When the Paris capsized what happened to her funnels? Did they fall off next to her?

At the end of the article on the SS Paris it mentioned that - The Paris was yet another of the nearly dozen French ships to be destroyed by fire between the 1930s and 1940s.

What were the other ships?

Are there any other good sources of reading on the CGT/French Line?

Paris

From here.

Greetings Ben.

[ 04-06-2010: Message edited by: Maasdam ]

quote:

---

Originally posted by NAL:
And yet, FRANCE of '61 had a very fine reputation for reliability during her CGT years.

---

Right, there were literally scores of French ocean liners which did NOT burn. It's just that a high percentage of the dozens of liners which DID burn, happened to be French.

quote:

---

Originally posted by dmwnc1:
THIS SITE has some wonderful interior pictures of the Normandie, most I had never seen before. Are there others? She was indeed a beautiful ship.

Any other web site with more pics of the interiors of the PARIS and L'ATLANTIQUE?

---

In fact, both were italian-built and both were orignally built for Lloyd Triestino. "Europa" (1952) burnt soon after being sold by LT in 1976 while operating a "Blue Sea". "Gallileo Galilei" (1963) burnt in 1998 while operating as "Sun Vista"

quote:

---

Originally posted by Cunard Fan:
Thanks for that link! Those are all beautiful pictures! Some of them are not the Normandie though.

---

http://www.travelserver.net/travelpage/aspgallery/view_ad.asp?Ad_ID=3189

quote:

---

Originally posted by Linerrich:
Here's a link to some close-ups I posted a year or two ago, showing portions of her deck plans. It's just impossible to scan the entire thing:

http://www.travelserver.net/travelpage/aspgallery/view_ad.asp?Ad_ID=3189

Rich

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by dmwnc1:

Wonderful! THANKS. Did she have a large number of single passenger staterooms?

---

She had a total of 102 single staterooms in Cabin (First) Class. Lots of business travellers took her between Europe and the US.

Magazine Article

DecoDence

quote:

---

Originally posted by Linerrich:

Right, there were literally scores of French ocean liners which did NOT burn. It's just that a high percentage of the dozens of liners which DID burn, happened to be French.

Rich

---

True-- SAGAFJORD and RENAISSANCE did just fine, and I'd be shocked if QM2 caught fire.

As for NORMANDIE, that's the subject of speculation, conjecture and general fiction. My understanding of the legend: while the ship was undergoing conversion to the USS LAFAYETTE, a welder who was connected to the mob removed some asbestos sheeting and torched some lifejackets on a wall. The ship went up in flames immediately. Yourkevitch was present at the scene of the fire but wasn't allowed onboard, and nobody else knew the location of the stopcocks in order to sink the ship in a controlled manner so she wouldn't capsize when the fire boats came. The rest is history. The full tinfoil hat version is that the mobster burned the ship to assert control of the docks and gain leverage to bargain his way out of jail. He bragged about it later in Italy, where he was exiled.

If any of you have different twists on this piece of folklore, I'd love to hear it.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Linerrich:

Right, there were literally scores of French ocean liners which did NOT burn. It's just that a high percentage of the dozens of liners which DID burn, happened to be French.

---

Several more French liners which were lost to fire: BRITTANY ex. BRETAGNE in 1963, VIKING PRINCESS ex.LAVOISIER in 1966, KNOSSOS ex.LA BOURDONNAIS in 1973, MALAYSIA KITA ex.VIET-NAM in 1974, BELLE ABETO ex.LAENNEC in 1976, MALAYSIA RAYA ex.LAOS in 1976, and CHIDAMBARAM ex.PASTEUR in 1985.

I'm not picking on the French, just answering the original question of this thread; plenty of Italian, Dutch, even British and American liners were lost to fire over the years, as well.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Linerrich:
plenty of Italian, Dutch, even British and American liners were lost to fire over the years, as well.

Rich

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Lubber:

Which American liners?

---

The two disasters with largest loss of life were MORRO CASTLE in 1934, and YARMOUTH CASTLE in 1965. Other American liners were lost to fire, such as both CITY OF HONOLULUs, but they were not American-built.

Rich

[ 04-09-2010: Message edited by: Linerrich ]

quote:

---

Originally posted by dmwnc1:
When the Paris capsized what happened to her funnels? Did they fall off next to her?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by dmwnc1:

When the Paris capsized what happened to her funnels? Did they fall off next to her?
]

---

The masts and funnels of PARIS had to be removed almost immediately, since the wreck was blocking the NORMANDIE, which was in the graving dock at the time.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Lubber:

True-- SAGAFJORD and RENAISSANCE did just fine, and I'd be shocked if QM2 caught fire.

As for NORMANDIE, that's the subject of speculation, conjecture and general fiction. My understanding of the legend: while the ship was undergoing conversion to the USS LAFAYETTE, a welder who was connected to the mob removed some asbestos sheeting and torched some lifejackets on a wall. The ship went up in flames immediately. Yourkevitch was present at the scene of the fire but wasn't allowed onboard, and nobody else knew the location of the stopcocks in order to sink the ship in a controlled manner so she wouldn't capsize when the fire boats came. The rest is history. The full tinfoil hat version is that the mobster burned the ship to assert control of the docks and gain leverage to bargain his way out of jail. He bragged about it later in Italy, where he was exiled.

If any of you have different twists on this piece of folklore, I'd love to hear it.

Strictly based on known facts, however, NORMANDIE's demise was still based on human error, not a deficiency in the ship's design.

---

I'm not casting doubt on anything you have posted.

But I remember seeing something on the Discovery channel regarding the New York mob and how closely the families worked with the FBI during the war to counter any Nazi attempts at gaining a foot hold in the New York docks, mostly to stop information about ship movements being radioed out to the Nazi U-boats.