22 Facts About SS Normandie

SS Normandie was a French ocean liner built in Saint-Nazaire, France, for the French Line Compagnie Generale Transatlantique .

SS Normandie's entered service in 1935 as the largest and fastest passenger ship afloat, crossing the Atlantic in a record 4.

Origins of Normandie can be traced to the 1920s, when the U S put restrictions on immigration, greatly reducing the traditional market for steerage-class passengers from Europe, and placing a new emphasis on upper-class tourists, largely Americans, many of them wanting to escape prohibition.

SS Normandie's concepts worked wonderfully in scale models, confirming the design's performance advantages.

SS Normandie approached Cunard with his ideas, but was rejected because the bow was deemed too radical.

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SS Normandie's was outfitted until early 1935, her interiors, funnels, engines, and other fittings put in to make her into a working vessel.

Finally, in May 1935, SS Normandie was ready for trials, which were watched by reporters.

The room could seat 700 at 157 tables, with SS Normandie serving as a floating promotion for the most sophisticated French cuisine of the period.

SS Normandie's reached New York City after four days, three hours and two minutes, taking away the Blue Riband from the Italian liner Rex.

SS Normandie had a successful year but Queen Mary, Cunard White Star Line's superliner, entered service in the summer of 1936.

SS Normandie carried distinguished passengers, including the authors Colette and Ernest Hemingway; the wife of French President Albert Lebrun; songwriters Noel Coward and Irving Berlin; and Hollywood celebrities such as Fred Astaire, Marlene Dietrich, Walt Disney, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr, and James Stewart.

SS Normandie's never repaid any of the loans that made her construction possible.

SS Normandie remained in French hands, with French crewmembers on board, led by Captain Herve Lehuede, into the spring of 1940.

SS Normandie's was renamed Lafayette and reclassified as an aircraft and transport ferry, APV-4, on 15 September 1943 and placed in drydock the following month.

SS Normandie's was cut up for scrap beginning in October 1946 at Port Newark, New Jersey, and completely scrapped by 31 December 1948.

The ambience of classic transatlantic liners like SS Normandie was the source of inspiration for Disney Cruise Line's matching vessels, Disney Magic, Disney Wonder, Disney Dream, and Disney Fantasy.

SS Normandie inspired the architecture and design of the SS Normandie Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The hotel's roof sign is one of the two signs that adorned the top deck of SS Normandie but were removed from it during an early refitting.

SS Normandie name inspired that of The Normandy apartment building in New York City.

Items from SS Normandie were sold at a series of auctions after her demise, and many pieces are considered valuable Art Deco treasures today.

The cruise ship had a separate SS Normandie Restaurant, designed to reflect the interiors of the liner, and containing gold lacquered panels from the SS Normandie's First Class Smoking Room.

Pieces from SS Normandie occasionally appear on the BBC television series Antiques Roadshow and on its American counterpart.