Pair Of Drawings Of The Ocean Liners Mersey And Méandre Of The Messageries Impériales, 19th Century

French School, 19th Century. Pair of watercolor drawings of the mixed passenger and freight liners Mersey and Meandre of the Messageries Impériales shipping company, 25 x 45 cm each. The Mersey was a mixed passenger and freight liner built in 1854 in Glasgow by the Smith & Roger shipyard, registered in Marseille on January 27, 1855, for Rostand under the Messageries Impériales banner. From 1856 to 1863, it provided mail service to Algiers and Oran, as well as alternating service to the Levant. From 1864 to 1871, it served only the Algerian and Tunisian routes. From 1872 until the end of its career, the company assigned it cargo service for various commercial lines in the Mediterranean. Struck from the fleet due to its age on May 26, 1876, it was indeed scrapped at La Ciotat in November of the same year. Meandre was a mixed passenger and mail ship named after the Turkish river flowing into the Aegean Sea; it was built in 1855 at Birkenhead. It inaugurated its Levant service on March 17, 1856. It was reassigned to North African routes from 1861 onwards, and in 1872 resumed mail service under charter to the Valery company. In 1873, it returned to Levant service for the Messageries Maritimes and the following year inaugurated the Marseille-Barcelona route. It was scrapped in Marseille starting on January 5, 1883.