Lafayette (ship, 1930)
 Lafayette promotional postcard
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
The Lafayette was a motor ship of the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique .
history
It was built at Chantiers & Ateliers de St. Nazaire in Penhoët . The keel was laid in May 1929, the maiden voyage on May 17, 1930. The four engines of the steel ship came from MAN and enabled a cruising speed of 17 to 18 knots .
The Lafayette began service on the Le Havre - New York route in 1930 . In her time she was the largest motor ship in the French merchant fleet and a very luxurious vehicle, some of which was equipped in the Art Deco style . The menus were decorated with original etchings by Georges Plasse . On May 4, 1938, during overhaul work in the dry dock of Le Havre, a fire broke out on the ship that could no longer be controlled. 30 crew members were rescued at the last moment. The Lafayette was sold on June 10, 1938 and broken up in Rotterdam in 1939 .
Known passengers
Thomas and Katia Mann used the Lafayette for a crossing to America in 1935. Thomas Mann was awarded an honorary doctorate at Yale along with Albert Einstein . On the same trip he was also invited to Franklin Delano Roosevelt's at the White House .
The writer Robert Vercel was inspired by the trips of the Lafayette to Spitsbergen .
Web links
Footnotes
- ↑ http://www.navis-neptun.de/produkte/datenbank/911.html
- ↑ Report in Life 4, No. 21, May 23, 1938, ISSN 0024-3019 , pp. 16 f.
- ↑ http://www.frenchlines.com/images/image_fr.php?image=6177 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from August 20, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
