The Normandie

On October 29, 1932, The French Line's Normandie was launched into the Loire River in France. She was the first ship to ever exceed 1,000 feet in length, the most stylish ship of that era and possibly all time, and the largest ship afloat at that time, with over 79,000 tons registered tonnage. The Normandie was the fastest ship of her time, at 32.2 knots top speed. On December 24, 1941, barely 1 month after Pearl Harbor, work was started to convert the liner Normandie into the troopship Lafayette. Work went on for about three months--until disaster struck.

On February 9th, 1942, while workers were cutting the last of four metal supports for the "fountains of light" in the dining room of the Normandie. A spark from the acetylene torch reached the Kapok-filled lifejackets. They caught fire quickly, and the fire soon spread. If the fireboats had not tried to put out the fire, the ship might have survived. The ship soon began to list because of the huge amount of water pumped into the left side of the ship. At 6:00 P.M., the fire was out, but the ship capsized during the night.

Read more about our other ships, the Queen Mary ship and the SS United States, or getting pricing and product information in our Model Boat Products section. Also, Berti & Lewis is an industry leader in special model commissons if you would like a quote.