The Life of SS Normandie #normandie #ship #shiplife #oceanliner #firedamage #french #history #ww2
I know I used a Titanic song but it was challenging to find a respectable song. Launched: 29 October 1932 Maiden voyage: 29 May 1935 Fate: Caught fire & capsized in February 1942. Scrapped in October 1946. SS Normandie was a French ocean liner built in Saint-Nazaire, France, for the French Line Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (CGT). She entered service in 1935 as the largest & fastest passenger ship afloat, crossing the Atlantic in a record 4.14 days & remains the most powerful steam turbo-electric-propelled passenger ship ever built. Normandie's novel design & lavish interiors led many to consider her the greatest of ocean liners. During service as the flagship of the CGT, she made 139 westbound transatlantic crossings from her home port of Le Havre to New York City. Normandie held the Blue Riband for the fastest transatlantic crossing at several points during her service career, during which RMS Queen Mary was her main rival. During the Second World War, Normandie was seized by U.S. authorities at New York & renamed USS Lafayette. In 1942, while being converted to a troopship, the liner caught fire & capsized onto her port side & came to rest, half submerged, on the bottom of the Hudson River at Pier 88 (the site of the current Manhattan Cruise Terminal). Although salvaged at great expense, restoration was deemed too costly & she was scrapped in October 1946.