On the 29th of October 1932, three years of the day after the Wall Street crashed, the most powerful steamed turbo electric propel passenger ship ever constructed was launched in front of 200,000 people lining the banks of the Loire River in France. But the infamous place associated with the French Lines SS Normandy would on the other side of the world—New York Harbor to be exact in 1942. After the fall of France in 1940, the US Government seized the Normandy and in 1941 the Navy decided to convert her into a Troupe Ship called the USS Lafayette.
But on the 9th of February the following year, the ship was moored at Manhattans Pier 88, the sparks from a welding torch ignited the capo used to stuff the thousand of life jackets stored in first class dining room. With the ships fire protection system disabled during the conversion, the fire spread rapidly and hoses of the New York City Fire Department did not fit the ships French design inwards.
All on board abandoned the ship, as firefighters on shore spread water on the flames, the ship developed a dangerous lean to port due to the great amount of water being pumped into the seaward side of the vessel by fire hose. The ships designer, Vladimir Yourkevitch have been at the scene and it suggested opening the seacoast thus flooding the lower decks in causing the ship to settled a few feet to the bottom of the dock. To stabilized, water could be pumped into the burning areas without the risk of capsize. However, this suggestion was not acted upon, around 2:45 AM the next morning the ship capsized crushing a fire boat as she went over.
It was a year before the expensive salvage operation could finally write the Normandy but the propose restoration was deemed simply too costly. Yourkevitch wanted to restore her in a cut down version but could find no backers for his plan. She was sold to the savage company for just over $160,000.00 and scrapped the mere four years later.
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