This painting depicts SS Normandie in mid-ocean, 1935, her amply flared bow rising up dramatically from the waves. Fully illustrated is the striking whaleback and cutwater, which enabled this innovative ship to maintain speed in even the worst weather.
A record breaker, her impressive speed immediately won her the coveted blue ribbon on this, her first transatlantic voyage. The following year would witness the arrival of the Queen Mary, whose speed, although equivalent, required 45,000 more horsepower than the technologically precocious Normandie. A rivalry emerged that was to last for years as they parried; the blue ribbon being passed back and forth as they sequentially broke their own speed records.
Tragically, the SS Normandie was destroyed in 1942 while undergoing conversion to a troop ship. Suspicious circumstances and incompetence may have shared a role in her demise. She has earned immortality, however, in her famous elegant curves, now recognizable throughout the world as the embodiment of nautical grace.
Click here to view the side-view painting of SS Normandie at Sea.