Names, such as White Star’s Olympic and Cunard’s Mauretania were the stuff of legends in their heyday, but when the roaring 20’s were uttering their final roars, times called for a new generation of modern ocean liners to replace the now dated ships on the North Atlantic route. In 1928, the French shipping company Compagnie Générale Transatlantique decided to build a new super ocean liner, the likes of which the world had never seen before.
The New York stock market crashed in October 1929 and the global economic crisis gripped the world by its throat. The foundation of the middle class was wiped out and the working class all but perished in the mass hunger. Times changed, topics changed, headlines changed. When people met in the streets, they spoke of bread, not ships. When Wall Street was crumbling to smithereens, headlines no longer busied themselves with the new speed-record on the transatlantic route. When people were threatened to lose their home, they did not dream of travelling the world. Wasn’t this the worst possible time to build the world’s most luxurious liner to date?
Short answer – it wasn’t. In fact, many of the wealthy remained wealthy and they still had to cross the seas in style. This is when work on the French ocean giant began and soon a ship so elegant and innovative emerged, that it overshadowed every existing liner at the time. The SS Normandie became a symbol of technological advancement, modernity, and luxury. Her design was a masterpiece inside and out, a steel poem of clean lines and beautiful proportions! Here’s how the story goes…
Design and Construction: The Power of Technology
Construction of the new luxury ocean liner began in 1931 at the shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, France and cost the company a total of 812 million French francs, making her the most expensive ship built to that date. With a capacity of 1,972 passengers and 1,345 crew, a tonnage of 79,280 GRT (83,423 GRT after reconstruction in 1938) and a length of 313.58 meters, the Normandie was also the largest and longest ship at the time. In fact, she was the first liner with a length of more than 300 meters and the first liner with a tonnage above 60,000 GRT. In addition, the Normandie was one of the first passenger ships equipped with a radar system to increase safety.
The Russian naval architect Vladimir Yourkevich, previously of the Imperial Russian Navy before he migrated to France after the October Revolution, was appointed to design the hull of the new ocean liner. Yourkevich came up with a unique and innovative design which featured a slim pear-shaped hull cross-section and turned out to be more hydrodynamic and fuel-efficient than the hull design of previous ocean liners. Yourkevich’s design also featured a revolutionary curved bow, as opposed to the straight vertical bows typical for liners at the time, with an additional bulbous bow beneath the waterline to reduce the bow’s wave to a minimum and to neutralize the water turbulence on the sides of the ship.
With these innovations, the Normandie easily reached an average speed of 31 knots and a top speed of 32.125 knots during her sea trials, with hardly any bow wave. The success of Yourkevich’s design was also evident in the fact that despite her outstanding size, the Normandie did not leave a huge wake behind her.
The construction of the hull took 21 months and at the time of the hull’s launch, its weight was 27,650 tons. The hull of the Normandie was also the largest mass to ever be moved on land up until that date. Forty-five meters longer than the RMS Titanic, when the giant hull of the Normandie was launched into the water on October 29, 1932, a wave so big splashed up, that it left onlookers near the water’s edge standing in the water up to their hips.
A further special feature of the Normandie was its turbo-electric transmission, with an installed power of 160,000 hp. Its turbo-generators and electric propulsion motors were manufactured by the French company Alsthom, nowadays known as Alstom. The power from the drive was not transferred via a mechanical shaft to the screw, but via an electrical conversion. Each of the liner’s four three-bladed screws was driven by its own electric motor. Each electric motor received power from its own turbine and turbo-generator set. The turbines received steam from 29 oil-fired vertical tube boilers. The turbo-electric transmission allowed an easy switch to full reverse thrust when needed. Because of noticeable vibrations during the first sailing season of the liner, the three-bladed screws were later replaced by four-bladed ones.
When the Normandie left on her maiden voyage from Le Havre to New York on May 29, 1935, she was the largest, most innovative and fastest ocean liner afloat.
Her maiden voyage was a grand success as she broke the record for fastest transatlantic crossing both on her westbound and on her eastbound sailings.
This was the first time a French ship had won the Blue Riband. During the Normandie’s career the Blue Riband was passed back and forth between her and her main rival, Cunard’s RMS Queen Mary. Up until 1940, the Normandie held the record for the world’s largest ship and it still holds the record for the most powerful steam turbo-electric passenger ship in the world.
Interior: Plenty of Room for Imagination
France wanted to show the world that she was unscathed by the global economic turmoil and, as expected, the Art Deco-style interior of the Normandie was no less spectacular than its exterior. The Compagnie Générale Transatlantique had invited some of the world’s most famous contemporary interior designers and architects – cannonade of big names, such as René Lalique, Jean Dunand, Roger-Henri Expert and Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann. The artists created mirrors framed in gold and silver, large wall panels and murals depicting sea monsters and exotic places, lacquerware and furniture all in the luxurious and glamorous Art Deco flair.
Economics of the day dictated design and, unlike many previous liners, a larger proportion of the space on the Normandie was dedicated to first-class passengers. With the Great Depression, the intake of European immigrants by the United States decreased and shipping companies, whose main passengers had previously been steerage-class immigrants, now had to cater to another class of passengers: wealthy American tourists who travelled to Europe to escape Prohibition.
The first-class common rooms were the largest the world had ever seen at sea. In particular, the 93 meter long, 14 meter wide and 8.5 meter high light-flooded dining room of the ship was legendary. Heavy bronze-ornamented doors, designed by Raymond Subes, led the way into the dining hall. Twelve Lalique glass pillars emerged from the floor in two rows across the hall, thirty-eight light columns stood against the wall, and two giant chandeliers hung from the ceiling to create an atmosphere of illuminated grandeur.
A continuous room of this size, never seen on any ship before, was made possible by splitting the ventilation ducts of the ship’s boilers in two and running them along the outside walls of the ship to reunite at the funnels. The dining hall could accommodate up to 1000 guests at one seating and was famous for serving only the choicest creations from the French cuisine. Dinner on board the Normandie was a lavish banquet consisting of seven hors d’oeuvres, five kinds of soup, a choice of two fish dishes, braised lamb, roast beef and chicken, duck in orange sauce, various vegetable and potato dishes, four different pasta creations, a cold buffet with salads, meats and cheese, sweet puddings, French pastries, numerous ice cream flavors, as well as fresh fruit. Naturally, such fine and abundant food had to be accompanied by carefully selected wines, as well as the best of tea and coffee.
The innovative arrangement of the ventilation vents also allowed for an on-board theater accommodating 380 people at once, with a 170 meters wide view disturbed by no intermediate walls. In addition, a large part of the installations were cleverly incorporated inside the ship and hidden from the sight of passengers. Air conditioning units, for example, were hidden away in the third dummy funnel. This allowed for more outdoor space for passengers to enjoy on the upper decks, as well as for a full-size outdoor tennis court. Other common spaces included the main lounge, famous for its glass panels and for the largest Aubusson carpet at sea, restaurants, bars, a nightclub for dancing, a smoking room decorated with Egyptian-inspired Art Deco murals, a sauna, and a cinema. Even the most athletic passengers were rewarded with a 24-meter long covered swimming pool (with a bar below deck for the less athletic ones).
There was a second swimming pool in the open sky, a chapel, a clinic with a dental station, a post office with a telephone, an 80 meter long shopping street, various hobby rooms and children’s game rooms, and a tropical conservatory with exotic birds, plants and opulent marble fountains. Long, wide staircases decorated with statues and wall murals led to these common spaces and to the cabin decks.
The passenger cabins did not fall behind on the luxury. Each cabin had its own unique design concept. The most extravagant and lavish suites were the Deauville and the Trouville suites. Each of these included several bedrooms and bathrooms, a private dining room with a warming kitchen, servants’ quarters, a baby grand piano and the use of private deck space. The slightly smaller Rouen and Caen suites were composed of private dining rooms, four bedrooms and four bathrooms, as well as their own service pantry.
Body of a Fairy with a Head for Business
An obvious question might be, how does a colossal investment like this ever pay off? The answer is simple – the most luxurious ship in history was also the most expensive. To get an idea of the prices of these exclusive suites, in 1939, when the Normandie sailed from New York to Rio de Janeiro on a 24-day cruise, the Rouen suite cost around $650 for each of the eight occupants. If you calculate this price in 2018 money, as I did, you would get nearly $10,000 per passenger.
The abundance of luxury and attractions the Normandie had to offer its passengers, made her one of the most popular liners on the Atlantic route for the rich and the famous. She attracted a number of celebrities including Noel Coward, Douglas Fairbanks, Fred Astaire, Olivia de Havilland, Walt Disney, Ernest Hemingway, Lord Beaverbrook, the Duke of Marlborough, the Grand Duchess Marie of Russia, Marlene Dietrich, Salvador Dali, James Stewart, Bing Crosby, and the von Trapp Family Singers.
Ironically, the ship’s strongest characteristics, eventually also became its biggest weaknesses. The Normandie’s design and layout was mainly focused on serving its 848 first-class passengers and far less attention was paid to the amenities and comfort of the 670 second- and 454 tourist-class passengers. So, despite being credited for her beauty and technological advance by everyone who knew about her, many people preferred to remain among the observers when she was in dock and sailed instead on the Queen Mary. They felt intimidated by the ship’s luxury and assumed it was only fit for the richest of the rich. While the Queen Mary was another classy liner, designed in the modern Art Deco style, she remained a more traditional and conservative ship, which turned out to be more popular amongst passengers of the newly emerged and less wealthy tourist class. Unlike the Normandie, the Queen Mary was not so predominantly focused on rich tourists and generously passed on some of its premium design and comfort down to all its passenger classes. Those who could not afford the luxury of first-class cabins on the Normandie, gladly chose second-class cabins on the Queen Mary, as they would receive more value for their money.
Beauty not Meant for War
The career of the mighty ocean liner was abruptly ended with the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. The ship remained caught at its berth at the CGT pier in Manhattan, New York. Although the Vichy government in occupied France demanded to have the ship back, the United States did not comply and she was turned over to the US Coast Guard instead. Following the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbor and the United States joining the war, the ship was confiscated under an implementing regulation and the owners were promised compensation. After almost two idle years at the harbor, it was decided to refurbish the Normandie into a troop transporter. Under the US flag, the Normandie was renamed to SS Lafayette.
The rest of the story brings only disappointment to the soul and tears to the eyes. At that time there was no dry dock in New York that could have accommodated such a large ship and it was decided that refurbishing works would be carried out at Pier 88, where she had been moored for two years. On February 9, 1942, during refitting works, a fire broke out as sparks from a welding torch ignited a pile of life vests, stacked in the first-class lounge. A series of misguided decisions and poorly executed fire-extinguishing measures eventually caused the liner to flood and capsize in the harbor.
In 1943, her superstructure was taken apart and her hull was righted in an attempt to salvage it. The damage to her hull however, proved too extensive to repair and the once most expensive ocean liner in the world was finally sold for $161,000 to New Jersey scrappers in Port Newark in 1946. As with many other things, this period in the history of mankind had no eyes for beauty and ambition, only bitter irony.
Despite her sad demise, the SS Normandie was a true monarch of the seas and will always be remembered as one of the most fascinating ocean liners to have ever sailed the North Atlantic. Her magnificent curved bow, her beautiful slim hull lines, her contemporary profile with the three imposing funnels, each slightly decreasing in height from front to aft, and her grand terraced stern made her a vision of elegance and dignity. Her interiors were a celebration of splendor and opulence. The Normandie was a floating palace, erected from the brilliance of engineers and artists.
The Shipyard