ss Normandie (1935) – French Line Dining room medallions

Normandie was a French ocean liner built in Saint-Nazaire, France, for the French Line Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (CGT). She entered service in 1935 and at the time was the world’s largest and fastest passenger ship. In transatlantic liner service, she crossed the Atlantic in a record 4.14 days, and remains the most powerful steam turbo-electric-propelled passenger ship ever built.

Many think Normandie with her novel design and luxury interiors is the greatest ocean liner ever built. Despite her fame and glory, she was not a commercial success often sailing at just 60% capacity and relied partly on government subsidy. In liner service, she made 139 westbound transatlantic crossings between her home port of Le Havre and New York City. Normandie held the Blue Riband for the fastest transatlantic crossing in 1935 as well as 1937. Cunard Line’s RMS Queen Mary was her main rival.

During the Second World War, Normandie was seized by U.S. authorities at New York and renamed USS Lafayette. In 1942, while being converted to a troopship, the liner caught fire on February 9 1942. Sparks from a welding torch ignited a stack of life vests which been stored in Lafayette‘s first-class lounge. Firefighters poured so much water on the blaze that she lost stability, capsized onto her port side and ended up half submerged on the bottom of the Hudson River at Pier 88 (today the Manhattan Cruise Terminal). Although salvaged at great expense, she was found to be beyond repair. Restoration was deemed too costly and she was scrapped in October 1946.

Artists impression of the spectacular first class dining room on ss Normandie

Normandie’s famous luxurious interiors were designed in art deco and streamline modern style also called the style paquebot, or ocean liner style by architect Pierre Patout, (he was one of the founders of the art deco style). Her decorative scheme was overseen by architect Roger-Henri Expert. Normandie’s massive interior spaces were made possible by having the funnel uptakes split to pass along the sides of the ship, rather than straight upward through the middle as was usual before.

Normandie‘s first-class dining hall was the largest room afloat at the time, measuring 93 m in length (it was longer than the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles!), 14 m wide and 8 m high. The room could seat 700 guests at 157 tables. Passengers entered through six-metre-tall doors adorned with bronze medallions by artist Raymond Subes. French Line always boasted the food was of such high standard that when leaving port, most of the seagulls would follow French Line ships.

After the fire, a sad end for one of the most beautiful passenger ships of all time

In August 2023, after a transatlantic crossing on Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 ending in New York we decided to look for these doors which were removed from Normandie when she was converted to a troopship. Years later, they were put up for auction and were bought by a priest who had the medallions installed on the front doors of the Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Cathedral in Brooklyn. Because the church doors were lower than the original doors on Normandie, the remaining medallions are placed on the church’s side doors. According to the most friendly priest we met at the church, his predecessor was a real art afficionado.