WORLD’S LARGEST SHIP

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 7, 19 December 1932, Page 11

WORLD’S LARGEST SHIP

LAUNCHING OF NORMANDIE WONDERFUL FRENCH LINER. “BREATH-TAKING SPECTACLE.” “While our giant Cunarder lies unfinished and neglected in a Glasgow shipyard, France, this afternoon (October 29), launched the biggest ocean colossus the world has ever seen, the 75,000-ton liner Normandie with which she intends to win the blue riband of the Atlantic, ” says Mr. Reginald Simpson, writing in the “ Sunday Chronicle.” “Britain’s unfinished Cunarder, on which work was suspended ten months ago for lack of money, has since become a lasting reproach to our prestige. “France to-day, in comparison, is enthusiastically congratulating herself on having taken the first place as regards fast ocean liners. Already in the shipyards here they are talking of laying down another and bigger ship. Nothing the world has ever seen compares with the Normandie. Twenty thousand tons bigger than the biggest liner in existence, she is a breathtaking spectacle.” ELEVEN MILLION RIVETS. Mr. Simpson continues as follows:— Figures speak more eloquently than words. Here are figures to stagger you. The great hull alone weighs 30,000 tons. The rudder and rudder post weigh together 125 tons, and if stood on end would tower higher than the Mansion House. I was told by the builders to-day that she has cost approximately £lOOO a foot to build. 1 can quite believe it. If stood on end alongside the Eiffel Tower the vessel would be a good four-storey building higher than the flagstaff on top. If planked down in the Haymarket it would reach from Pall Mall to Coventry Street. Twenty-five designers worked five years and drew 7000 plans before a single rivet was hammered home. M. Cary, of the Company Transatlantique, for whom the vessel has been built, told me that 250 draughtsmen drew plans of the hull alone. Eleven million rivets have been used in the construction.

LAUNCHING GREASE COSTS £l5OO.

To-day’s launching took the combined efforts of 600 men. Forty-three tons of tallow, two-and-a-half tons of lard, and twenty-two hundredweights of soap, in all costing £l5OO, was used to grease the slipway. A hundred thousand people from all parts of France, including the President of the Republic, witnessed the launching. I have never seen such enthusiasm or such amazing scenes. All last night special trains were arriving from Paris. All night long motor-cars, horse-drawn vehicles and people on bicycles have been coming in from the surrounding districts. We in Britain were saying proudly twelve months ago that the launching of the Cunarder would be a national event. France has made the launching of the Normandie a world event. Americans, Germans and Italians have come here in scores to gaze in wonder and awe at the miracle of French shipbuilding skill. France’s world prestige has gone up in a night. If any argument was needed for carrying on with the building of the Cunarder it lies in this fact. BOTTLE OF CHAMPAGNE. The actual launching only took a few minutes. Madame Lebrun, wife of the French President, broke the traditional bottle of champagne on the vessel’s bows. Then the gigantic hull slid into the Loire amid the frantic cheers of 100,000 with bands playing patriotic

airs and tri-colours floating in the breeze. 1 could not help thinking as she gathered momentum on the slipwa-. of the silent Clydeside shipyards where the echo of the last rivet died *Way so many months ago, Neatly 10,00*' workers, 3000 in the shipbuilding yard alone, were thrown out of WOtk When the Cunarder was suspended. When completed the Cunardet will be almost identical with the Norman die. Both vessels are scheduled to eost £6,000,000. The Cunardet is 1018 ft. in length and the Normandie 1086. The Cunardet's engines will develop a horse power of. 200,000 and the Nor mandie’s the same, while the speed of the Cunarder would be 30 knots, agginst the Normandie’s 28 knots. STRICT SECRECY MAINTAINED. French officials here are maintaining an amazing policy of hush-hush about the wonder ship, probably because oi the foreign agents who have flocked to the town to try to learn its secrets I am the only Englishman Wha has seen over her, and I only got a permit with difficulty. She is an amazing spectacle, towering over the' town like a black mountain and dwarfing the lie de France, Which is in dock beside her. Her decks are as wide as street* She has 56 lifeboats, several wifeless stations, eleven decks, five of which run uninterruptedly from stem to eterr and accommodation for 3490 people, in eluding a crew of 1320. Here are aoim novel features. Wine will be served free with meals. The smoking room will be in two storeys. The swimming pool will have a bar. The Commando ■ Will have a wireless all to himself foi the first time in a French ship. The propulsion machinery will be electric I am told that insurances to eovci the building risks for nearly £2,500,009 have been placed in British markets Altogether a total of about £3,000,00“ has been written in the insuranee mar kets of the world, making one Of the biggest individual contracts over ef fected.