Normandie Unlikely To Be Salvaged

Northern Advocate, 18 February 1942, Page 4

Normandie Unlikely To Be Salvaged

WASHINGTON, February It

The naval commandant of the New York district (Rear-Admiral Andrews) has acknowledged the ultimate loss of the liner Normandie in a letter to the Mayor of New York (Mr. La Guardia) thanking the local firemen for their work in combating the flames which eventually caused the ship to topple, over.

The “Weekly Underwriter,” ' an insurance publication, declared today that there was no insurance on the Normandie, which was valued at 60,000,000 dollars, since the United States had taken over the vessel as a naval auxiliary, therefore its status at the time of the fire was that of a warship. The publication added that the Normandie could not be salvaged.

An earlier message discussed some of the problems which would face American engineers if an attempt was made to salvage the liner. Stability Upset

In view of her great importance it was stated that more than an ordinary effort would be made to put her into commission again if that was at all possible. When the fire broke out on the upper decks, the lower part of the ship was isolated as much as possible and flooded. This had the effect of upsetting the ship’s stability, and as she listed to port this large volume of water dragged her over. Heroic work was done to compensate for her list both by pumping water into the starboard side and pumping it out of the port side. All efforts, however, proved vain. The outgoing tide set the ship down on the silt bottom and she rolled over.

“The only way in which she can be salvaged is first to seal the ship airtight, section by section, and then force in air to drive the water out of the port side compartments, so that she floats off the bottom on her port, side,” said a broadcaster.

Will Turbines be Ruined?

“Then, if she does not right herself due to her inherent stability, the flooding of some of the starboard bilges could be resorted to. The hard part of this job is the sealing of the ship airtight. The determining factor may well be whether the Normandie’s engine rooms are at present flooded with salt water, and whether, being under water for the length of time required to right and salvage her, would ruin her giant turbines with ali their auxiliary pumps, boilers, blowers and the like.

“The salvaging of this liner is a major engineering job, but the. world's best engineering brains from both sides of the Atlantic will be called in on it and if it is humanly possible the great ship will be saved.”