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RE: The Story of My Life so Far - Part 32 - Cruise on the Jeanne d'Arc: San Francisco, Accapulco, Salina Cruz
So when the ship was called Conservé, it was in the meaning conserve France, or something like that? I immediately thought of canned food.
The etymology of the word "conserve" in the English Wiktionary Is:
The prefix "con" means "with" or "together".
So, you can see two different meaning of "conserve": one is "to keep watch together" and the other is "to maintain together".
In the XVIth century, the French verb "conserver" meant "to sail together, staying at viewing distance of each other". This is in this sense that the ship accompanying the Jeanne d'Arc was call the "conserve". In this sense of the word "conserve", there is the French expression "de conserve", still in use today, even if rarely, meaning "going together".
In the sense of "to maintain together", you have for example this meaning for the English word "conserve":
And in French, you have "boîte de conserve" (tin can) or "faire des conserves" (to make canned food).
In English, the verb "to observe" takes from "to keep watch", while "to preserve" takes from "to maintain".
When you look at the latin it is actually obvious. So: guarding or serving together with.