If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 321

Vintage poster postcard from Messageries Maritimes, early 1900s

The two postcards shared this week are modern color cards made from old advertising posters of the Messageries Maritimes, a French merchant shipping company that was created in 1851 and operated variously as Messageries nationales, Messageries impérials, and Compagnie des messageries maritimes or “Mes Mar” of M.M. until 1977 when it merged with Compagnie générale transatlantique to form Compagnie générale maritime.  In 1996 it was privatized and sold to Compagnie Maritime d’Affrètement. 

These cards are identified as Pro-Artis/Droits reserves 1997, Paris, France, printed in Canada.  The card above has the number 72029 and the card below is 72026.  Since the cards were published in 1997 and the company was revamped in 1996 it seems reasonable to suggest that they were part of advertising or promotional material for the new company. 

The ships sailed from Marseilles, France serving the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea, The Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, the China Sea, and finally the Pacific Ocean.  From the place names on it the top card the poster looks to have come from the golden age of the company 1871-1914.  Also note the original M.M. flag, a rectangle with red corners, well known and recognized in shipping circles during that era.

Poster postcard from Messageries Maritimes, Chapollion, ca 1951

The more modern ship featured on the second card was first built in 1925.  The poster shows the ship with a single stack, the most recent modification that took place in 1951.  This ship, named the Champollion, after Jean-François Champollion a noted French scholar who is known as the decipherer of Egyptian hieroglyphs, had destinations in Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon.  The Champollion was a real luxury ship with one of the first dishwashers; bedrooms outfitted in teak and mahogany; bathroom mosaics, and forged iron elevators.  Her sister ship, the Mariette Pacha, was also a beautiful vessel but not quite as luxurious.  While the Champollion was modified and modernized several times the Mariette Pacha was not.  It was scuttled in 1944, cut in two by explosives in the port of Marseilles. 

The ships of this company were used as troop ships during the Crimean War.   The Champollion transported troops between Marseilles and Indochina in 1947 and was also used to transport nearly 1,000 Jewish emigrants from Marseilles to Palestine before the war and over 700 Jewish children in 1946. 

Only one year after the modernization in 1951, the Champollion sank in a terrible accident off the coast of Beirut, Lebanon in December of 1952.  New lights on an airfield were mistaken for the lighthouse, the ship took a wrong turn and sank during a storm. Even though the ship was relatively close to shore the storm prevented rescue units from reaching the ship in time to save everyone.  Two sisters swam to shore rather than wait for help to arrive.  Help eventually did arrive but out of the 120 member crew and 111 passengers the loss of life was 17 persons. 

For additional information, see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messageries_Maritimes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Fran%C3%A7ois_Champollion
https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Champollion&prev=search