SS NORMANDIE

'SS ''Normandie'''
An aerial view of the ''S.S. Normandie'' An aerial view of the ''S.S. Normandie''
Career	Civil and naval ensign of France
Owners:	Compagnie Générale Transatlantique
Builders:	Penhoët, Saint Nazaire, France
Laid down:	January 26 1931
Launched:	October 29, 1932
Christened:	October 29, 1932
Maiden voyage:	May 29, 1935
Fate:	Caught fire, capsized at Pier 88 in the New York Passenger Ship Terminal in New York City in 1942; wreck remained on site throughout WWII, and was sold for scrap on October 3rd 1946
General Characteristics
Tonnage:	79,280/83,423 gross tons
Displacement:	71,300 tons (approx)
Length:	1,029 feet (313.6 m)
Beam:	119.4 ft (36.4 m)
Draft:	37.00 ft (11.3 m)
Height:	184 ft (56.1 m)
Power:	Four Turbo-electric, total 160,000 hp (200,000 hp max).
Propulsion:	Four 3- (later 4-) bladed, 23 tons each
Speed:	Designed speed 29 knots, could reach 32.2 knots
Passenger Capacity:	1,972: 848 First Class (cabin), 670 Tourist Class, 454 Third Class
Crew:	1,345

The '''Normandie''' was a French ocean liner built in Saint-Nazaire France for Compagnie Générale Transatlantique. When launched in 1932 she was the largest and fastest ship in the world, and she maintains the distinction of being the most powerful steam turbo-electric propelled passenger ship ever built. Her novel design features and lavish interiors have led many to consider her the greatest of all ocean liners. Despite this, she was not a commercial success, and relied partly on government subsidy to operate.
In 1942, while being converted to a troopship during World War II, ''Normandie'' caught fire, capsized, and sank at the New York Passenger Ship Terminal. Although she was salvaged at great expense, restoration was deemed too costly, and she was scrapped in October 1946.

Contents

Origin

Construction and launch

Interior

Career

Trapp Family Singers

Demise

A Lady Fights Back

Influences

Views of the S.S. Normandie

References

External links

Origin

The beginnings of ''Normandie'' can be traced to the Roaring Twenties when shipping companies started to look for new ships to replace the aging veterans, such as the ''RMS Mauretania'' which had first sailed in 1907. Those earlier ships had been designed around the huge numbers of steerage-class immigrants coming from Europe to the United States; when the U.S. closed the door on most immigration in the early 1920s, steamship companies ordered vessels built to serve middle-class tourists instead, particularly Americans who travelled to Europe for alcohol-fuelled fun during Prohibition. Companies like Cunard and White Star Line planned to build their own super-liners to rival the newer ships on the scene. These new ships included the record-breaking ''Bremen'' and ''Europa'', both German ships. The French Line was not to be left out of this new race and soon began to plan their own supership.
The designers intended to construct a ship similar to French Line ships of the past, but then they were approached by Vladimir Yourkevitch, a former ship architect for the Imperial Russian Navy before the revolution who had emigrated to France. His ideas included a slanting clipper-like bow and a bulbous forefoot beneath the waterline in combination with a slim hull, a design which worked wonderfully in his scale model. The French engineers were so impressed that they asked Yourkevitch to join their project.

Construction and launch

Work began on the ship (not yet named ''Normandie'') in January 1931, soon after the terrifying stock market crash of 1929. This was fortunate for the French: The competing White Star Line's ship (the Oceanic) – started before the crash – had to be cancelled and the Cunard ship was put on hold, both because their financing, organized before the crash, ran into trouble. Soon, the French builders also ran into difficulty, and had to ask their government for money to continue construction, a subsidy that was questioned in the press. Still, the building was followed heavily by newspapers and national interest was deep. Though she was designed to represent France in the nation-state contest of the great liners, and though she was built in a French shipyard and, using French-built major parts including the 29 boilers, the turbines, generators and even the 4 massive engines (designed by Alsthom, which later worked on the Queen Mary 2), a few secondary parts of her came from other European countries - e.g., the ship's great rudder was built by Skoda Works in Czechoslovakia, while the steering mechanism, including the teak wheel, came from Edinburgh.
As construction went on, the growing hull in Saint-Nazaire had no name except for "T-6" (with "6" for "6th" and "T" for "Transat", short for "CIE. GLE. TRANSATLANTIQUE" aka the "French Line"), the contract name. Many names were suggested including ''Doumer'', after the recently assassinated president Paul Doumer. Finally the name ''Normandie'' was decided upon after much speculation. In what may be a unique quirk of French nomenclature, the name carries no definite article. In France, ship prefixes are customarily masculine inherited from the French terms for ship which can be "paquebot", "navire", "bateau", "bâtiment", etc. (including le "France" which is not grammatically correct), but English-speakers usually refer to ships as feminine entities ("she's a beauty"), and the French Line carried many rich American customers. After discussion, the shipbuilders announced that their ship was to be called simply "Normandie," preceded by no "le" or "la" (French masculine/feminine for "the") to avoid any confusion.
On October 29, 1932 – three years to the day after the stock market crash – ''Normandie'' was launched in front of 200,000 spectators. The 27,567 ton hull that slid into the Loire River was the largest ever launched and it caused a large wave that crashed into a few hundred people, but with no injury. ''Normandie'' was outfitted until early 1935, meaning all her interior, funnels, engines, etc. were put in to make her into a working vessel. Finally, in April 1935, ''Normandie'' was ready for her trials, which were watched by reporters. The superiority of Vladimir Yourkevitch's hull design was immediately visible: hardly a wave was created. The ship demonstrated impressive performance during these trials, reaching a top speed of 32.2 knots and performing an emergency stop from that speed in only 1,700 meters.
One of the most famous posters of ''Normandie'' was made by Adolphe Mouron Cassandre who was a Russian emigrant to France, like Yourkevitch himself.

Interior

The luxurious interiors of ''Normandie'' were marvels of Art Déco and the Streamline Moderne style. Many of her sculptures and wall paintings made indirect or direct allusions to Normandy, the province of France for which she was named. Drawings and photographs from the era show a series of vast public rooms of great elegance. The children's dining room was decorated by Jean de Brunhoff, who covered the walls with Babar the Elephant and his ''entourage''. Indeed, the interior was quite dazzling but perhaps the most dazzling was the first class dining room.

Three hundred and five feet long, 46 feet wide and 28 feet high, this was by far the largest room afloat. Passengers entered the dining room through 20 foot tall doors adorned with bronze medallions by the artist Raymond Subes. The ten medallions featured French castles, cathedrals, and the French ocean liner SS Ile de France.
This first class dining room could seat 700 diners at a time with 150 tables, serving them with some of the best meals in the world. This ship was a floating promotion of the most sophisticated French cuisine of the period. However due to the design of the ship, no natural lighting could get in. The designers illuminated the room with twelve tall pillars of Lalique glass and along the walls stood 38 columns equally bright. In addition, two chandeliers hung at each end of the room. From this gorgeous display of lights came the nickname "Ship of Light".
A popular feature was a cafe which led to the grand salon, one of the most popular rooms on board which would be transformed into a nightclub during voyages. In addition, ''Normandie'' boasted both an indoor and outdoor pool (the second ship to have one, after the Italian liner ''Rex''), a chapel and a theatre which could function as both a stage and cinema.
The interiors were filled with long perspectives and spectacular entryways such as long, wide staircases in order to give a suitable frame to the many upper middle class ladies who saw an Atlantic crossing as a way to show off their clothes and jewels, and sometimes their husbands.
In addition to a novel hull shape which made it possible for her to attain her great speed at lesser power expenditure than that of the other big liners, ''Normandie'' was filled with technical feats. She had turbo-electric engines which improved fuel efficiency and made control and maintenance much easier. The machinery of the top deck and forecastle, normally an eyesore or an annoyance for passengers on the other liners, had been integrated within the ship, concealing it completely and releasing nearly all of the exposed deck space for the passengers' use. An early form of radar was installed to detect icebergs and other ships.

Career

After more fitting out and final touches, the maiden voyage came on May 29, 1935. Fifty thousand people came to Le Havre to see the large ship off, on what was hoped would be a record-breaking crossing. And indeed it was. ''Normandie'' reached New York after just four days, three hours and fourteen minutes, thus snatching away the Blue Riband from the Italian liner ''Rex''. This prize was a source of great pride for the French. They had watched other countries gain this prestigious award year after year but had never had it themselves, until ''Normandie''. Her average speed on the maiden voyage was around 30 knots and on the eastbound crossing to France she averaged over 30 knots, shattering records on the way.
With the Blue Riband hers, ''Normandie'' had a successful year but come 1936 a new ship was on the scene. The ''RMS Queen Mary'', Cunard's superliner, entered service in the summer of 1936. They had announced the ''Queen Mary'' would surpass 80,000 tons. At 79,280 gross tons, ''Normandie'' would in that case lose the prestigious title of being the world’s largest liner to her British rival. Therefore, the French Line decided to increase ''Normandie''’s size, mainly through the addition of an enclosed tourist lounge on the aft boat deck. Following these and a few other alterations, ''Normandie'' was re-measured at 83,423 gross tons. Exceeding the ''Queen Mary'' by some 2,000 tons, she would remain the world’s largest. However in August of that year, the ''Queen Mary'' stole the Blue Riband from the ''Normandie'' averaging 30.14 knots, thus starting a fierce rivalry.
In July of 1937 ''Normandie'' regained the Blue Riband once more, but the ''Queen Mary'' took it back the next year. After this the captain of ''Normandie'' sent a message to the British liner saying "Bravo to the ''Queen Mary'' until next time!" This rivalry could have gone on into the 1940s but was unfortunately put to a halt due to World War II, ensuring that there would be no 'next time'.

Trapp Family Singers

In her short lived but prosperous life, ''Normandie'' was able to carry a number of distinguished passengers including the Trapp family Singers (the real family that ''The Sound of Music'' was based upon.) The Normandie carried the family singers from New York to Southampton in 1938, from Southampton, the family proceeded to Scandinavia to do a tour before eventually returning to America

Demise

The outbreak of war found ''Normandie'' in New York Harbor. Soon the ''Queen Mary'' docked near ''Normandie''. She would later be refitted to become a troop ship. In addition, the newly launched RMS ''Queen Elizabeth'' docked nearby, so for two weeks the three largest liners in the world were docked side by side. Soon, the Queens left and ''Normandie'' was left alone. In 1940, after the Fall of France, the United States seized the ship.
By 1941, the United States Navy decided to convert ''Normandie'' into a troopship, and renamed her USS ''Lafayette'', in reference to the historical American-French alliance. The ship was moored at Manhattan's Pier 88 for the conversion. On 9 February 1942, sparks from a welding torch ignited a stack of thousands of life vests filled with kapok, a highly flammable material, that had been stored in the first-class dining room. The woodwork had not yet been removed, and the fire spread rapidly. The ship had a very efficient fire protection system, but it had been disconnected during the conversion, and the New York City fire department's hoses did not fit the ship's French inlets. All on board fled the ship. As firefighters on shore and in fire boats poured water on the blaze, the ship developed a dangerous list to port due to the greater amount of water being pumped into the seaward side of the vessel by fireboats. About 2:45 a.m. on 10 February, ''Lafayette'' capsized, nearly crushing a fire boat. Vladimir Yourkevitch had been at the scene, and had suggested that he be allowed to enter the vessel and open the sea-cocks. This would flood the lower decks of the ship and cause it to settle the few feet to the bottom of the dock. Thus stabilised, water could be pumped into the burning areas without the risk of capsize - however the suggestion was not acted on.
A shot of the capsized ship makes a brief cameo appearance towards the end of Alfred Hitchcock's film Saboteur.

The ship was truncated and finally righted in 1943 in the world's most expensive salvage operation. It was subsequently determined that the cost of restoring the liner was too great. After neither the US Navy nor the French Line offered to do so, the ship's designer, Vladimir Yourkevitch, made a last-ditch proposal to cut the ship down and restore her as a mid-sized passenger liner. This, too, failed to draw backing, and the former ''Normandie'' was sold for a mere $161,680 to Lipsett Inc., an American salvage company, and scrapped on October 1946.

A Lady Fights Back

The 1944 documentary short film "A Lady Fights Back" tells the story, up to that time, of the Normandie. It does not mention that the ship capsized or sank, saying only that it listed heavily to port and showing many pictures of it in that position. It leaves the story with the ship floating free, though devoid of superstructure, saying it was destined to participate in the war effort and that the filmers were not allowed to show any more current pictures of it.
The film also makes the claim that the Navy used the restoration of the Normandie as a training exercise and used that training to repair ships damaged in the December 1941 Pearl Harbor raid.
The film is Installment 50 in John Nesbitt's Passing Parade series, presented by MGM. It is included in the DVD of the 1944 movie Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo.

Influences

The ''S.S. Normandie'' inspired the architecture and design of the Normandie Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It was designed by Félix Benítez, a Puerto Rican engineer, as a tribute to his French wife, Moineau, whom he met aboard the French ocean liner.
At first, the three funnels should have been classic cylindric-shaped, but Marin-Marie, a French designer working on the ''Normandie'' project, decided to use a modern aerodynamic shape instead. The last funnel was a dummy needed for the ship's balance and actually used as the dog kennel. The main mast's location, which was usually in front of the bridge, was changed in order to enhance visibility.
Marin-Marie gave an innovative line to ''Normandie'', a silhouette which was since used in each and every following ocean liners including the ''Queen Mary 2''.

Views of the S.S. Normandie

References

★ Ardman, Harvey. "Normandie, Her Life and Times," New York, Franklin Watts, 1985

★ Brinnin, John Malcolm. ''The Sway of the Grand Saloon : a Social History of the North Atlantic''. New York : Delacorte Press, 1971

★ Coleman, Terry. ''The liners : a history of the North Atlantic crossing''. Harmondsworth, England : Penguin Books, 1977

★ Fox, Robert. ''Liners: The Golden Age. Die Grosse Zeit der Ozeanriesen. L'Age d'or des paquebots''.[trilingual text ] Cologne: Konneman, 1999.

★ Kludas, Arnold. ''Record breakers of the North Atlantic - Blue Riband Liners 1838-1952'', Chatham Publishing, London, 2000.

★ Maddocks, Melvin ''The Great Liners''. Alexandria, Virginia: Time-Life Books, 1978.

★ Maxtone-Graham, John. ''The Only Way to Cross''. New York: Collier Books, 1972.

★ Boks, W. Holland: photo of the model boat SS Normandie 1935.

★ Lange Eric & Villers Claude (directed by, original footages by Jean Vivié) ''A Bord Du Normandie'' (on board Normandy). Produced by Lobster. France 2005.

External links

★ SS Normandie – Magnificent Voyage - Miottel Collection

★ Normandie: A Photographic Portrait

★ The Normandie - A Dream of Giant

★ The Normandie - virtual reality tour of the Art Deco masterpiece

★ Normandie Pages - detailed articles about the vessel's career