. M., and was compounded by the effects of the economic problems in South America.

The problem of quick, and increasingly cheaper air travel on transatlantic and trans-Mediterranean routes, had seen the collapse of sea-going passenger ships, for many lines and maritime nations.

State aid was supplied in 1959 and 1960 to augment and shore up the South American service, but it was losing battle.

These problems were compounded by the bitter Algerian conflict (1954-1962), where over one million French colonists were living, but the ethnic population in the country strove to throw off the yoke of France.

The turmoil which had turned bloody in 1958, when the colonists rebelled, and as the situation finally got out of control General De Gaulle held a referendum, and the colonists abandoned the country rapidly, which was granted independence in July 1962.

In 1955, Fabre completed the merging with Fraissinet by forming the Compagnie de Navigation Fraissinet et Cyprien Fabre, and in 1964, Fabre and S. G. T. M. merged as Cie. Fabre Transports Maritimes à Vapeur, under the control of Fraissinet-Chargeurs. In 1974, S. G. T. M. sold its last ship, the Mont Aigoual and thus ending almost one hundred years of trading.