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