Bar staff on the Queen Mary. A few years ago I bought a whole box full of paperwork to do with this ship at an auction.
Kategorie: Unzugeordnet
Those were the days….
The Golden Age of ocean liners….dramatically depicted here by the iconic Cunard Line ships RMS Queen Mary and RMS Queen Elizabeth….set against the also-iconic Chrysler Building in New York City.
(Postcard circa 1938.)
Those were the days….before today’s instant communications, always-connected, WiFi/Cellular/Satellite/Internet, megabits per second, fast-paced world.
Those were the days….when one went to sea….and forgot the rest of the world for a few days. News, if any, came via a telegram! STOP. Just a few words per minute….STOP….from the outside world. STOP.
Those were the days….a Golden Age!
Perhaps, in some ways, a little more gentle….a little more human.
My hobby when i was a kid was to read about big ocean liners. This is my favorite.
SS Normandie. She was to be the fastest,the sleekest,and the most artfully decorated. But her first distiction would be as the premier ship to exceed 1000 feet (313m) in length.
The ship would be launched on October 29,1932 and all all of France,and indeed the world,would be following the events of the launch. The largest object ever set in motion by man at the time.
Sadly,on February 9,1942, during a continuing conversion work,a fire broke out aboard the ship and the future of the magnificent Normandie would be smothered in suffocating cloud of smoke. Charles T. Collins,an 18 year old USN ironworker gave an account of the incident.
Her fate: http://www.historynet.com/the-fate-of-the-ss-normandie.htm
Silver Dinner Service for Normandie, Jean Puiforcat (French, 1897-1945)
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Note the stylized monogram of Normandie’s operators CGT, Compagnie Generale Transatlantique, on each piece in the service.
In Honor of Normandie’s maiden voyage, Wednesday, May 29, 1935
