A Story of Names

Over the years, as the water flows along the banks, we see many barges pass by on the Seine. And sometimes their names resonate with us, take us back in time, or make us smile.
More than we could imagine at first glance.

The ship’s or boat’s names have always been quite a unique subject, with standards that evolve but also remain constant. Naturally, we look first to the sea—that’s where we generally find the ships whose names we first heard. For example, in the French Navy—formerly the Royal Navy—we often find names generally reflecting martial values or “virtues” (Vaillant, Intrépide, Téméraire…), mythological figures (Amphitrite, Neptune, Thésée…), or even, during the Revolution, new ideals (Droit de l’Homme, Liberté, Révolutionnaire…).

Often, too, a ship is named after a previous vessel. For example, there have been 9 different ships named Redoutable and 6 named Jeanne d’Arc in the French Navy. This practice of repeating names is also common in the merchant marine, among trawlers, and so on. Anita Conti was a pioneer of French oceanography, and as a result, there are ships named Anita Conti in several ports across France, including Paris.

But little by little, times have changed, and conventions have become more relaxed. And for merchant ships, they were always a bit less strict. So much so that today we come across vessels whose names are whimsical, or serve as a humorous nod as much as a reference.

And thus, there are boats named after other boats, but with much more creative freedom. For example, there’s the Mayflower, named after the ship that carried the pioneers of British colonization to New England. Or the Titanic, which needs no introduction. There’s also the Pen Duick, a 38-meter yacht named after Eric Tabarly’s first boat, designed by William Fife, and the Bounty, named after the English ship on which that famous mutiny took place in 1789.

In another category, it’s culture (including pop culture) that really comes through. So we find the “motor-barge + barge” pairing Hasta la vista / Baby, a reference to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s line in Terminator 2, or Bohemian / Rhapsody, which takes its name from the Queen song. In the “movies” section, there’s also the Bullitt, named after the famous crime thriller starring Steve McQueen, which even incorporates the film’s font and graphic elements. Less pop-culture-oriented and somewhat surprising is the Delvaux, named after the surrealist painter Paul Delvaux.

And sometimes it gets downright trivial, since the old slogan for Bohemian / Rhapsody was Mac / Ouille. Which we will not try to translate into English.
It doesn’t get much more vivid than that…

cover image: The AC-DC commercial motorboat heading up to the Sully Bridge – © photo credit: Louis-Paul Dalmasso