This is a little post that I made on several other forums. ;-)
SS France - The Story
The France was launched in May 11 1960 in St-Nazaire, Brittany, with the presence of General de Gaulle and his wife. The project was discussed in Parliament during the fifties. Due to political instability it was delayed until 1956 when finally voted by the Assembly.
She inspired films like "Le gendarme à New-York" starring Louis de Funès (almost a third of the film was shot on her) or "The Brain" (starring David Niven & Jean-Paul Belmondo, a.o.) and a Belgian comics
:
Her mission was to promote the French way of life and the French gastronomy in particular, around the Globe. It's largely felt that her mission was a success, at least from that point of view.
However it was clear from the very beginning that the undertaking would fail because in the 60's, people would rather take the plane to cross the Atlantic than a ship. Her commander Christian Pettré admitted she was born 5 years too late.
In 1965 the undertaking was in deficit. The deficit was 4 million old franks in 1970 but 73 million franks in 1973.
Despite all this she made two circumnavigations of the World: January to April 1972 & 1974. The first one was a big success but the second one was hard due to the oil crisis. These were the stops from the first circumnavigation:
New York, Nassau, Trinidad, Rio de Janeiro, Port Stanley, Punta Arenas, Valparaiso, Talcahuano, Easter Islands, Tahiti, Suva, Nouméa, Port Moresby, Bali, Hong Kong, Singapore, Colombo, Bombay, Mombasa, Mauritus, Durban, Capetown, Luanda, Dakar, Cannes, Funchal & New York again.
1974 was a year of Presidential elections in France and the new President Giscard d'Estaing with PM Chirac decided to stop the subsidies and the ship was sceduled to be disarmed by the end of September.
But on September 11 1974 something unexpected happened: a mutiny. 989 marines took control of the ship in harbour of Le Havre and decided to block the entrance to the port in order to have the Company and the State recall their decision. The attempt failed, even though the Unionists suggested plans like shorter cruises.
In December, the ship would be landed on a deserted quay in the industrial suburb of Le Havre that would be called "Quai de l'oubli" ("Quay of Forgetting"). She would stay there 5 years.
In 1975 Michel Sardou released his hit single, when most French ad already forgotten about the ship: 900, 000 copies sold . A guy who is reputedly right-wing if not more but with this song he got sympathies from Unionists and Communists.
Quand je pense à la vieille Anglaise/When I think of the Old English
qu'on appelait le Queen Mary/That we call the Queen Mary
échouée si loin de ses falaises/Stranded so far from her cliffs
sur un quai de Californie/On a Californian quay
Quand je pense à la vieille Anglaise/When I think of the Old English
j'envie les épaves englouties/I envy the engulfed wrecks
long-courrier qui cherchaient un rêve/ocean liners that were looking for a dream
et n'ont pas revu leur pays/and never saw their country again
Chorus:
Ne m'appelez plus jamais France/Don't ever call me France anymore
La France, elle m'a laissé tomber/France has let me down
Ne m'appelez plus jamais France/Don't ever call me France anymore
C'est ma dernière volonté/This is my last wish
J'étais un bateau gigantesque/I was a gigantic ship
Capable de croiser mille ans/able to cruise for a thousand years
J'étais un géant j'étais presque/I was a giant I was almost
Presqu'aussi fort que l'océan/almost as strong as the ocean
J'étais un bateau gigantesque/I was a gigantic ship
J'emportais des milliers d'amants/I carried thousands of lovers
J'étais la France qu'est-ce qu'il en reste/I was France and what's left of it
Un corps mort pour des cormorans/A dead body for cormorants
Chorus
Quand je pense la vieille anglaise/When I think of the Old English
Qu'on appelait le "Queen Mary"/that we call the Queen Mary
Je ne voudrais pas finir comme elle/I wouldn't like to finish like her
Sur un quai de Californie/on a Californian quay
Que le plus grand navire de guerre/May the biggest warship
Ait le courage de me couler/have the courage to sink me !!!
Le cul tourné Saint-Nazaire/the a*se turned up in Saint-Nazaire
Pays breton où je suis né/Breton land where I was born
Chorus
The song didn't change anything. In 1977 a Saudian billionair bought it but his plan failed (no info on this?) and he sold it to the Norwegian Caraibean Line in 1979. She was then called SS Norway and was turned into a cruise liners and underwent some changes (the speed: 35 knots to 16/18 knots). She leaves the Wharf of Forgetting on August 18 1979. Her new port of registry is Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
In 2003 a boiler of Norway exploded in Fort Lauderdale causing the death of 6 Philippine marines. The investigation showed that for several years, she was badly kept. She then went back to Bremenhaven, Norway in order to be re-engined but a storm and the cost of the reparation decided NCL that that was it.
In 2005 she was towed from Bremenhaven to Port Keiland, Malaysia (NCL was redeemed by the Malaysian Line). She then got her last name: Blue Lady. On August 2006 she landed in the Alang Bay, India where she was to be dismantled. Plans to save her had existed. Dubai planned to use it for a resort but the QE2 got the prize.
She was totally dismantled by 2009. Total unconcern from the French !! ("The Sea is what the French have on their back when they go on holiday" said Eric Tabarly)
Great doco in French:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AgHrSixU7k
And a
Promotional film from 1971 in English.
Main source in French:
http://forummarine.forumactif.com/t5486-article-le-paquebot-france-1960
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