Fabre Line
The Fabre Line or Compagnie Francaise de Navigation a Vapeur Cyprien Fabre & Compagnie was a French shipping line formed in 1881. It began operating a small fleet of sailing ships in 1865. Its ports of call included New York, NY; Providence, Rhode Island; Boston, MA; Ponta Delgada, Madeira, and Lisbon, Portugal; Piraeus, Salonica, and Athens, Greece; Algiers, Morocco; Beirut, Lebanon; Naples & Palermo, Italy; Alexandria, Egypt; Jaffa and Haifa, Palestine; Constantinople, Turkey; and Monaco and Marseilles, France.
In June 1911, Fabre Line steamships began trans-Atlantic service to India Point in Providence, Rhode Island. Between June 30 1912 and June 30, 1913, Fabre brought almost 12,000 mostly Italian and Portuguese immigrants to Providence's Lonsdale Dock. The route was so popular that Fabre built an additional pier in 1914. Service continued until 1934.
The Fabre Line was the only transatlantic route to southern New England.
It became the Compagnie Generale de Navigation a Vapeur in 1933 under the helm of Jean Alfred Fraissinet. Jean Alfred Fraissinet, owner of the Nouvelle Société Maritime de Navigation à Vapeur married Mathilde Cyprien-Fabre. In 1930, the two shipping firms, as well as a third line, integrated operations to mutually increase their commercial competitiveness.
