July 1950: the maiden voyage of the French Line CGTs flagship SS Liberte, originally built as the German luxury liner SS Europa (1928) and handed over as war reparations to the French by the victorious American army. A rare look inside the completely renovated and redecorated liner, which had been completely transformed from Teutonic speed queen to Frances national flagship. She was meant to replace the magnificent SS Normandie, lost to fire while being converted into an American troopship in 1942. Much of Normandies salvaged furniture was put aboard Liberte. Yet she still retained her original German turbine power plant -- as smooth and powerful as a Mercedes-Benz engine -- able to drive the 50,000 ton liner at a brisk 27 knot service speed and making her competitive with the British Queens. For the next decade, she would make the transatlantic run in tandem with another legendary and popular ship, the SS Île de France. Predictably, her kitchens were said to be among the finest in the world, on land or sea. En francais.
Posted on: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 12:29:25 +0000
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