Poster french steamer ship "Normandie"

The Normandie was a transatlantic liner of the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique. It was built by Chantiers de Penhoët in Saint-Nazaire.

Designed at the end of the 1920s as a continuation of the France, Paris and Île-de-France liners, its construction began in 1931 in Saint-Nazaire, but the Great Depression of the 1930s postponed its commissioning until 1935.

The Normandie was then the largest liner in the world (313 meters long for 70,000 tons).

She snatched the Blue Ribbon on her maiden voyage, and after modifications in 1936, the luxury liner continued her career.

This one is unfortunately stopped dead at the beginning of the 2nd World War: by the Second World War. The ship joined the port of New York to take shelter.

After Pearl Harbourg, she was requisitioned by the United States and renamed "USS Lafayette", to be transformed into a fast troop transport.

But an accidental fire broke out during the work in 1942. The tons of water used by the firefighters caused the ship to capsize under the effect of the tide.

After the war, France refused to recover it. The ship's hull, a wreck, was demolished in 1946.