New French Liner For Transatlantic Service

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29002, 17 September 1959, Page 18

New French Liner For Transatlantic Service

(From a Reuter Correspondent)

PARIS France is ready to launch a costly new ocean liner even as statistics show that more transatlantic travellers now cross the ocean by air than by ship. Shipwrights and welders in the Atlantic coast shipbuilding port of St Nazaire daily swarm over a bulky mass of metal fast taking shape as a sleek, modern ocean vessel. The liner—named France—is due to be launched next May. The 55.000-ton ship will go into service between Europe and the United States in September, 1961, with the full confidence of the French Line that it will have 20 or 30 years of profitable service ahead. In 1957, more people crossed the North Atlantic by air than by sea for the first time. Last year there were nearly 1,300,000 air travellers compared with barely a million who chose to go by ship. But the French Line is convinced that the five-day luxury voyage the France will offer can face the competition of the jets which fly between New York and Paris in six-and-a-half hours. World’s Largest Liner The liner is costing £25,700,000. Work is already complete on the hull—special strengthened to support atomic power equipment which may one day replace its 160,000 horsepower engines. The wine cellar is in place, deep within the hull. Measuring 1034 feet from bow to stern—almost exactly the

height of the Eiffel Tower —the France will be the world’s longest liner—4 feet Ilin longer than the Queen Elizabeth. It will also be one’ of the lightest ships afloat size for weight. The makers estimate that the use of a special light alloy] and the replacement of rivets] by a new welding technique will allow a saving in weight of about 20,000 tons. , The France will displace some 15.000 tons less than the ill-fated Normandie, former pride of the French Line. But it will carry 2000 passengers, 30 more than the Normandie, on its scheduled annual crossings. The Normandie was launched in 1935, and was then the world’s biggest ship. In 1942, while being converted to a troopship in New York, she caught fire and was capsized by the millions of gallons of water pumped into her. The Normandie was refloated, but only as 70,000 tons of scrap metal. The French Line is not alone in its faith in the future of ocean travel. Cunard of Britain is planning to replace the Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mary, its chief representatives on the Atlantic run, in the same confidence that travellers who have the time will still choose a sea voyage. And there i£ support for the France from the French Government, which is providing the difference of about £5 million between the cost of building the new liner abroad and the higher price having the work done in France. The proportion of air travellers on the Atlantic is rising rapidly, but the shipping firms expect the total number of passengers also to increase, leaving them a large market. The airlines foresee a brutal test of this theory in the falling price of air travel. Comparable sea and air prices for

the return journey from Paris to New York, including rail and airport charges, are given by the French State airline, ‘ Air France as: Ship.—First class £250; cabin class £157; tourist class £129. Air.—First class £246 10s; tourist £182: economy class £l4B. Of the 2000 passengers the France will be able to carry on each five day crossing, 1500 will travel tourist class. All. including the crew, will benefit from complete air conditioning and stabilising equipment which will reduce roll to two degrees. Theatre and TV The ship will be “a floating symbol of French refinement and taste,” according to French Line president, Mr Andre Marie. Contributions to its decoration and fittings will come from more than half the country’s 90 departments, representing the best in modern French design. It will be equipped with television, and its theatre vill be the biggest afloat. The France will be the third ship of its name built for the French line at St Nazaire by the Chantiers de I’Atlantique. The first, “of gigantic dimensions,” was launched in 1865, and used a 3200 horsepower steam engine, assisted by sails, to take its., 5800 tons across the Atlantic ati 13 knots. Chantiers de I’Atlantique are already working on plans for an atomic oil tanker, and have a leading part in the French Government’s study group on atomic propulsion. Its engineers confidently expect the France to serve for the second half of its life as an atom-powered passenger- ship.