Ponant started out with one ship,
Le Ponant, a three masted Barque built in 1991.
Le Ponant still operates with the company today. Eight years later in 1999, the company acquired Le Levant, a yacht. After 13 years in service with Ponant,
Le Levant was purchased by
Paul Gauguin Cruises in 2012 and became
Tere Moana. In 2004, Ponant purchased
Le Diamant, a luxury liner.
Le Diamant transferred to
Quark Expeditions in 2012 to become
Ocean Diamond. Later, in 2010, Ponant put into service the first of a series of four identical luxury sister ships,
Le Boreal. A year later, the company began operating the second ship of the class, ''
L'Austral and in 2013 the third ship of the class was added to the fleet, Le Soléal. The fourth ship of the class, Le Lyrial'', was delivered in 2015. Initially based in
Nantes for 18 years, in 2006 the company headquarters was moved to
Marseille following its acquisition by
CMA CGM. In 2012, CMA CGM sold Ponant to
Bridgepoint Capital. On April 4, 2008,
Le Ponant was seized by
Somali pirates in the
Gulf of Aden while en route from the
Seychelles to the
Mediterranean. The ship carried no passengers at the time of its capture, but all 30 crewmembers were taken hostage. The hostages were released without incident on April 12. Following the release, French
helicopters tracked the pirates to the village of
Jariban. French
commando marine and
GIGN operating from the frigate
Jean Bart and the
''Jeanne d'Arc'' moved in when the pirates attempted to flee in the desert. A sniper disabled the get-away vehicle, and the commandos were able to capture six men. Local officials claimed that three people died in the raid, with a further eight wounded, but France denied this. Troops also recovered some of the
ransom money paid by the owner of the yacht for the release of its crew. The six captured pirates have since been flown to Paris, where they were to face trial. In 2012, the owner of Compagnie du Ponant, CMA CGM, sold the company to
Bridgepoint Capital. In 2013, one of Ponant's ships,
Le Soleal, became the first French commercial shipping vessel to traverse the
Northwest Passage. The vessel left
Kangerlussuaq in
Greenland on August 26, 2013, and arrived in
Anadyr, in
Russia on September 16, 2013. In 2015,
Groupe Artémis bought Compagnie du Ponant from Bridgepoint. In March 2016, Ponant ordered four new ships with about 10,000
GT at Vard, a subcompany of
Fincantieri. They were delivered in 2018 and 2019. The ships are named
Le Lapérouse,
Le Champlain,
Le Bougainville and ''
Le Dumont-d'Urville''. In December 2017,
Le Lapérouse left Vard Tulcea in Romania and was heading to final outfitting at Vard facility in Norway. She arrived in mid of January. In December 2017, Ponant announced that it had ordered an
icebreaking expedition cruise ship from Vard. The (about €274 million) vessel will be built to the second-highest
IACS ice class,
Polar Class 2, and will be capable of taking tourists to the
North Pole. The vessel, named
Le Commandant Charcot, was delivered in 2021. In March 2018, Ponant announced the order of two additional 180-passenger expedition ships,
Le Bellot and
Le Jaques Cartier; they joined the company in 2020. In 2019 Ponant purchased
Paul Gauguin Cruises owners of the
Paul Gauguin. In 2020 Ponant came under criticism for refusing to provide refunds to passengers from cancelled cruises due to
COVID-19. During the pandemic, the ship did not sail for some time but resumed operations on 18 July 2020 for local residents and on 29 July for international guests, with reduced occupancy. A news report on 3 August 2020 stated that the COVID-19 virus had been detected on the MS
Paul Gauguin while it was in
Papeete, Tahiti; passengers were required to stay in their cabins. At that time, after renovations, the capacity was stated to be 318 guests plus a crew of 216. The ship had been modified to use a "cleaner" fuel: LS MGO – Low-Sulphur Marine Gas Oil and the company planned "to offset 150 percent of its carbon emissions". In spring 2020,
Le Commandant Charcot was being built by Vard, Fincantieri shipbuilding subsidiary in
Norway. This high polar exploration ship is equipped with a hybrid propulsion system which uses both electricity and
liquefied natural gas (LNG). Delivered in August 2021
Le Commandant Charcot has a similar design to the PONANT Explorer series, though she is larger and more powerful. Due to the manoeuvrability of the
Azipod systems, she can operate both in ahead direction and sternfirst, depending on the prevailing ice conditions.
Le Commandant Charcot is also the first ship to feature a Polar Class 2 icebreaking hull. On March 29, 2021, following the announcement of François-Henri Pinault, Managing Partner of Artémis, Hervé Gastinel took over after Jean-Emmanuel Sauvée as the company's CEO. ==Current fleet==