Description
by Frank Braynard
From her graceful clipper bow to her elegant stepped afterdeck, the legendary Normandie was one of the largest, fastest and most luxurious passenger vessels ever to sail the seas. She was the first to exceed 1,000 feet in length. From the start, it was taken for granted that France’s premier shipbuilder, Penho’t at St. Nazaire, would construct the greatest French liner ever laid down — France’s first ship capable of breaking the Atlantic speed record. How the key decision was reached to use the revolutionary hull lines of Russian -migr- Vladimir Yourkevitch, the choice of turbo-electric drive and the interior which be be revolutionary, more so than the milestone Ile de France of 1927 — the new liner would represent the very finest in innovative thinking.
This wonderful French champion, possibly the most extraordinary and certainly the most glamorous liner ever built, had only a little over four years of commercial life before she was wrenched from her owners and destroyed by fire in one of history’s most unfortunate blunders by the military. From her dining room, longer than the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles and almost as impressive with lighting fixtures by Lilique, staterooms, lounges decorated by renowned French artists and designers embodying the finest in Art Deco design, any admirer of the Normandie or the great liners will want to have this lavishly illustrated history which not only recreates her story but recalls her excitement, glamour and style.
144 pages. 190 photographs. Softback.
