NORMANDIE - Whom the gods love, they punishment them
NORMANDIE was loved by many and hated
by only some, NORMANDIE was the peak of chic, which some could never accept, NORMANDIE
was the man made Deesse de la Mer.
February 9th
2017 while writing I taste and smell the smoke over Manhattan which coloured
the sky brown 75 years ago.
by Earl of
Cruise
After the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 22nd 1941, NORMANDIE was
seized and transferred to the US Navy Department, under the name of USS LAFAYETTE,
listed as AP53. To all who knew NORMANDIE, however, NORMANDIE
would always be NORMANDIE nothing
more, nothing less!
NORMANDIE burning, like a fanal - own collection
And being
historian, the name should have been correct spelling with LA FAYETTE, as the
ship was renamed after Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette ... a French
general, politician and member of the intellectual movement of the Lumières. A
man accompanied by the Prussian general and noble von Steuben who significantly
helped to win the independence war.
The attac on
Pearl Harbor could have been avoided, or better fought against, if the Navy had
not been that careless and blind sighted on the signals they got.
The quick and
easy seizure of NORMANDIE was made, as Washingtons uninformed burocrcy thought,
the Vichy regime, or the France Libre exile gouvernements, or Hitler had
an interest in bringing NORMANDIE back to Europe and under their control. Non of was ever in
discussion on the other side of the pond.
No French
politician or militarian, exiled or Vichy, wanted NORMANDIE in the center of a war and in peril.
And Hilter was not even interested in Naval military or its use, he was a land
bound army prick, who did not catch the naval needs or neccessaties.
NORMANDIE was
the essence of what France was capable of in arts, engineering, construction,
design and culture! NORMANDIE was a symbol for France! It was not only THE
ambassador for France, it WAS France.
NORMANDIE side by side with civilian rival QUEEN MARY and on the other side of the CUNARD terminal AQUITANIA - courtesy LIFE
So why an
unsecure escape to Europe to be catched by the Royal Navy and destroyed like
the French fleet in Toulon and Africa? Or the LLOYD vessel COLUMBUS, with the
help of the US Navy.
The Commission
handed NORMANDIE
December 24th to the US Navy, to be hastily converted into a military and troopship,
based on experiences gained with QUEEN MARY and QUEEN ELIZABETH,
and the experiences with VATERLAND / LEVIATHAN and other passenger ships in WWI.
The American desperate need for troopships helped speeding up the normally
lame bureaucracy. NORMANDIE
then was officially entered on the register ot the USA January 1st 1942.
A wartime neglected, nearly abandoned NORMANDIE, becoming a shadow of the former glitz - own collection
In my eyes the 24th of December
is symbolizing the later dealing with this gift from Mars. NORMANDIE was
treated, my feeling, like a toy given to a boy who was not mature enough to
deal with ... like a complete model train installation for a three year old
child.
Converting plans
were quickly put into action. And hasty actionism it was what started on
NORMANDIE. At first the stored 18,000 bottles of wine were removed, along with each
other item, including six pianos, four hobby horses, fitness equipment and all other
fixtures and fittings. Most of which were later sold cheap at public auctions. Out of sight and out of remembering. And the Grand Sale à Manger bronze doors ended cut in seize to fit in a church. 2,400
vans were needed resulting more than US$ 100,000 transport costs. Major works of
art were more or less carefully removed to storage, panellings were dismantled,
statues were cut off, as the René Lalique light fountains, the statues La Paix and La Normandie, etc. Several local
warehouses had to be rented for the
storage.
A private
commercial company, Robins Drydock, was awarded the contract to convert NORMANDIE
into a military troopship. The work should be carried out while NORMANDIE
was still visinle to the public at pier 88. This was a massive propaganda tool
for the war efforts of the USA. It was a coup de propagande.
Sadly, following
a number of bizarre decisions, incompetence and careless workmen, on 9th
February 1942 NORMANDIE
caught fire, and later that day capsized. Too badly damaged and too big to be
salvaged at the time, she was eventually scrapped in October 1946.
NORMANDIE capzised after being set under fire out of sheer carlessness
Later the
conspiracy theories about the involved Mafia, or sabotage by the Germans, came all
too handy for the responsible people as to be by themselve in the center of publicity. This
Lucky Luciano wanted to make only his conditions better in jail, when contacting
the US secret service, OAS, who fell into his trap ...
The first
mistake all involved had been abandoning to read the manuals of NORMANDIE, as
they had to be translated into English. Not a task at all. Or consulting the remaining crew on
bord the NORMANDIE ... They had been agressive shipped off ashore and stored
away like furniture. Hyper anxiety in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor made them
to be treated as enemies! But literally France was not in war with the USA.
And no one knew
about the decks, the ways, the staircases ... uniformend men on an unknown
ship!
The second major
mistake was to turn off all machinery. Was NORMANDIE eventually to complicated to handle? NORMANDIE was like a dead ship berthed
at pier 88, with no ability of selfprotection - as NORMANDIE had the most
advanced fireprotection system implemented on a ship, not state of the art
1935, but far ahead of time and in case most effective.
Anxiety and rush
had never been a good consultant.
By February 9th 1942
work was well-advanced on adapting NORMANDIE, renamed into USS LAFAYETTE, into a troopship, which
as planed would be capable of carrying over 14,000 troops. But no firemen on
guard in the whole ship, where countless torches were used to cut steel.
There were,
similar to an ant hill, over 3,000 workers, most unregistered or controlled,
aboard NORMANDIE, including civilian contractors, Coast Guards, Navy personnel
and others. Concerns were raised about safety and secrecy on board, while each
department fealt to be responsible, which rose a battle about competences ...
On board NORMANDIE
it had been decided, by a certain Rear Admiral Adolphus R. Andrews to remove the four large
lighting fixtures and benches in the Grand Salon. The glass segments had
already been dismantled and taken ashore, and the seating removed, leaving the
basic metal frames. They were seen by this certain Rear Admiral Adolphus R. Andrews as a
hinderence. The carpet in the Grand Salon had been rolled up, ready to be
replaced with linoleum. The artwork covering the fireproof partition between
the Grand Salon and the Smoking Room had been dismantled. and the doors pushed
out of the way. Also stored in the Grand Salon were bundles of lifejackets, in
thousands, filled with kapok and wrapped in hessian. Nobody has thought of
their fire hazard ...
Standing, left to right: Rear Admiral WilliamS. Pye, Chief of Staff to Commander, Scouting Force; Rear Admiral Adolphus R. Andrews, Chief of Staff to Commander,
Battle Force; Rear Admiral Frederick J. Horne, Commander, Base Force - Source: Wikipedia
The lighting
stanchions were 15 feet high, on a 20 inch base that contained ventilation
ducts. It was decided to leave the bases, to create large card tables, but to
cut off the stanchions. As the Grand Salon was planed to be the war conference
room. A welding/cutting crew were assigned to the job. The first two
stanchions were removed before lunch. After lunch the two men assigned to
hold asbestos sheets to contain any sparks had been assigned to other work, and
the replacements hadn’t arrived. The team removed the third stanchion and moved
on to the fourth one. The cutting crew had to toss bundles of lifejackets to
one side creating needed space. Apart from a couple of buckets of water, there
were no hoses laid down, and no other precautions taken. As the illfated Clement
Derrick shut through the leg of the stanchion, sparks from the oxy-acetylene
torch caught on some of the life-jackets, which quickly caught fire - 02:30 pm.
What happend now
was described by John Maxtome-Graham as a burlesque Marx Brothers slapstick
comedy ...
The first worker
started runninig for the buckets and ended falling on the ground. the next
tossed ignited lifejackets out the way only to ignite staples aside with the
burning lifejackets. The foreman ran for the hose on the Promenade Deck but
there was no pressure at all; the instructions were still in French which
no-one could understand. And the French crew was sent off of the ship. Some of
the nearby workers came running for support and hindered themselves and tosseld
over each other. They finally tried to toss away the burning bundles of
lifejackets, outside, but some fell on the rolled carpeting, which in turn
started it burn. The central fire station had been dismantled and the
replacement had not yet been set up. Why doing such unneccessary things ad hoc,
when a card table is needed? The alarm system, as well the communication system,
to the local city fire brigade had been disconnected when the US Navy took over
the vessel. There were a few fire extinguishers in nearby lockers, but no-one
knew of their existence, and by this time they would have been inadequate
anyway.
The fire doors
to the Main Salon, which should have been shut, were open and could not be
closed as the ships machines where shut down. And the fire started to spread.
Other fire doors were blocked with scaffolding, tools and debris and couldn’t
be shut. Even if there would have the pressure from the machinery. Some 15
minutes after the fire started the first fire engines arrived, and soon after
the first fire boat. Somebody was able to get down to the pier and grab a phone. Most
of the workers were unaware of the fire, even minutes after. No alarm system
was in function as well. When realizing what was happening, panic took over -
me first out of the ship. The firemen struggled to get on board as all the
workers were fighting to get off. Some workers had to be rescued from ladders
propped up from the quayside to the bow!
Imediately after
the fire broke out half Manhattan was on their legs for help or as spectators
of the drama, hindering the professionals.
Burning NORMANDIE flooded by the NYFD fireboats - own collection
When the NYFD
did send fireboats they immediately started pouring water on the promenade deck
of NORMANDIE
to extinguish the fire. Aluminium and other metals melted in the heat created
by the fire and sealed the drains. The more water was poured into the promenade
deck the more it stayed on deck. And they stayed pouring water in after the
fire was extinguished.
When Vladimir Yourkevitch did aproach this certain Rear Admiral Adolphus R. Andrews for assistance to save the ship, this overqualified officer said: "This is a Navy job!" and send him in arrogance, only based on his "position", away ...
Several hours
after, with too much water aboard, and no way of draining it fast enough, NORMANDIE
slowly started to list, and sadly, some 12 hours after the fire had started,
she rolled over with the tide and capsized.
To me it seems as if NORMANDIE´s soul let it happen, `If you can treat me with respect, I sell my dead body as expensive as I can!´
Although many ideas were suggested in the coming months to raise NORMANDIE and rebuild the ship, it was not economical or practical, and by now the war was entering a new phase. Finally the decision was taken to dismantle most of NORMANDIE´s superstructure, to raise the hull and scrap the remains. Plans rebuilding NORMANDIE as an aircraft carrier had been also abandoned, as rebuilding her as a trooper.
To me it seems as if NORMANDIE´s soul let it happen, `If you can treat me with respect, I sell my dead body as expensive as I can!´
Although many ideas were suggested in the coming months to raise NORMANDIE and rebuild the ship, it was not economical or practical, and by now the war was entering a new phase. Finally the decision was taken to dismantle most of NORMANDIE´s superstructure, to raise the hull and scrap the remains. Plans rebuilding NORMANDIE as an aircraft carrier had been also abandoned, as rebuilding her as a trooper.
Capzised NORMANDIE, renamed USS LAFAYETTE - own collection
The refloating
of NORMANDIE was
a grim task and set free some new inventions from the salvage company still
used today. Inside NORMANDIE everything
was in disorder, or better in an angel on the side. Walls became hallways in the
hulk, and floors cielings and staircases had any usage any more.
When the salvage
company reached the theatre, of which the fire doors had been closed, when NORMANDIE was
shut down, they realized a nearly unharmed elegant room ...
NORMANDIE died
like in greek tragedy - the spotless main character had to die, decided the
gods, and they played out the cards for carlessness, incompetence and arrogance.
After capsizing NORMANDIE stayed
like a dead wale at the pier like a monument for carlesness, incompetence and
arrogance. The time to refloat NORMANDIE prolongued and made the ship more and more a
wreck. When salvaging NORMANDIE was beheaded as in a third act of the
funeral to never give the hero a chance to get back on earth again.
When NORMANDIE
was towed through the port of New York to her last place to be dismantled finally,
even the hull, without the superstructur did show grace, dignity and refinement
of the lines ...
Even schattered, the lines of NORMANDIE, renamed USS LAFAYETTE and at last LIPSETT, are still recognizable and showing the grace and one-of-a-kind artwork - own collection
After unpleasant
negotiations with the US administration COMPAGNIE GÉNÉRALE TRANSATLANTIQUE got
a compensation for the loss - the EUROPA, seized by the Americans in 1945 and used
for some time as a troop ship. In 1939 NORDDEUTSCHER LLOYD planed replacements for BREMEN and EUROPA, which showed aging and higher maintenance costs. Further some cash, and within the Marshall Paln an extra
credit to build the near sister ships FLANDRE and ANTILLES ... but USA refused to
repay the real value of NORMANDIE ...
NORMANDIE much loved by most and hated
by some, was the peak of chic, the man made Deesse de la Mer,
which offered a stage for tout la societé for their dance on the volcano of
nationalism and hate. Some times NORMANDIE was a United Nations meeting place and conference center. NORMANDIE´s early, tragic and avoidable ending made this
French masterpiece like the fame of a real diva immortal. And divine this
vessel was - vive le NORMANDIE.
Le
NORMANDIE.
ss NORMANDIE1935-1942 X
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