#French Line

[thepopculturearchivist]

TIME, March 23, 1931

[postingcards]

a postcard from the 1939 world's fair in new york city depicting french liner normandie

[rose-in-the-snow]

This might be my favorite scene in anime ever

[gatabella]

Jane Russell, Photoplay magazine, November 1953

[emeraldexplorer2]

Hubert Herkomer - French Line, Paris to New York. 1934

[libraryofva]

Recent Acquisition - Photograph Collection

New York City skyline, showing the arrival of the French Line Ile de France

[propadv]

1936 French Line C.G.T. Southampton To New York

Source: transpressnz.blogspot.com

Published at:  https://propadv.com/shipping-ad-and-poster-collection/french-line-poster-and-ad-collection/

[newyorkthegoldenage]

The French Line terminal at Pier 57, at 15th and West Streets, July 16, 1931.

Photo: Byron Company via MCNY

[alightinthelantern]

February 9, 1942: The French ocean liner Normandie, docked beside pier 88 in Manhattan, NYC, catches fire while being converted into the troopship USS Lafayette. A pile of highly flammable kapok life preservers were improperly stored near a working acetylene torch in the ship's grand salon, and a stray spark caused a blaze quickly got out of control. The ship's onboard telephone system had been disabled days prior along with most of the ship's advanced fire suppression system, and the sprinkler system was improperly activated at all of its control stations simultaneously, dropping the water pressure within it to useless levels. It took twelve minutes for the NY Fire Department to respond to the emergency, by which time the fire had been fanned by a strong wind to become an inferno sweeping through the Normandie's upper decks, and 2,000 Navy men and civilians working aboard were streaming out of the ship through a limited number of entry points, preventing firefighters from getting aboard the vessel. When they finally could get aboard, they found their hoses incompatible with the firefighting inlets on the French ship, meaning they could only fight the fire from outside the ship.

For several hours firetrucks on land shot water on the Normandie's starboard landside while fireboats poured water onto the Normandie's seaward port side, but the fireboats poured significantly more water into the giant ship than the trucks did, causing an imbalance of water in the ship's upper decks and a dangerous list to port. The Normandie's designer ‎Vladimir Yourkevitch was in NYC, and when he heard his ship was on fire he rushed to the site and begged to be let aboard so he could open the . "I designed the ship!" he said, "I can find my way through it with my eyes closed! I'll open the sea-cocks [valves], the ship's belly will fill with water, the ship will sink six inches and settle on the bottom, and it will be safe!" The Navy administrators at the conversion site were unmoved. "This is a Navy job," they said brusquely.

By evening the fire had been brought under control, but the ship was listing about thirty degrees to its seaward side. Thinking the Normandie no longer in danger, the Navy and Fire Department abandoned the ship for the night, not realizing only the ship's mooring ropes were keeping it from capsizing. In the night the ropes snapped, and the ship rolled over onto its side, wallowing in the mud at the bottom of the river. There the ship lay for eighteen months, no one sure what to do with the wreck.

In August 1943 it was decided to raise the ship and convert it into an aircraft carrier. The superstructure was cut away and then the hull was pumped free of water, and it slowly emerged from the river and returned to an even keel. But it was found the fire had damaged the hull too severely and the ship's machinery had deteriorated too much for the ship to be of further use. The hulk sat idly until the end of the war, when it was decided to scrap it after both the US Navy and the French Line expressed no interest in salvaging the ship. The remains of the Normandie were scrapped in Newark, New Jersey in 1946.

Photo taken by Harry Warnecke for the New York Daily News. It is unclear if this photo is a real color photo or a digital colorization. I found this photo on a Facebook group dedicated to the Normandie claiming the color photo is real. This photo has been published before only in black-and-white, and Getty Images features the photo in B&W, but Getty's version of the photo is slightly cropped on the right edge compared to the color photo (look closely and you'll see the space between the second funnel and the right edge of the photo is wider in the color image), meaning Getty's version of the photo is not necessarily from the original negatives, but could be an early reproduction. Interestingly, Harry Warnecke actually owned a color film studio and took color press photos of celebrities for the NY Daily News during this time period, so it's indeed possible that this is a genuine color photo. If anyone can provide any information one way or the other, I would be quite grateful.

[debrink]

French Line

To England and France

~ Edouard Collin (French, 1906-1983), circa 1950

[lonestarbattleship]

SS Normandie laying on her side after an accidental fire destroyed the ship, circa June 1942.

Photographed by Ralph Morse for LIFE Magazine.

LIFE Magazine Archives: 1267482

[your-resident-boat-person]

You're literally one of my favourite people on this website. I love the boat liner gimick.

Anyways. heres your boat liner.

Have you ever heard about the ocean liner "SS Normandie"? It was quite famous back in the early 20th century.

Thank you for the kind words! I'm glad someone is enjoying my boat shenanigans.

I am familiar with the Normandie. Sorry if this is a disappointment, but I'm not a huge fan. (Keep in mind, these are just my opinions and in no way objective). I think on the outside it's kind of ugly. The funnels are way too thick. They would have looked better if they were either shorter to compensate for the width, or thinner to compensate for the height. The MV Britannic, MV Georgic, and the (planned but unbuilt) RMMV Oceanic had short but fat funnels, and they were gorgeous.

Normandies hull is extremely hydrodynamic, but the shape isn't exactly aesthetically pleasing. It makes Normandie look more like a modern cruise ship or yacht than an ocean liner. The Queen Mary's hull wasn't nearly as hydrodynamic, but looked prettier. The funnels and hull combine to make the Normandie look kinda short and fat.

On the inside, it was gorgeous, almost to a fault. The art deco interior made it look almost like a museum or a palace. Undoubtedly gorgeous, but not somewhere I'd want to live for a few days while at sea. In contrast, the Queen Mary's more traditional art deco felt very comfortable and homely.

Also, its service life was incredibly short; it was finished in 1935, and kept in America for safety at the start of World War 2 in 1939. It remained there until the Americans decided to convert it into a troop ship. Its large sweeping rooms were gorgeous, but also promoted the spread of fire well, and this flaw in its construction came back to bite it when during the conversation process, it caught fire and was quickly consumed, becoming a total loss.

I think the story of its construction and rivalry with the Queen Mary is an incredible story, so here's a fantastic video about it:

https://youtu.be/j_-W9XGkWV4

Personally, I tend to prefer French lines' other ships, like the SS Île de France, the S.S. Liberté, the S.S. France (1910), the S.S. France (1960), and the S.S. Paris.

Also, most ships are referred to with female pronouns. I do not do that with the Normandie because the French line was very persistent that Normandie wasn't addressed as "Le Normandie" or "La Normandie" Just "Normandie". So I refer to it as an it, rather than a she. I'm not sure if that's correct, but that's what I tend to go with.

Also also, I use this blog for pretty much everything. I put all the boat stuff from this blog on a separate blog too to make it easier to find.

https://www.tumblr.com/the-boat-people?source=share

[postingcards]

french liner normandie linen. ca. 1930s

[rose-in-the-snow]

One of the funniest things is that Michael Afton could be in Milgram

[thepopculturearchivist]

TIME, July 12, 1954

[neocurio]

cIE GLE TRANSATLANTIC FRENCH LINE STEAMSHIP MENU