Snapshot: The Hulk of the Normandie

After catching fire and ultimately capsizing on February 10, 1942 the French Line's famous Normandie (which had been renamed USS Lafayette during conversion to a troop transport) lay on her side in disgrace. It was not until August the following year that she was righted; it had been hoped to restore her to sailing condition. The damage was too extensive, however, and the burned out hulk was later sold in 1946 to Lipsett, Inc. for scrap.

Less than a decade old and the grand liner's days were numbered. The Normandie/Lafayette would be completely broken up by the end of 1948.

Launch of the France

The French Line (CGT) launched its new flagship - the France - on May 11, 1960. Built by Chantiers de l'Atlantique and weighing just over 66,000 GRT, she was smaller than her rivals Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. But that did not concern the new ship's owners; they wanted the longest ship in the world instead. The France came in at 1,035 feet and maintained that record for the next three decades.

Launched by Yvonne de Gaulle, she was to be a new and modern Normandie that would instill a great sense of pride to the French people. Her designers accomplished this task, and the France (later renamed the Norway) ended her sailing days as perhaps the last of the Golden Age liners.

The Death of the Normandie

It was 69 years ago today that the French liner Normandie caught fire and capsized at her berth in New York. The grand ship was laid up in New York following the outbreak of World War II, and after France fell in 1940 was seized by the US government for use as a troop transport. She was renamed the USS Lafayette, after the Marquis de Lafayette (who had helped the Americans in the Revolutionary War) and nearly ready for her debut in this wartime role when disaster struck on February 9, 1942.

This period newsreel does a rather good job of describing what exactly happened to this grand ship 69 years ago. Notice, too, how in the later part of the clip the announcer described her as once being "the second finest ship afloat."

A Gala Dinner on the Normandie

The Compagnie Générale Transatlantique - more commonly known as the French Line - celebrated the Normandie's debut with a gala dinner aboard the new liner. Everyone in France's high society was there, along with President Albert Lebrun and his wife. Even Sir Percy Bates, the head of the rival Cunard Line, was among the attendees. As the presidential couple entered the ship's magnificent dining room, all one thousand people waiting for them stood up and feverishly applauded. As everyone rose, it is said that the sound of chairs scraping agaist tile was deafening.

The dinner was to represent the very best of French cuisine. Only the finest would do. The chefs prepared a grand meal that included courses of turtle soup, turbotin aux poireaux, canard rouennaise braisé, and finally finished with a brand-new dish called Bombe Normandie. It was "a sinfully rich chocolate-covered finale that, appearing for the first time that night, would reappear repeatedly at numerous banquets to follow." To complete the evening, coffee and candy was distributed to the diners in good order.

It was a highly successful and elegant beginning for the Normandie's painfully short career.

References: John Maxtone-Graham, Normandie: France's Legendary Art Deco Ocean Liner (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2007), 118-119.