Normandie held the Blue Riband for the fastest transatlantic crossing at several points during her service career, during which RMS Queen Mary was her main rival.

In 1942, while being converted to a troopship, the liner caught fire and capsized onto her port side and came to rest, half submerged, on the bottom of the Hudson River at Pier 88 (the site of the current Manhattan Cruise Terminal).

The origins of Normandie can be traced to the 1920s, when the U.S. put restrictions on immigration, greatly reducing the traditional market for steerage-class passengers from Europe, and placing a new emphasis on upper-class tourists, largely Americans, many of them wanting to escape prohibition.

[7] Companies like Cunard and the White Star Line planned to build their own superliners[8] to rival newer ships of the day; such vessels included the record-breaking Bremen and Europa, both German.

[9] Yourkevitch's ideas included a slanting clipper-like bow and a bulbous forefoot beneath the waterline, in combination with a slim hydrodynamic hull.

[13] Work by the Société Anonyme des Chantiers de Penhoët began on the unnamed flagship on 26 January 1931 at Saint-Nazaire, soon after the stock market crash of 1929.

While the French continued construction, the competing White Star Line's planned Oceanic was cancelled and Cunard's RMS Queen Mary put on hold.

In addition to hull design which let her attain speed at far less power than other big liners,[21] Normandie had a turbo-electric transmission, with turbo-generators and electric propulsion motors built by Alsthom of Belfort.

The most luxurious accommodations were the Deauville and Trouville apartments,[31] featuring dining rooms, baby grand pianos, multiple bedrooms, and private decks.

[43] Normandie retained the title until Cunard White Star Line's RMS Queen Elizabeth at 83,673 gross registered tons formally entered service in 1946.

[44] On 22 June 1936, a Blackburn Baffin, S5162 of A Flight, RAF Gosport, flown by Lt Guy Kennedy Horsey on torpedo-dropping practice, buzzed Normandie two kilometres (one nautical mile) off Ryde Pier and collided with a derrick which was transferring a motor car belonging to Arthur Evans, MP, onto a barge alongside the ship.

Normandie carried distinguished passengers, including the authors Colette and Ernest Hemingway;[49] the wife of French president Albert Lebrun;[40] songwriters Noël Coward and Irving Berlin; and Hollywood celebrities such as Fred Astaire, Marlene Dietrich, Walt Disney, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr, conductor Arturo Toscanini and James Stewart.

[51][52][page needed] Although Normandie won praise for her design and decor, ultimately North Atlantic passengers flocked to the more traditional Queen Mary.

In contrast, Cunard White Star's Britannic III, Georgic II, and much older Aquitania, along with the Holland America Line's SS Nieuw Amsterdam, were among the few North Atlantic liners to make a profit, carrying the lion's share of passengers in the years preceding the Second World War.

But four days was not too short to create a warm feeling for the boat and its crew, and when, years later, we learned of the dreadful disaster the Normandie had suffered in New York, we felt as if something terrible had happened to a close friend of ours.

On 15 May 1940, during the Battle of France, the U.S. Treasury Department detailed about 150 agents of the United States Coast Guard (USCG) to go aboard the ship and Manhattan's Pier 88 to defend it against possible sabotage.

On 12 December 1941, five days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the USCG removed Captain Lehuédé and his crew and took possession of Normandie under the right of angary, maintaining steam in the boilers and other activities on the idled vessel.

The name La Fayette (later universally and unofficially contracted to Lafayette) was officially approved by the secretary of the navy on 31 December 1941, with the vessel classified as a transport, AP-53.

At 14:30 on 9 February 1942, sparks from a welding torch used by workman Clement Derrick ignited a stack of life vests filled with flammable kapok that had been stored in Lafayette's first-class lounge.

A strong northwesterly wind blowing over Lafayette's port quarter swept the blaze forward, eventually consuming the three upper decks of the ship within an hour of the start of the conflagration.

Water entering Lafayette through submerged openings and flowing to the lower decks negated efforts to counter-flood, and her list to port gradually increased.

Lafayette eventually capsized during the mid watch (02:45) on 10 February, nearly crushing a fire boat, and came to rest on her port side at an angle of approximately 80 degrees.

Recognising that his incompetence had caused the disaster, Rear Adm. Andrews ordered all pressmen barred from viewing the moment of capsize in an effort to lower the level of publicity.

Some 94 USCG and Navy sailors, including some from Lafayette's pre-commissioning crew and men assigned to the receiving ship Seattle, 38 fire fighters, and 153 civilians, were treated for various injuries, burns, smoke inhalation, and exposure.

[63] Enemy sabotage was widely suspected, but a congressional investigation in the wake of the sinking, chaired by Representative Patrick Henry Drewry (D-Virginia), concluded that the fire was accidental.

It was alleged that arson had been organized by mobster Anthony Anastasio, who was a power in the local longshoremen's union, to provide leverage for the release of mob boss Charles "Lucky" Luciano from prison.

However, extensive damage to her hull, deterioration of her machinery, and the necessity for employing manpower on other more critical war projects prevented resumption of the conversion program, with the cost of restoring her determined to be too great.

President Harry Truman authorized her disposal in an Executive Order on 8 September 1946, and she was sold as scrap on 3 October 1946 to Lipsett, Inc., an American salvage company based in New York City, for US$161,680 (approx.

It also inspired the nickname 'The Normandie' given to the International Savings Society Apartments in Shanghai, one of the most fashionable residential buildings during the city's pre-revolutionary heyday and home to several stars of China's mid-20th century film industry.

Custom-designed suite and cabin furniture as well as original artwork and statues that decorated the ship, or were built for use by the CGT aboard Normandie, also survive today.