Showing Normandie: Her Life and Times by Harvey Ardman

This is the biography of a ship named Normandie.While using the word "biography" to describe the life of a ship may seem like a reach, ships have always occupied a special place in the pantheon of human affairs;to those who know them well, ships are alive, They have souls. They have lifetimes, often incredibly complex and eventful ones. They have personalities, ancestors, individuality.

Why a biography of Normandie?

Because she was the most inspired, most original, most imaginatively-conceived ship of her time--perhaps all time--and because she is generally considered the most beautiful ocean liner ever to have sailed the seven seas.

Because in her day, Normandie was the largest ship ever constructed, and the fastest, and because she was the epitome of luxury and glamour in a world plagued by depression and portents of war.

Because she died at the hands of strangers, in circumstances of unparalleled carelessness, stupidity and greed.

And because she will always be loved by those who knew her.

This is the story of that great ship. It is also the story of her times--the period between 1928 and 1947--for she cannot be separated from them or they from her.

It is the story of the determination that brought her to life in the depths of the Depression, of the extraordinary scientific breakthroughs that made possible her size and speed, of the remarkable artistic achievements that gave her beauty and grace and made her the towering expression of the Art Deco era.

It is also the story of her rivalry with the Queen Mary, of the celebrities who sailed aboard her, and of the desperate and determined Americans who, hoping to use her as a weapon of war, destroyed her, resurrected her and then destroyed her again.