Exhibition: Tropez sailors in the age of ocean liners

Many Tropéziens, captains and sailors alike, sailed with the prestigious Messageries maritimes company, to such an extent that the Sainte-Anne chapel, with its votive offerings, is the company's first memorial site, also well represented in the Musée d'Histoire Maritime de la Citadelle. Drawing on the collections of the Musée de la Citadelle, the Company's archives held by French Lines in Le Havre, those of the Service Historique de la Défense in Toulon, not forgetting archives and objects kept in families, and with the support of the Marseille Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which will make available large, beautiful models of the MM liners, the exhibition will retrace the history of the city's sailors in the Company and on all the seas of the world. We'll follow Paul Cérisola's navigations in Oceania, discover the important role played by Commandant Jules Clarice during the Yokohama earthquake of 1923, and hold our breath as Commandant Collignon avoids the torpedoes of German submarines during the First World War, we'll be moved by Captain Adrien Braco's disappearance off Madagascar, swept away by a huge wave, and we'll be envious of Alexandra David-Neel's encounter with Commander Marius Cérisola, who brought her back to France aboard the cargo ship Min. These are just a few extraordinary examples, but we mustn't forget that voyages aboard the great liners or the modest cargo ships were all extraordinary moments, whether you boarded in first or third class, whether you went to the nearby Black Sea or the distant port of Hong Kong. Such was the daily life of hundreds of Tropez sailors between the 1850s and 1950s.