Last modified: 2006-12-23 by ivan sache
Keywords: bazin | perier | gay | letters: bc (blue) | letters: b&p (red) | letters: b&lg (white) |
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Charles Bazin (1798-1879) and his cousin Auguste Bazin were merchants. The Bazin family was
Protestant, of French origin, and settled back in Marseilles after
having emigrated to Holland and Switzerland. In 1824, Charles, associated with Auguste, succeded his father in trade.
In 1831, the Bazin founded the first steam shipping company in Marseilles and opened a scheduled line between Provence and Italy, operating two paddle steamships. The Henri IV inaugurated the line Marseilles-Genoa-Civitavecchia-Naples. On 12 December 1834, the Henri IV ran aground the beach of Orbitello, near Leghorn, with no casualties. The Sully, the sister-ship of the Henri IV, was launched on 4 April 1831 and pulled down in 1850.
In 1835, the Bazin line was extended to Malta and Piraeus (Greece), with
the paddle steamboat Pharamond. In 1841, the Charlemagne, then the
fastest ship in the world, sailed between Marseilles and Algiers in 45
hours. Bazin signed a contract with the French state for the service to
Algeria and Tunisia. On 5 July 1846, the Philippe-Auguste was the first iron ship
to sail on the Mediterranean Sea. The ship experienced a lot of
technical problems and her maintenance was extremely expensive. She was
sold to the Messageries Impériales in 1854.
In 1846, Bazin took as a partner Théophile Périer, who had founded the Compagnie de
Navigation Théophile Périer in 1836, and the company was
renamed Bazin & Périer. Lines to Tripoli, Alexandria and Beirut were opened, compensating for the end of the Algerian contract in 1852.
In January 1854, the company merged with the Compagnie Générale de
Navigation à Hélice, founded by Léon Gay in 1852, and was renamed
Bazin & Léon Gay. Gay brought his ships and his lines in the western Mediterranean sector, to Tangiers, Gibraltar, Mogador and the Canary
Islands. The company then purchased bigger ships and opened lines to
America and the Far-East. However, two of the three clippers with
auxiliary engine bought in 1856 were lost, the Saint-Louis in
Singapore in 1858 and the François Ier in China (or Greece according
to certain reports) in 1861. Bazin could not adapt to the technical
evolution of the second half of the XIXth century and sold in 1865 his
company to Fraissinet.
The last ship purchased by Bazin was the Amsterdam, and her history is fairly representative of the beginnings of steam shipping. The ship was built in 1836 for the company Albrecht, sold in 1853 to the Compagnie des Chemins de Fer du Midi, and placed under Spanish ensign as the Francia. She was bought back by Albrecht in December 1853 and sold one year later to the Messageries Impériales. Bazin bought the ship in 1860 and sold her the same year to Garibaldi for the Sicilan fleet. The ship was later incorporated to the new Royal Italian Navy and eventually sold in America, renamed Franklin, and pulled down in 1870.
Sources:
Ivan Sache, 25 January 2004
![[Flag of Bazin & Cie]](../images/f/fr~hfbaz.gif)
![[Flag of Bazin & Cie]](../images/f/fr~hfba1.gif)
House flag of Bazin & Cie, two versions - Images by Ivan Sache, 17 October 2005
Bois (op. cit.) gives two versions for Bazin & Cie. The first is a white flag with a blue triangle on each corner and the blue letters BC in the middle, shown in the initial coloured section of the book; in the company detail on p. 7, the black and white drawing at the end shows an ampersand (B & C), which puts the flag in line with the two later flags.
Ivan Sache & Neale Rosanoski, 17 October 2005
![[Flag of Bazin & Perier]](../images/f/fr~hfbap.gif)
House flag of Bazin & Perier - Image by Ivan Sache, 25 January 2004
According to Bois (op. cit.), the house flag of Bazin & Périer is a red flag with the red letters B&P in the middle.
Ivan Sache, 25 January 2004
![[Flag of Bazin & Gay]](../images/f/fr~hfblg.gif)
House flag of Bazin & Léon Gay - Image by Ivan Sache, 25 January 2004
According to Bois (op. cit.), the house flag of Bazin & Léon Gay is a blue flag with the white letters B&LG in the middle.
Ivan Sache, 25 January 2004