CMA CGM.

C468 may have been only a table flag, or may have been superseded. Its emblem is an elongated blue-and-white globe showing the continents.

A flag on the Statue of Liberty appeared on the cover of CMA CGM Magazine No. 27. Rosanoski initially thought a very light-blue globe might be present, but after the image ceased to be available he treated it as the new logo alone. He leaves open the possibility of a special shore-use flag.

C897 was recorded on CMA CGM Matisse on 16 May 2002, before a September 2005 photograph showed C896. A recheck described a red oval with a blue top, and apparently different reds in CMA and CGM, perhaps due to fading. Faded blue was considered as an alternative, though the letters looked more reddish.

C896 is based on port-side CMA CGM Matisse and starboard CMA CGM Rossini photographs from 2005, and was also noted on CMA CGM Mozart in June 2004. Matisse has a wider blue band. Rosanoski observes that the distinction from C895 can depend on where the funnel ends and white superstructure begins: Rossini fits a white-base interpretation, while Matisse is less clear. Rossini’s flag could not be read. Nüsse supplies a table flag.

CMA CGM l’Etoile, photographed from port on 14 November 2005 under charter, has a short, very squat funnel. Rosanoski regards this as clearly a blue base, red top and white band, without the funnel-versus-superstructure ambiguity.

C898 comes from chartered CMA CGM Rodin on 15 November 2005. A photograph of an unidentified vessel shows no distinct blue top, only projecting exhausts which look black but might be blue, matching the very dark oval and letters. CMA CGM Tage in December 2005 instead shows a deep-blue top.

C899 is based on starboard photographs of chartered CMA CMG Komodo and compared with reddish-brown funnels on CMA CGM Kalamata and CMA CGM Elbe in June 2004. NJK initially suspected the owner Danaos’s colours. Rosanoski disagreed, citing Danaos/Coustas examples with a black funnel and light-blue band, later white, bearing C. He proposed that the reddish-brown vessels formed CMA CGM’s contribution to the Sundex service, without extending that theory to Norasia or China Shipping vessels. NJK doubted trade-specific colours and favoured a neutral finish, also speculating that old vessels might deliberately lack branding. No explanation was established.

C1379 records a port-side view of chartered CMA CGM Iguacu in July 2006.

C1381 records chartered CMA CGM America in 2007 from starboard, with the red and blue reversed as a mirror image and the red curving down forward.

C1382 comes from an unidentified vessel photographed from starboard on 27 September 2009.

C1383 records owned CMA CGM Hudson from starboard on 4 August 2006, with the blue rising higher aft.

CMA CGM Lavender, chartered and photographed from starboard on 27 May 2010, carries the design over its full tall funnel. The wider white superstructure base is considered separate. A port view of owned CMA CGM North Africa 2 on 7 December 2009 shows a shorter funnel which could be read as merging into a white base.

C1385 comes from a port-side photograph of chartered CMA CGM Opal dated 29 June 2013.

The Tage description gives a broad blue top on a white funnel, red-and-blue letters and long comma-like arcs, red above the beginning and blue below the end. The same passage describes a flag without The French Line, replacing the oval with the arcs; a supposed light-blue globe was later judged unlikely. The narrative refers to C900 in this discussion, while the Sources section labels C900 as a funnel from the house magazine.

CMA CGM, also called The French Line, arose from Compagnie Maritime d’Affretement’s 1996 purchase of Compagnie Générale Maritime and their legal merger on 1 January 1999. MacAndrews was acquired in 2002. The company account dates acquisition of Delmas to 2005, while the OTAL account gives 2006 for OTAL, Delmas, Setramar and a half-interest in Sudcargos. A 10 per cent Atlantic Container Line interest was sold to Grimaldi in 2001, although Rosanoski is unsure which ACL entity was meant. CMA CGM held a minority interest in Delom and partnered Norasia in Sundra Express Service [Sundex], joined by China Shipping from 9 January 2005. Yilmar, of the Yildirim group, invested in 2010.

France, Marseilles.