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Normandie was built for the
French Line with the help of a government
subsidy at a time when Cunard were
building a similar sized liner in
Britain. This became a worrying time for
the French Government as they had
invested heavily in shipbuilding. They
hoped to lift the moral of the country by
giving the French people something to be
proud of; the largest and fastest ship in
the world. Normandie was the first
ship to exceed 1,000 feet in length, the
first over 60,000 tons and the first
large liner to be powered by turbo
electric machinery. This system works by
the steam turbines turning electric
generators; the generators power electric
motors that in turn drive the propellers.
The advantage of turbo electric machinery
is the propellers can be changed to
reverse with full power.
Capable of carrying 848 1st, 670 2nd
and 454 3rd class passengers,
Normandie set out on her maiden
voyage from Le Havre - New York May 29th
1935. With a crossing of 4 days, 3 hours
and 2 minutes, she became the first
French ship to take the Blue Riband. Her
average speed of 29.98 knots had easily
beaten the westbound record of 28.92
knots set by the Italian liner Rex
in 1933. Normandie took the
eastbound record from the North German
Lloyd Line’s Bremen on her
return crossing by increasing that
average from 28.51 to 30.31 knots.
She was undergoing repairs to cure
vibration problems in 1936 when the
French Line received the news they had
been dreading, the new British liner
Queen Mary had a greater tonnage.
At that time, Normandie’s
upper decks were extended so she could
once again hold the title of the
world’s largest ship. The outbreak
of World War Two in August 1939 forced
the French Line to lay Normandie
up at New York’s pier 88. She lay
idle in New York until the Japanese
attacks on Pearl Harbor December 7th
1941. With America then at war with Japan
and their Allies Germany,
Normandie was seized by US
Authorities to serve as a troopship under
the name Lafayette.
During her conversion to a troopship,
sparks from an acetylene torch set off a
fire. The fire spread throughout the ship
so quick the workforce had to be
evacuated. Within a short time, fire
fighters began pouring tons of water onto
the flames. As Normandie’s
watertight doors were closed, she became
top heavy, snapped her moorings and
capsized. Her burned out hulk lay at pier
88 for 18 months before a salvage
operation began.
The only way to get the huge ship
upright was by dismantling her
superstructure first. After the removal
of Normandie’s upper decks,
her hull was finally re-floated in
October 1943. Rumors began spreading at
that time she would be converted to an
aircraft carrier. However, by the end of
the war, Lafayette had been
untouched since her salvage. The French
Line’s inspection of their flagship
in 1945 assessed her as being beyond
repair. Arguably the finest Trans
Atlantic liner ever built, and after only
four years in service, she was scrapped
at Port Newark/New Jersey in 1946.
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