Memories of the SS France/Norway and how people are trying to save her

**Ally** · 06-14-2006, 12:29 PM

Ship-lovers and ecologists are battling to prevent the scrapping of a former French ocean liner in India. We look back at the (slightly surreal) glory days of the SS France.

If the ghost of Salvador Dali appears off the coast of Gujarat, he may well be on the deck of the SS France, walking his pet cheetahs.

A phantom guitar chord may hang in the air, left behind by David Bowie the day he played the staff canteen.

Or maybe a stray note of wedding music? This is the ship that "bore away thousands of lovers", in the words of French singer Michel Sardou.

Jean Coune remembers another sound: the smack of a champagne bottle smashing against the hull on a fine May day in 1960 to launch the new liner in Saint-Nazaire.

It was released by Madame de Gaulle, accompanying the French president who was "as ever, on form and delivered a forceful speech" to tens of thousands of onlookers, Mr Coune says.

Jean Coune knows a thing or two about the hull: at 83, he is the last survivor from among the engineers who built it.

Saint-Nazaire threw a party that day, adds former shipbuilder Jacques Lheritier, who still remembers the dance in the town square.

Dancing resumed on-board in January 1962 when the luxury liner made its maiden voyage, and it continued for some 13 years as the France crossed the Atlantic between Le Havre and New York.

During those years it saw many weddings, as well as hosting famous passengers preferring the majestic five-day Atlantic crossing to a plane trip.

**Ally** · 06-14-2006, 12:29 PM

Ocean oddity

It was quite a time, recalls Bruno Rabreau, who as a receptionist in the 1970s had dealings with Dali and his entourage including his formidable wife Gala, his friend Captain Moore - and the cheetahs, of course.

The first time Gala came to book a phone call, he remembers thinking she looked very plainly dressed, and he found it hard to believe the "old maid" was the spouse of the great surrealist artist.

"She told my chief that I was not very pleasant, then she came back and gave me five dollars and said 'I will tame you'," he says. "That's when I knew she was Madame Dali!"

Luckily for the ship, the cheetahs appear to have been tamed in advance, as Bruno recalls:

"They took those two big beasts for a walk around the ship and on the outside desks too - it was not a real panic but almost!"

Dali, as far as Bruno remembers, did not do any painting on his trips aboard the SS France but not only did David Bowie perform - he played for the crew.

Travelling as a first-class passenger, the rock star was not scheduled to play aboard the France but apparently had heard the crew were disappointed, so he turned up in the canteen with an acoustic guitar.

"We enjoyed more than 10 songs and especially Space Oddity which was the first one, and a few crew members took instruments too and played with him," Bruno says.

"It was a really, really good time. He was a very ordinary person and very friendly to us. We really enjoyed it."

'A corpse for cormorants'

In recent years, crew and passengers alike have been remembering the SS France on a French web site, Souvenirs de France, which teems with postings as poignant as they are affectionate.

Alain Rochas, also a receptionist on Le France, writes: "Oh, the strongbox room before Dinner! How many beautiful women would come for their jewels; when you are 20 years old..."

Back in 1975 there was already nostalgia for the liner, which had just been decommissioned and was in port at the quai d'oubli (the Quay of the Forgotten) at Le Havre.

Sardou's Le France touched a nerve in France as he sang: "I was a giant of a boat, I bore away thousands of lovers. I was France itself and now what remains? A corpse for the cormorants."

Four years later, the liner returned to service as the SS Norway and ended up cruising off Miami, where a boiler room explosion in 2003 killed eight crewmen, a tragedy which effectively ended its service at sea.

Now renamed the SS Blue Lady, it is the subject of a preservation battle. If the breakers do not win out, there is a proposal to convert it into a floating hotel off a Gulf State. The hull is said to be still in excellent condition.

Campaigners in the France Liner Association want to see it moored in its "its birthplace Saint-Nazaire for a third lease of life", where it could be used as a museum and conference centre.

"The SS France is part of France's heritage," says Jean Philippe Prieur, its spokesman.

"For a French person, scrapping le France is like dismantling the Tower of London for a Briton."

(BBC)

**Ally** · 06-14-2006, 12:30 PM

I truly hope that one of the two projects can come to fruition and save this wonderful ship from being broken up. Having sailed on her when she was still called SS France, I have very fond memories of her.

Has anyone else here sailed on her and have pleasant, or unpleasant, memories of her?

**Ally** · 06-29-2006, 03:38 PM

Press release from Khaleej Times of Dubai....

(And I definately hope this comes to fruition too)

Dubai bid to save historic cruise liner
Scrutiny Special Report

28 June 2006

A GROUP of Dubai investors have launched an ambitious plan to save the ssNorway, considered along with the QE2 to be the last of the great cruise liners, from Indian breakers who plan to scrap the vessel within the next two weeks.

‘Project Dubai', as it has been dubbed, is a $100-120 million plan that would see the liner snatched from the breakers and transformed into a luxury floating hotel and conference center moored in the city's harbour.

A joint UAE/US venture company called Gulf Desert LLC/Bleu Ribband has been established to negotiate with the liner's current owners and operators, who are towing the 1,000 foot-long passenger vessel to Alang, India, home of the world's largest ship-breaking yard.

John Voet, one of the U.S. partners, says the Dubai group had high hopes of buying the ship before wreaking crews start to tear her apart. Voet said the ship would be a 'fantastic commercial venture' for Dubai, that would eventually provide hundreds of new, much-needed hotel rooms as well as adding a significant cultural and historical asset to the city.

Marine historian Rueben Goossens, who started an online campaign to save the liner, said Project Dubai' would add 'yet another structure of great prestige to one of the great cities of the world.' Goossens said he had received 3,000 emails from people supporting the plan. “80 per cent of the people who have written to me say they will visit Dubai and stay on the ssNorway," Goossens added.

The fate of the ssNorway has been at the center of a growing controversy that has seen environmental groups and marine preservation organizations at war with the ship's owners, Malaysian-based Star Cruises.

Originally launched in May1960 as the French 'national vessel', the then named ssFrance was the longest transatlantic passenger ship in the world and arguably the most luxurious. The ship featured 1,200 cabins, two 800 and 900 seat restaurants, two swimming pools and a two-tier, 748 seat theatre. Move star Cary Grant and painter Salvador Dali often

vacationed on the ship. Even the Mona Lisa has been a passenger: the great painting was transported on the liner when France briefly lent Da Vinci's masterpiece to a US exhibition.

The liner was sold in 1979 to Norwegian Cruise Lines, who renamed her the ssNorway. She then spent the next 25 years cruising the Caribbean. But in 2003 a devastating boiler room explosion killed eight crew members while the ssNorway was docked in Miami.

After being towed to Germany for repairs, NCL's chief executive appeared to do a U-turn announcing the ssNorway would never sail again. The ship was towed to Malaysia where she floated until she was bought for scrapping in Bangladesh.

But, after a vociferous campaign by the environmental group Greenpeace, which branded the ssNorway as one of the world's 50 most 'toxic' ships, this February the Bangladeshi government refused to let the liner enter its waters. Greenpeace says the 1,000 tons of asbestos used as fire retardant in the ship make her an environmental hazard.

However, the Project Dubai team say the asbestos is only a hazard if the ship is broken up. Under their plans, the liner would be professional decontaminated by asbestos experts who would either seal the asbestos safely inside a rubberized 'case' or where it must be removed, have it dealt with using the 'highest international standards for decontamination'. The boat would then be completely refitted and then towed to a permanent mooring in Dubai to start its new life as a hotel, conference center and tourist attraction.

Project Dubai investors have persuaded the new owners of the ssNorway, a Liberian shell company called Bridgend Shipping and a consortium of Indian breakers called Haryana Steel, to meet with them to discuss selling the liner and saving her from the scrapheap.

In the meantime, the Norway has been renamed the 'Blue Lady' for her last voyage, which began on June 14 in Fujairah, where she apparently took on new crew and supplies before setting off for India.

The ssNorway/Blue Lady will not be allowed to dock in India until a government inspection has been carried out to assess the extent of the asbestos in the ship. In the meantime, the liner is sitting approximately 100 miles off the coast waiting to hear if she will be scrapped or saved.

Project Dubai investors are now urgently trying to conclude a rescue deal. The Khaleej Times understands Project Dubai offers would give the Indian breakers around a $3 million profit for not scrapping the vessel.

“The Project Dubai goal is to meet a favorable price and terms and conditions that leave everyone happy," said Voet. “We are optimistic of reaching an agreement that leaves everyone happy."
Voet said in selecting and drafting the business plan for Project Dubai, the investors had followed Vice President and Prime Minister Muhammad bin Rashid al-Maktum's vision for creating quality venues and attractions in Dubai to attract high quality, international visitors.

**Ally** · 06-30-2006, 11:45 AM

A new twist to this saga.....

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayA...section=theuae

If that article is true, which there is no reason to think that it isn't, things could be very murky in respect to Norway's future.

**Ally** · 08-03-2006, 08:22 AM

Well, the fight is now over.

The beautiful Norway was finally beached at Alang yesterday, according to local media, and will be nothing more than a memory in the next couple of years while she is stripped down and recycled.

The ship that brought so many to cruising in her present guise and which under the name of France, started many new lives has now gone.

Very very sad day, an end of an era.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/5237334.stm

**Ally** · 08-05-2006, 03:33 AM

The two main reasons why she has been given the green light, aren't entirely on enviromental grounds, but humanitarian, namely the 13 Indians onboard her.

Quote:

The ship comes insulated with about 500 tonnes of asbestos, the dust of which is hazardous to health. But the Supreme Court has justified its decision on two grounds, i.e., the ship might get damaged on the high seas during the monsoon and the 13 Indian crew members on board would starve if ship was not allowed in.

http://www.timesnow.tv/articleshow/1851969.cms

Probably one of the last photos of her in one piece...It does seem like all this was cut and dry regardless of the attempts to save her, a case of Star don't want her so thy put enough barriers in the way that no-one would have her.

**Ally** · 08-14-2006, 03:21 PM

Sadly her story has ended. She is at Alang and due to be beached in around 4-5 hours time. She will always evoke fond memories to those of us who had the pleasure of sailing aboard her, either as France or Norway. She was the last of the great Transatlantic Ocean liners, the end of an era and a terrible loss to cruise liners.

She may be about be destroyed, but her memories never will.

**Ally** · 08-14-2006, 03:28 PM

Beautiful even after the added deck areas.....

**Ally** · 08-14-2006, 03:37 PM

For some amazing photos inside and out of this liner, this link will take you to her..

http://www.schiffsphoto.de/HTM/Cruise/Norway/Norway.htm