Last modified: 2006-12-23 by ivan sache
Keywords: messageries de l'ouest | stars: 4 (white) | letters: mo (red) |
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![[House flag of Messageries de l'Ouest]](../images/f/fr~hfcmo.gif)
House flag of Compagnie de Transports Maritimes des Messageries de l'Ouest - Image by Ivan Sache, 30 April 2006
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Compagnie de Transports Maritimes des Messageries de l'Ouest served from 1906 to 1931 a passenger line between Nantes and Trentemoult across the river Loire. The company was taken over by Compagnie Nantaise de Navigation à Vapeur in the 1920s, which merged with Chargeurs de l'Ouest in 1937 to form Compagnie Nantaise des Chargeurs de l'Ouest.
The Nantes-Trentemoult line was well-known in Nantes under the name of roquios' lines. Roquio was the name of the ship that inaugurated the line in 1887, then operated by Compagnie de Navigation de la Basse Loire. The name of the ship comes from a festival called the Roquio assembly (assemblée du Roquio), which was the most important festival in the region of Nantes before the First World War. Bulletin de la société archéologique de Nantes et de la Loire-Inférieure, 1931, explains the origin of the Roquio festival. In 1839, the young villagers from Rezé, near Trentemoult, organized the "marriage" of Jean Moreau, aka Roquio, and Modeste. The bride and groom were indeed the two village simpletons, employed as shepherds. The "marriage" was so successful that another festival was organized the next year to celebrate the first anniversary of the "marriage". The nickname of the groom was transferred to the festival, then to the ship used to transport the participants to the place of the festival, then to all the ships of the line. The name of Roquio is still bore by restaurants and a music band in Nantes.
Dominique Cureau & Ivan Sache, 30 April 2006
The flag of Compagnie de Transports Maritimes des Messageries de l'Ouest, as shown on a drawing from the 1920s, is blue with a white disc charged with the cypher of the company, made of a red M and O, and four small white stars placed in each of the corners of the flag.
Dominique Cureau & Ivan Sache, 30 April 2006