Home > Ocean Liners > SS France > Swan Song (2001)
Swan song: A cruise legend leaves port today (2001)
BY JAY CLARKE, [email protected]
Ships come and go, deserting one home port for another, and hardly anyone notices. But this one is different.
Norwegian Cruise Line's Norway is the former SS France, one of the grandest passenger ships ever built. When it casts off from the port of Miami at 4 p.m. today, it will be the last time Floridians -- and most Americans -- are likely to see it. The liner is being redeployed to the Far East by NCL's owner, Star Cruises, which has not revealed if the storied vessel will continue to cruise there or be chopped up for scrap.
That's quite a comedown for a ship that in its heyday was regarded as the successor to the legendary Normandie as the queen of the transatlantic liners. The French put their hearts and souls into the SS France -- still the longest passenger ship in the world at 1,035 feet -- when it was
constructed in 1960. Each stairwell had a different designer, as did most staterooms. Its interior walls were made of etched aluminum, a material not seen on today's cruise ships. Its lounges and dining rooms were works of art -- particularly the stunning two-story Grand Salon (now the Norway's Club Internationale) and the mural-ringed Chambord first-class dining room (now the Windward). Its cuisine was legendary.
Most of all, there was a sense of majesty aboard the SS France. One's trip was not just a voyage; it was an event. The service was extraordinary; staff members would even walk madame's dog, kept in a spacious onboard kennel. Dinners were a culinary adventure and formal dress was required on most evenings.
Much of the grandeur of the SS France still exists on the Norway, though great changes were made when the vessel was converted from a transatlantic liner to a cruise ship in 1980 and during a further renovation in 1990. And as a cruise ship plying the waters of the Caribbean, the Norway is much more informal.
Still, so much of the original decor and style remains that the Norway and its aura of yesteryear have bred a devoted coterie of fans, many of whom will be boarding the Norway today for its last cruise as an NCL ship.
One of them is Kerry P. Gietzel, 41, of Fort Walton Beach.
``When I first went on the Norway in 1984, I never thought of ships. But that started a kind of passion, a passion to learn more about the age of the great liners,'' said Gietzel, who has made nine voyages on the ship.
``Why so many times? I think it's the nostalgia. I love the whole ship and I could talk for hours about it.''
So could Karen Segboer, 53, of Wanaque, N.J., who has sailed on the Norway only once before but also is boarding the ship Wednesday in New York for its final transatlantic sailing.
``She's lovely, she's traditional. She's got a lot of class, personality and soul,'' she said.
For some passengers, the thrill of sailing on the Norway is being on the same ship that once carried Prince Rainier and Princess Grace, Audrey Hepburn, Marc Chagall, Alfred Hitchcock and Salvador Dalí and his pet ocelot. For others it is a trip back in time.
``Each week we get at least two passengers who sailed on the ship when it was the SS France,'' said Devon M. Scott, who came on board as ship historian last spring when it was announced the Norway would be redeployed. ``I talked to one who sailed on the ship when she was 10.
Another remembered how the carpets were all red and there were buffets up and down the promenade with huge shrimp and lobster tail -- imagine, lobster tail in a buffet!''
But there's also a surprising number of younger passengers -- in their 20s, 30s and 40s -- who are into nostalgia, Scott said. ``They discovered it with the Titanic film.''
They, like older passengers, are intrigued with the design and decor of the ship, which are far different from that of modern cruise ships.
Cabins in today's ships, for instance, are mostly modular look-alikes, while the Norway's staterooms differ in shape, size and orientation -- one reason why the ship has 26 cabin categories. Some former first-class cabins still have such amenities as pantries and anterooms for servants.
``Different French designers were assigned to staterooms. Passengers love the variety,'' said Scott. ``Look at this one. It still has the original vanity with the steward call button and music button, and the Wempe clock [a famous German brand] on the wall.'' This particular room, not a suite, also had a guest bathroom -- an unheard-of amenity in today's world of cruising.
Each stairwell carries the individual imprint of its designer. In the Windward dining room, a whisper on one side of the room, bouncing off the domed ceiling, can be heard on the other side. Probably the most valuable art work on board is the caricature depicting the ship as Noah's Ark, dating to its days as the SS France. The work, painted on aluminum panels by Jean Adrien Mercier, shows a family of ducks returning across the ``duck pond'' (the Atlantic Ocean) to Paris by hot air balloon, 18th Century Art Nouveau coach, gondola, rocket ship and, to be sure, the SS
France. The panels, whose worth was estimated at around $500,000 five years ago, hang in Trolland, the children's playroom.
These kind of differences, this one-of-a-kind ambience, intrigues many cruise buffs.
``I want something unique [in a cruise ship],'' said Jeff Macklin of Miami Lakes, who with his wife Marilynn has made 15 cruises on the Norway. He will lecture on the ship's history during the farewell cruise departing today. He also believes the gracious attitude of crew members makes a big difference. ``They have an affinity [to their ship] that's not the same as on the new ships.''
That perspective is echoed by Tim Dacey of New York City, the current president of the Steamship Historical Society of America, whose members are ardent admirers of the ocean liners of old. One hundred twenty-five members will be making the Norway's transatlantic crossing, most boarding in New York.
``Some crew members on the Norway have been on it for 12 to 14 years,'' he said. ``There's one in the engine room who has a mini-museum there. His office is fabulous.''
Dacey feels the Norway occupies a historical place in the cruise industry not simply because it was originally the SS France, but because ``it was the first ship sold as a destination. It never really had a port-intensive itinerary.
``I think selling the ship as a destination led to the megaships of today. Had the Norway failed, you wouldn't see those ships today.''
But the Norway would never even have succeeded as a cruise ship had not extensive changes been made to the SS France in 1980. ``They had to open [the France] up to the sun. It was done masterfully,'' said Alan Zamchick, 46, of Bellmore, N.Y., a lifelong ship buff who has made two
cruises on the Norway.
In the 1980 refit, extensive work was done at the stern to create an outdoor pool, basketball court and large sun deck. The former indoor first-class promenade became the popular Fifth Avenue and Champs Elysees enclosed promenades on each side of the ship, leading to many of the public rooms. An open courtyard for first-class passengers was turned into a second pool. In tourist class, that promenade was converted to staterooms, the salon to today's casino, the pool to a disco and the smoking room to the present North Cape Lounge. The former Versailles dining room was renamed the Leeward and equipped with a steel spiral staircase.
And since cruise ships do not have to run at the 30-plus knots necessary to cross the Atlantic in good time, two of the France's four screws were removed and their engines disengaged. The Norway would run at 18 knots and lower its fuel consumption from 800 to 200 tons a day.
Almost universally beloved is the Club Internationale, which also remained virtually unchanged in the conversion. Ask any passenger who has ever sailed on the Norway, and almost every one of them will name this elegant two-story lounge with a raised center as his favorite room.
Sharp-eyed passengers, like the ship buffs sailing today, will ferret out other details of interest aboard the ship. The performers' changing room, for example, is the former chapel, and still has a holy-water receptacle mounted on its diamond-pattern etched aluminum wall. One of the original lifeboats, a 41-year-old whaler, is still in use.
If you wonder why the aluminum walls of the duty-free are etched with musical instruments, it's because it was formerly the Debussy Music Room. And if you question why the perfume shop has a writing desk, you'll find it used to be the library.
Some ship buffs are critical of those alterations, as well as of the 1990 renovation, when two decks with 135 new suites were added atop the ship. But others recognize that in order to be viable as a Caribbean cruise ship, certain changes were necessary.
``NCL has done a great job keeping the Norway in service,'' said Dacey of
the SSHSA. ``The ship has sailed longer as the Norway, 21 years, than as
the France [14 years].''
But not all of those years were problem-free.
When the Norway made its grand entrance into Oslo in May of 1980 after its conversion, it was still a ship under construction. Five hundred workers were on board and would remain so all the way to the United States, racing to complete the refit. Only a few of the toilets worked and a group of travel agents and industry people who were to sail on its maiden voyage from Oslo was summarily sent home from Oslo.
Three months later, the Norway's electrical system failed and it sat dead in the water for 28 hours. In May of 1981, its boilers failed and it again drifted at sea for 24 hours. In December of the same year, a fire in the boiler room caused the cancellation of two cruises and in March of 1982 another boiler room fire becalmed the ship for a few hours.
A $15 million repair later in 1982, however, seemed to end the Norway's problems and it sailed without further major incidents until earlier this year, when a leaky sprinkler system prompted the U.S. Coast Guard to prohibit it from leaving the port of Miami. One cruise was canceled before the necessary repairs were completed.
Now the Norway is entering still another phase of its illustrious career.
Today it embarks on a 16-day farewell cruise that will take it across the Atlantic to Southampton, England, with stops in New York City; Halifax, Nova Scotia; St. John's, Newfoundland; Greenock, Scotland; Dun Laoghaire, Ireland; and Le Havre, France, the SS France's original home port.
Special onboard events will include a 1980 theme night of music and dress; two dinners with commemorative menus; an enrichment lecture series and maritime Q&A panel; a stateroom video with footage from both the SS France and SS Norway; Norway trivia games and challenges; and
commemorative items for sale. Talks and a Q&A dealing with the Norway will be given by Jeff Macklin; Jean-Paul Herbert, maritime historian; Theodore Scull, maritime author, travel writer; Stephen Card, maritime artist; Frank Braynard, maritime historian; and Lawrence Rudner, maritime
historian.
After 30 days of charter cruises in Europe, the Norway will sail to the Far East. Whatever happens to it then, its memory will live long in the annals of passenger ships.
Norwegian Cruise Line's Norway is the former SS France, one of the grandest passenger ships ever built. When it casts off from the port of Miami at 4 p.m. today, it will be the last time Floridians -- and most Americans -- are likely to see it. The liner is being redeployed to the Far East by NCL's owner, Star Cruises, which has not revealed if the storied vessel will continue to cruise there or be chopped up for scrap.
That's quite a comedown for a ship that in its heyday was regarded as the successor to the legendary Normandie as the queen of the transatlantic liners. The French put their hearts and souls into the SS France -- still the longest passenger ship in the world at 1,035 feet -- when it was
constructed in 1960. Each stairwell had a different designer, as did most staterooms. Its interior walls were made of etched aluminum, a material not seen on today's cruise ships. Its lounges and dining rooms were works of art -- particularly the stunning two-story Grand Salon (now the Norway's Club Internationale) and the mural-ringed Chambord first-class dining room (now the Windward). Its cuisine was legendary.
Most of all, there was a sense of majesty aboard the SS France. One's trip was not just a voyage; it was an event. The service was extraordinary; staff members would even walk madame's dog, kept in a spacious onboard kennel. Dinners were a culinary adventure and formal dress was required on most evenings.
Much of the grandeur of the SS France still exists on the Norway, though great changes were made when the vessel was converted from a transatlantic liner to a cruise ship in 1980 and during a further renovation in 1990. And as a cruise ship plying the waters of the Caribbean, the Norway is much more informal.
Still, so much of the original decor and style remains that the Norway and its aura of yesteryear have bred a devoted coterie of fans, many of whom will be boarding the Norway today for its last cruise as an NCL ship.
One of them is Kerry P. Gietzel, 41, of Fort Walton Beach.
``When I first went on the Norway in 1984, I never thought of ships. But that started a kind of passion, a passion to learn more about the age of the great liners,'' said Gietzel, who has made nine voyages on the ship.
``Why so many times? I think it's the nostalgia. I love the whole ship and I could talk for hours about it.''
So could Karen Segboer, 53, of Wanaque, N.J., who has sailed on the Norway only once before but also is boarding the ship Wednesday in New York for its final transatlantic sailing.
``She's lovely, she's traditional. She's got a lot of class, personality and soul,'' she said.
For some passengers, the thrill of sailing on the Norway is being on the same ship that once carried Prince Rainier and Princess Grace, Audrey Hepburn, Marc Chagall, Alfred Hitchcock and Salvador Dalí and his pet ocelot. For others it is a trip back in time.
``Each week we get at least two passengers who sailed on the ship when it was the SS France,'' said Devon M. Scott, who came on board as ship historian last spring when it was announced the Norway would be redeployed. ``I talked to one who sailed on the ship when she was 10.
Another remembered how the carpets were all red and there were buffets up and down the promenade with huge shrimp and lobster tail -- imagine, lobster tail in a buffet!''
But there's also a surprising number of younger passengers -- in their 20s, 30s and 40s -- who are into nostalgia, Scott said. ``They discovered it with the Titanic film.''
They, like older passengers, are intrigued with the design and decor of the ship, which are far different from that of modern cruise ships.
Cabins in today's ships, for instance, are mostly modular look-alikes, while the Norway's staterooms differ in shape, size and orientation -- one reason why the ship has 26 cabin categories. Some former first-class cabins still have such amenities as pantries and anterooms for servants.
``Different French designers were assigned to staterooms. Passengers love the variety,'' said Scott. ``Look at this one. It still has the original vanity with the steward call button and music button, and the Wempe clock [a famous German brand] on the wall.'' This particular room, not a suite, also had a guest bathroom -- an unheard-of amenity in today's world of cruising.
Each stairwell carries the individual imprint of its designer. In the Windward dining room, a whisper on one side of the room, bouncing off the domed ceiling, can be heard on the other side. Probably the most valuable art work on board is the caricature depicting the ship as Noah's Ark, dating to its days as the SS France. The work, painted on aluminum panels by Jean Adrien Mercier, shows a family of ducks returning across the ``duck pond'' (the Atlantic Ocean) to Paris by hot air balloon, 18th Century Art Nouveau coach, gondola, rocket ship and, to be sure, the SS
France. The panels, whose worth was estimated at around $500,000 five years ago, hang in Trolland, the children's playroom.
These kind of differences, this one-of-a-kind ambience, intrigues many cruise buffs.
``I want something unique [in a cruise ship],'' said Jeff Macklin of Miami Lakes, who with his wife Marilynn has made 15 cruises on the Norway. He will lecture on the ship's history during the farewell cruise departing today. He also believes the gracious attitude of crew members makes a big difference. ``They have an affinity [to their ship] that's not the same as on the new ships.''
That perspective is echoed by Tim Dacey of New York City, the current president of the Steamship Historical Society of America, whose members are ardent admirers of the ocean liners of old. One hundred twenty-five members will be making the Norway's transatlantic crossing, most boarding in New York.
``Some crew members on the Norway have been on it for 12 to 14 years,'' he said. ``There's one in the engine room who has a mini-museum there. His office is fabulous.''
Dacey feels the Norway occupies a historical place in the cruise industry not simply because it was originally the SS France, but because ``it was the first ship sold as a destination. It never really had a port-intensive itinerary.
``I think selling the ship as a destination led to the megaships of today. Had the Norway failed, you wouldn't see those ships today.''
But the Norway would never even have succeeded as a cruise ship had not extensive changes been made to the SS France in 1980. ``They had to open [the France] up to the sun. It was done masterfully,'' said Alan Zamchick, 46, of Bellmore, N.Y., a lifelong ship buff who has made two
cruises on the Norway.
In the 1980 refit, extensive work was done at the stern to create an outdoor pool, basketball court and large sun deck. The former indoor first-class promenade became the popular Fifth Avenue and Champs Elysees enclosed promenades on each side of the ship, leading to many of the public rooms. An open courtyard for first-class passengers was turned into a second pool. In tourist class, that promenade was converted to staterooms, the salon to today's casino, the pool to a disco and the smoking room to the present North Cape Lounge. The former Versailles dining room was renamed the Leeward and equipped with a steel spiral staircase.
And since cruise ships do not have to run at the 30-plus knots necessary to cross the Atlantic in good time, two of the France's four screws were removed and their engines disengaged. The Norway would run at 18 knots and lower its fuel consumption from 800 to 200 tons a day.
Almost universally beloved is the Club Internationale, which also remained virtually unchanged in the conversion. Ask any passenger who has ever sailed on the Norway, and almost every one of them will name this elegant two-story lounge with a raised center as his favorite room.
Sharp-eyed passengers, like the ship buffs sailing today, will ferret out other details of interest aboard the ship. The performers' changing room, for example, is the former chapel, and still has a holy-water receptacle mounted on its diamond-pattern etched aluminum wall. One of the original lifeboats, a 41-year-old whaler, is still in use.
If you wonder why the aluminum walls of the duty-free are etched with musical instruments, it's because it was formerly the Debussy Music Room. And if you question why the perfume shop has a writing desk, you'll find it used to be the library.
Some ship buffs are critical of those alterations, as well as of the 1990 renovation, when two decks with 135 new suites were added atop the ship. But others recognize that in order to be viable as a Caribbean cruise ship, certain changes were necessary.
``NCL has done a great job keeping the Norway in service,'' said Dacey of
the SSHSA. ``The ship has sailed longer as the Norway, 21 years, than as
the France [14 years].''
But not all of those years were problem-free.
When the Norway made its grand entrance into Oslo in May of 1980 after its conversion, it was still a ship under construction. Five hundred workers were on board and would remain so all the way to the United States, racing to complete the refit. Only a few of the toilets worked and a group of travel agents and industry people who were to sail on its maiden voyage from Oslo was summarily sent home from Oslo.
Three months later, the Norway's electrical system failed and it sat dead in the water for 28 hours. In May of 1981, its boilers failed and it again drifted at sea for 24 hours. In December of the same year, a fire in the boiler room caused the cancellation of two cruises and in March of 1982 another boiler room fire becalmed the ship for a few hours.
A $15 million repair later in 1982, however, seemed to end the Norway's problems and it sailed without further major incidents until earlier this year, when a leaky sprinkler system prompted the U.S. Coast Guard to prohibit it from leaving the port of Miami. One cruise was canceled before the necessary repairs were completed.
Now the Norway is entering still another phase of its illustrious career.
Today it embarks on a 16-day farewell cruise that will take it across the Atlantic to Southampton, England, with stops in New York City; Halifax, Nova Scotia; St. John's, Newfoundland; Greenock, Scotland; Dun Laoghaire, Ireland; and Le Havre, France, the SS France's original home port.
Special onboard events will include a 1980 theme night of music and dress; two dinners with commemorative menus; an enrichment lecture series and maritime Q&A panel; a stateroom video with footage from both the SS France and SS Norway; Norway trivia games and challenges; and
commemorative items for sale. Talks and a Q&A dealing with the Norway will be given by Jeff Macklin; Jean-Paul Herbert, maritime historian; Theodore Scull, maritime author, travel writer; Stephen Card, maritime artist; Frank Braynard, maritime historian; and Lawrence Rudner, maritime
historian.
After 30 days of charter cruises in Europe, the Norway will sail to the Far East. Whatever happens to it then, its memory will live long in the annals of passenger ships.