what happened to the ss normandie

Most liners would eventually be removed from service to be converted into cruise liners for tourist jaunts, though a few stubborn holdouts would remain. You bet! The SS Normandie, pride of France, sailed the oceans from 1935 until 1942. I WAS TOLD MY FATHER JOHN MILLS WAS ON THE SHIP WHEN THE FIRE HAPPENED. Although the FBI’s investigation put the possibility of sabotage to rest, the sight of the destroyed ship’s carcass in the Hudson River made New Yorkers question the U.S. Navy’s ability to protect the coastline, or even the city’s waterfront. Some had worked on American ships during peacetime, placing them above suspicion. On the 6th of February it became clear that the conversion would not be completed on time, and the conversion crew requested that the sail date be pushed back two weeks. We also got to see the Normandie at Pier 88 that day. But helpful as Lanza’s fishing fleet might be in spotting U-boats, it was not enough. The fate of the actual Normandie doors is not known. The New York Fire Department responded within 15 minutes, but were horrified to learn the French fittings on the Normandie/Lafayette were not compatible with their hoses. I always thought it was a pretty funny story. After Pearl Harbour was attacked by … So that these items did not get misplaced thrown away, I donated them to the Mariners museum in Newpot News, Virginia. I sailed on the SS United States and she could really move. The Navy attempted to counterflood to right the list, pumping water into the starboard side so that the ship would settle evenly, but this proved fruitless. We didn’t hear from him again until after he landed with the troops in North Africa on Nov.8, 1942. I have a picture of six hard hat divers from the Normandie salvage. Paul Jouve was commissioned to do paintings of elephants and a second one of tigers in 1935. It didn’t even look like a ship. Thank you so much for this great article. Unwanted and unusable, she was scrapped in Newark, NJ, in 1946-47, the last pieces of steel being removed by rail on 6 October 1947. Its tragic fate seemed to have been preordained. Five-year-old Miki Rosen saw it from the inside of the family car: “My father wanted us to see it because it was an historical event. Had someone slit the fire hoses? The medallions were created by the French artist Raymond Subes. the Normandy launched from Arcturus and headed to Eden Prime to covertly recover the Prothean Beacon His leg was badly mangled in the attack, and after bringing him aboard the German submarine to patch up his wounds, the U-boat commander asked if any of the crew were from Brooklyn. [3][4] Despite this, she was not a commercial success and relied partly on government subsidy to operate. Unfortunately, all of these modern touches availed her little. Hello SS United States !!! We have recently come into possession of the detailed drawings for righting the s/s/ Normandie . A survey revealed her to be too badly damaged to be salvageable, and she would be sold and broken up for scrap in 1946. The last dedicated ocean liner to be constructed, the Queen Elizabeth II would hit the water in 1969. Less than an hour after the fire broke out, the ship was a raging inferno. I have a wooden steamer trunk that has S/S Normandie Transatlantique stickers on it (Havre Southampton New-York). This led to a lot of people jumping to the conclusion the fire had been set deliberately. I worked for NCR (National Cash Register Co.) in the 60’s. I also sailed on her sister ship the America, another beauty. Her first class passenger spaces were decorated in the trendiest Art Deco style and filled with luxuries. Then, at 3:40 p.m., just as the mayor and Rear Adm. Adolphus Andrews, commander of the U.S. Navy’s 3rd Naval District, were attempting to board the wounded vessel, it suddenly lurched several feet to port. The ship had originally been intended to set sail under the U.S. flag on the 14th of February, 1942. Even President Roosevelt was not ruling out sabotage, asking his secretary of the navy immediately after the fire if any enemy aliens had been permitted to work on the ship. Soon there was more water than fire. Six of the medallions were installed in the church’s Henry St. doors. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. “I was twelve years in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.”. They occupied the 2nd floor at 50 Rockefeller Center. At precisely 2:35 the following morning, with the acrid smell of burning metal still hanging over Times Square, the elegant creature rolled over on its port side and gave up the fight. The U.S. Navy took possession of the vessel and began her conversion as a troop transport. German spies had been operating in the United States with very little censure since the 1930s, taking jobs in factories and bars along the Manhattan, New Jersey, and Brooklyn waterfronts. The church also acquired the Normandie’s Captain’s Table that remains in use . One night we drove to the Pier 88 area and I witnessed the smoking hulk of the SS Normandie lying on her port side capsized in the Hudson. On May 12, 1942, the mobster was removed from Dannemora prison and brought south to Great Meadow Correctional Facility in Comstock, a kinder, gentler place by prison standards. Histoire d’une comédie musicale typique de l’Amérique des Années 1930, Sweet surrender est surtout le premier film jamais tourné à bord de Normandie. My grandparents happened to be staying at the Waldorf Astoria. Given my father’s accounting (which he wrote in a book on the Normandie), this is one of my most treasured items. The fight to put out the fires took over five hours, but ultimately would prove successful. Adding to it, although his mother and sister lived in Woonsocket, RI, suddenly, they showed up there, too, on the docks. She held the world record for crossing the Atlantic in a little over 3 days. I AM TRYING TO FIND OUT ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED TO THE PEOPLE WHO WERE HURT. They surrounded it with bales of burlap and watched as the repeated ballet produced the same terrible result. Thanks for the story. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 5,000 articles originally published in our various magazines. The Normandie was listing heavily to Port, submerging a number of open portholes on that side. Is there anything to that? During World War II, Normandie was seized by U.S. authorities at New York and renamed USS Lafayette. There is a twist to why the Normandie caught fire. It is generally believed that the large bronze doors leading to the dining room of the Normandie were salvaged and now are used as the entrance doors to Our Lady of Lebanon a Marronite Catholic Church in downtown Brooklyn but actually, the church only bought the medallions that adorn the church’s original doors Bronze Medallions from Doors of the dining room of the SS Normandie, now adorn the front doors. Naval Intelligence. The news: The Normandie’s interiors were auctioned after the ship’s fiery demise in 1942. I remember being told that the display/demonstration area (a grand space with 2 story ceiling and beautiful wood) was created from the SS Normandie’s salvaged grand salon. God bless the souls lost in the Normandie fire disaster. My father was in the Navy and was also stationed at pier 92 in about Sept. 1942. When I was a little girl my parents would drive past the Normandie when she lay on her side. Just three days after the fire, the FBI restaged Clement Derrick’s lethal accident, bringing the welder and the crew that was with him to an area where they had erected a stanchion similar to the one he was working on at the time of the fire. This was only enhanced when Alfred Hitchcock added video footage of the fire to his soon to be released espionage movie Saboteur. The Normandie caught fire and capsized due to water used for firefighting. levels below the upper deck, when it caught fire. He brought home a small piece of scrap teak and made a beautiful breadboard from it and engraved it in calligraphic lettering, saying Give us this Day our Daily Bread. Sorry to hear such a majestic ship had such a tragic ending. The French declaration of war on Germany in September 1939 found the Normandie in New York, tied up alongside of pier 88. As he put out the word to cooperate from his jail cell, that arm reached beyond the docks into the heart of the city. I don’t remember what he said happened afterward. It did not last forever, but for a brief period of time when patriotism was the country’s unifying glue, the U.S. Navy and the Mafia were partners. This was an insurance job, plain and simple. I was told that it came from the ship after it was salvaged. In February of 1942 my grandfather had taken me by train from Providence, RI to NYC to be seen by a specialist for a mastoid infection problem. Adopted ) uncle also Served in the possession of the ship was the ultimate transatlantic ocean liner built Saint-Nazaire. In March, Manhattan district attorney Frank Hogan decided it was salvaged of workers from Dry! Harlem numbers runners and guys who serviced the City ’ s pier 88 would many. Frenzied crew rushed into a frantic effort to complete the work on time terrible.... Twelve years in the World was on the 14th of February, 1942 the 60 ’ s pier that... 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