1951 Troy Map of the World of Fabre Line Shipping Routes

This is a c. 1951 Troy map of the world illustrating Fabre Lines shipping routes and likely one of the last promotional broadsides created for the company. The map depicts the region from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to the Balkans and Central Africa and from Hudson Bay and Scandinavia to northern South America and Central Africa. Two different routes, one in blue and the other in red, are illustrated and the ports of call along the routes are labeled, located in Europe, Africa, Canada, and the United States. Red and blue dots are used to mark these cities, with both red and blue dots marking cities that were on both routes, like Marseille, Lisbon, and Montreal. It is unclear what the difference is between the two routes and our research has not been able to provide a satisfactory answer. The flag of the Fabre family occupies most of the Atlantic Ocean, along with a large ocean-going ship, the Kolibryn.

The Kolibryn

From an article printed in the September 11, 1951 edition of The Commercial-Mail of Columbia City, Indiana, we were able to learn that the Kolibryn was a Norwegian vessel that was specifically built for Fabre Lines to navigate St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes. Fabre brought the ship to Chicago that weekend to promote its newly inaugurated service between that city and the Mediterranean, providing Chicago's first direct link to the Mediterranean by ship. The article also references the fact that one Norwegian, two Swedish, a Danish, and a German shipping line already served Chicago and that twenty-seven of their ships make regular calls at the Port of Chicago.

Fabre Lines

Based in Marseille, Fabre Lines was a French originally founded in the 1860s by Cyprien Fabre. The company expanded throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, both in the number of ships in its fleet and the number of cities it served. By World War I, Fabre Lines, officially known as the Compagnie Française de Navigation à Vapeur Cyprien Fabre et Cie the company had reached every part of the world. Fabre Lines merged / formed an alliance with another French shipping company Compagnie Fraissinet following the marriage of Jean Alfred Fraissinet and Mathilde Cyprien Fabre in 1930. Both companies survived World War II and finally completed the merger in 1955 with the formation of the Compagnie de Navigation Fraissinet et Cyprien Fabre. Fraissinet operated until 1968, and Fabre survived until 1979.

Publication History and CensusThis map was drawn by an artist identified only by the name Troy, of whom we have been able to find no other trace, and printed by the Imprimerie Robaudy. One example is included in the collection at the Musée des civilisations de l'Europe et de la Méditerranée in Marseille and no examples are cataloged in the OCLC. We have also found one record of this map appearing at auction in the last thirty years.