{"product_id":"ss-normandie-french-ocean-liner-art-deco-masterpiece-1935","title":"SS Normandie - French Ocean Liner, Art Deco Masterpiece, 1935","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhen the \u003cstrong\u003eSS Normandie\u003c\/strong\u003e slid down the slipway at \u003cstrong\u003eSaint-Nazaire\u003c\/strong\u003e in 1932 and entered service in 1935, she was unlike anything the world had ever seen. Built for the \u003cstrong\u003eCompagnie Générale Transatlantique\u003c\/strong\u003e — the French Line — she was the largest, fastest, and most powerful passenger ship afloat, crossing the Atlantic in a record \u003cstrong\u003e4 days and 3 hours\u003c\/strong\u003e and claiming the coveted \u003cstrong\u003eBlue Riband\u003c\/strong\u003e for the fastest transatlantic crossing.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut speed was only part of her story. The Normandie was above all a \u003cstrong\u003efloating palace of Art Deco design\u003c\/strong\u003e — a showcase of French craftsmanship and luxury at its absolute peak. Her interiors were created by the greatest decorators of 1930s France: soaring grand staircases, walls of lacquered Algerian onyx, ceilings of Lalique glass, and a first-class dining room so vast it was longer than the \u003cstrong\u003eHall of Mirrors at Versailles\u003c\/strong\u003e. To sail on the Normandie was to experience France at its most magnificent.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eShe was the pride of a nation — and her end was as sudden as it was heartbreaking. After the fall of France in 1940, she was seized in New York Harbor by American authorities. In February \u003cstrong\u003e1942\u003c\/strong\u003e, while being converted into a troopship following Pearl Harbor, a welder’s spark ignited a pile of life preservers. The fire spread with terrifying speed. Firefighters pumped so much water into her hull that she became top-heavy and \u003cstrong\u003ecapsized at her pier\u003c\/strong\u003e, rolling onto her side in the Hudson River. She never sailed again. The most beautiful ship in the world was sold for scrap in 1946.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA magnificent piece of \u003cstrong\u003eFrench Art Deco poster art\u003c\/strong\u003e — a tribute to a ship that was, for a brief and glorious moment, the greatest ocean liner ever built.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGiclee reproductions on luster premium photo paper.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Retro-Reproductions","offers":[{"title":"11 x 17 in.","offer_id":49335224991927,"sku":"pcs1791828365887","price":23.4,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"16 x 20 in.","offer_id":49335225024695,"sku":"rek1791828365888","price":39.53,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"20 x 24 in.","offer_id":49335225057463,"sku":"ehf1791828365889","price":74.25,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"24 x 36 in.","offer_id":49335225090231,"sku":"ydj1791828365890","price":120.6,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"30 x 40 in.","offer_id":49335225122999,"sku":"bxe1791828365891","price":195.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0710\/9859\/7559\/files\/ss-normandie---french-ocean-liner-art-deco-masterpiece-1935_1.jpg?v=1791828376","url":"https:\/\/zorvaliq.com\/products\/ss-normandie-french-ocean-liner-art-deco-masterpiece-1935","provider":"Zorvaliq","version":"1.0","type":"link"}