SS Paris (1916)

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SS Paris
History
France
Name	Paris
Namesake	Paris, France
Owner	French Line
Operator	Compagnie Générale Transatlantique
Port of registry	Le Havre, France
Route	Le Havre, France - New York, USA
Ordered	Compagnie Générale Transatlantique
Builder	Penhoët, Saint Nazaire, France
Laid down	1913
Launched	12 September 1916
Maiden voyage	15 June 1921
In service	15 June 1921
Refit	1929
Stricken	1939
Homeport	Le Havre, France
Nickname(s)	"Aristocrat of the Atlantic"
Fate	Caught fire, and capsized in Le Havre on 18 April 1939, Scrapped in 1947
General characteristics
Type	Ocean liner
Tonnage	34,570 GRT
Displacement	36,695
Length	768 ft (234 m)
Beam	85 ft (26 m)
Draft	31 ft (9.4 m)
Depth	68 ft (21 m)
Decks	10
Propulsion	4 Parson's Turbines 46,000 hp
Speed	23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph)
Range	8,000 mi (13,000 km) radius
Boats & landing craft carried	54 Lifeboats, 1 Motorboat, 2 Service boats
Capacity	3,241 563 first class 468 second class 2,210 third class
Crew	657

SS Paris was a French ocean liner built for the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique by Chantiers de l'Atlantique in Saint-Nazaire, France. Although Paris was laid down in 1913, her launching was delayed until 1916, and she was not completed until 1921, due to World War I. When Paris was finally completed, she was the largest liner under the French flag, at 34,569 tons. Although not so large as the Olympic or Imperator ships and not intended to challenge the speed record of the Mauretania, the Paris, operated by the Cie Generale Transatlantique, was one of the finest liners put into service, at the time. ^[1] She is 768 feet long, 86 feet beam and 60 feet deep. On 31 feet draught, she displaces 36,700 metric tons ^[2]

Interior[]

SS Paris detailed cut away

Elaborate Art Nouveau dome over the 1st Class Stairway

The grand staircase aboard SS Paris gives a good idea of her luxurious Art Nouveau interior.

Paris's interior reflected the transitional period of the early twenties, between the earlier preferred Jacobean, Georgian, Baroque, and Palladian themes that were used in earlier liners built before World War I and the succeeding Art Deco style used by most posh and en vogue ocean liners built post World War I(such as Paris' renowned future running mate the Ile de France which was the first liner to use exclusively art deco). Paris' interiors were in favor of the modern French style of the time called Art Nouveau. Art Nouveau was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and flowers.^[3] Art Nouveau was abundant within her 1st class common spaces. Paris was unique in this aspect because no other liner had previously nor ever did use this style so prevalently. "Paris" also however was one of the first ocean liners use the sleekness and simplicity in her Art Deco arrangements post fire refit. ^[4]

The painter Albert Besnard decorated the dining room with "La Gloire de Paris" ^[5] and Georges Leroux made a large decorative panel for the smoking room: "Le Jardin du Luxembourg". The painter decorator Adrien Karbowsky also participated in the decoration of the ship's library, without forgetting Lalique. The decorating architect Louis Süe participated in the decoration of this liner.^[6]

Its diverse and luxurious facilities have earned it the nickname “aristocrat of the Atlantic” among wealthy Americans. The ship is provided with a cinema room,^[7] a dancing , a beer garden and a long promenade.

The 1st class enclosed promenade, SS Paris

In the cabins, square windows replaced the circular portholes s, and telephones are fitted to all first-class cabins.

The luxury of Paris was something no other liner could claim to have. For starters, most first class staterooms had square windows rather than the usual round portholes. In a first class cabin, passengers were able to have a private telephone, which was extremely rare on board a ship. A valet on Paris could be summoned easily from his adjacent room, rather than in a cabin in the second class, uncomfortably far away.

The passenger quarters are of great Interest, the public rooms being unusually large and well arranged, and the decorations harmony of color are remarkably beautiful. The joinerwork is fine, rare and handsome woods being used with excellent taste and put together with skilled craftsmanship.

Some of the polished panels of matched veneer resemble in design and beauty rare old bookbinding of tree calf. The general coloring is light and cheerful and the harmony of carpets, bulkheads, hangings, upholstery and furniture is superb. Wrought Iron is skillfully used in stair rails, and fabric, of exactly the right shade, softens the light of the dome skylights.

The lighting fixtures are all of special design and are very handsome. Here and there are paintings, notably one typifying the city of Paris which covers one bulkhead of the dining saloon.

Some of the beds in the deluxe staterooms are fit for exhibition in any museum. In these rooms, too, is displayed the skill of the French artists responsible for the decorations, for there is no stereotyped repetition but each room is given its own treatment and has its own color scheme. The headroom is ample and the passages are wide, giving a feeling of spaciousness everywhere. Passengers could choose to travel in the standard conservative palatial cabins, or more modern Art Nouveau cabins with hints of the Art Deco that Ile de France would boast six years later.

The first cabin public rooms are notable, being large and lofty and beautifully decorated. The main saloon, the "Grand Salon de Conversation." is a huge room. It is 75 feet long. 45 feet wide and 21 feet headroom, and even with this great width, there are wide decks out-board. By a clever arrangement of plan and furniture, this great room has many nooks and corners giving privacy to those who desire it. ^[8]

Grand Salon de Conversation on the SS Paris. Forward Salon

Colored image of the Grand Salon de Conversation

The library and reading room adjoins the main saloon.

The Library on board the SS Paris

With its panels of sycamore. It is a handsome apartment. The main saloon opens to the main stairway, which is double and three decks high, with an attractive hall at the lower level. Further aft is another saloon, as large as the main saloon, decorated in the Directoire style.

Aft Salon in decorated in Directoire style

Salon de Mixie on board the SS Paris(aft directoire style)

Buffet, Café and smoking room adjoin each other on two decks and are large, bright and cheerful rooms, paneled with polished oak and rare woods, with a dome skylight over-head. The smoking room is one of the first passenger spaces to boldly use art deco on an ocean liner. The Café Is of the popular "veranda” type, with lattice work outboard.

Smoking room on board the SS Paris

Smoking room aft view SS Paris

Terrace Café, SS Paris

The first class dining saloon Is three decks high in the center, with tables on an intermediate deck each side. The room accommodates 500. The paneling is of Ceylon lemon wood with colored inlaid work. The lighting scheme gives a warm, golden tint that is delightful. ^[9]

First class dining salon

SS Paris First class dining Salon

Forward there is a children’s playroom and a children's dining room and elsewhere are the gymnasium, (lower stand, tourists' bureau, bank, information desk and other features for the comfort of passengers. The first cabin accommodations are all on the upper decks B and C and D, A being the boat deck. ^[10]

Engines[]

Designed originally to burn coal, it was decided in 1920 to make her an oil burner, and she carriers 6,161 metric tons of fuel oil In double bottom and special tanks.

She has 15 double ended 8 furnace Scotch boilers, 17 feet 8 Inches diameter and 27 feet 5 Inches long, designed for a working pressure of 215 pounds and with a total heating surface of 37.620 square feet. They bum oil on the Howden system. All oil piping is in duplicate and any section may be Isolated.

The four Parsons turbines develop 46,000 shaft horsepower and drive four propellers. The high pressure and intermediate pressure turbines are outboard, one on each side in separate compartments, and the two low-pressure elements are side by side In the large engine room amidships. These two are used for maneuvering and the arrangement of valves and gear is ingenious. This plan was used first in the France and later In the Aquitania, Berengaria (ex-Imperator) and Leviathan (ex-Vaderland).

One of the Parsons turbines on board the SS Paris

Abaft the engine room is a compartment containing the electric plant, three turbo generators of 450 KW each and a group of reserve sets of 60 KW each driven by oil engines.^[11]

Oil-fired turbines emerged during the twenties, replacing the pre-war coal system and allowing tidy, near polished perfection in the engine rooms. Finally, interested passengers who were very often gentlemen aboard could be invited below decks by the chief engineer for a tour of the machinery. The ship's propulsion system often impressed these onlookers; the 34,000-ton liner could be driven at 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph) with over 2,500 people hardly feeling the effort. French ships quickly became known as the aristocrats of the ocean, and were very successful. Paris served in a partnership with her "running mate" ship France, making travel between the United States and France a legendary experience.^[12]

Life on board & Accommodations[]

1st class cabin on SS Paris

Deluxe Suite bedroom on SS Paris

Dining room within the Deluxe Suite

Music salon within the Deluxe suite

Another First Class Cabin

There are no bunks in the first cabin quarters, but handsome beds. Some of the beds in the deluxe staterooms are fit for exhibition in any museum. In these rooms, too, is displayed the skill of the French artists responsible for the decorations, for there is no stereotyped repetition but each room is given its own treatment and has its own color scheme. The headroom is ample and the passages are wide, giving a feeling of spaciousness everywhere.

Dining on Paris was excellent, her service was superb, and the living spaces were divinely comfortable and luxurious.^[13] French Line ships had enormous appeal in the twenties-"Floating bits of France itself", as one brochure aptly stated. The cuisine touted as its most outstanding feature, it is said that more sea gulls followed Paris than any other ship in hopes of grabbing scraps of the haute cuisine that were dumped overboard.^[14]

Aft deck on SS Paris, exterior view of Terrance Café

The Paris has accommodations for 3,240 passengers divided as follows:

In the staterooms and suites deluxe. 104

In the first cabin. 418

in the so-called "mixed" class. 50

in the second cabin, 464

in the third class. 2.200. of whom 1,092 are in staterooms and the rest in bunks.

Safety features[]

Great attention has been paid to the safety of the ship, and she Is divided Into 15 watertight compartments. Forward and aft, the bulkheads extend up to D deck and amid-ships to E deck. Her 15 oil-burning boilers are in five compartments with longitudinal bulkheads outboard and these bulkheads extend aft through the engine room.

Powerful pumps are provided to take care of any incoming water and, should the vessel take a list from damage to a side compartment, water ballast can quickly be pumped to the high side to put her again on an even keel.^[15]

The ship's complement Is 664, so that there Is a total of 3,904 persons aboard when she is full. Forty-nine 30-foot boats of two different types are Installed, as well as a powerful 30-foot motor launch equipped with radio. In addition, there are 8 rafts of special type and a whaleboat and a dinghy. Wellin quadrant davits permit the rapid launching of all boats.

A powerful radio system keeps the Paris in constant communication with the shore and with other ships, while her submarine signal apparatus makes navigation in fog and easy matter. ^[16]

SS Paris radio room, 1922

History[]

Paris underway. From this photo you can see her unique stern as well as the very wide Terrace Café that ran her whole beam of 85 feet.

SS Paris promotional material

SS Paris at Le Havre, France

Paris and France at the French Line pier in New York, USA

The construction of Paris began in the , in Saint-Nazaire , in 1913 . Launched on September 12 , 1916, Paris had its commissioning delayed to the year 1921 because of the First World War. The war also involves the displacement of its hull in work in Quiberon for its protection. When completed, it is the largest French ocean liner afloat.

She made her first crossing between Le Havre and New York on June 15, 1921, with Marshal Foch on board . Paris subsequently benefited from the golden age of navigation which followed the war, as well as restrictions due to the American Prohibition. Wealthy Americans flocked to French liners to take advantage of crossings where alcohol is not prohibited. Paris is also the first liner to offer a dance hall in 1929 and a cinema, which adds to its prestige.

On 15 October 1927 in New York Harbor she ran into the Norwegian Besseggen of Skien that was at anchor on the road. This collision resulted in the loss of six Norwegian lives. All blame was put on the officers of Paris. On 7 April 1929, Paris ran aground in New York Harbor; she was refloated 36 hours later.^[17] On 18 April 1929, she ran aground again, this time on the Eddystone Rocks, Cornwall, United Kingdom. She was refloated two hours later, then anchored off Penlee, Cornwall, where 157 of her passengers were taken off by a tender and landed at Plymouth, Devon.^[18] She was severely damaged by fire at Le Havre, Seine-Maritime, France, on 20 August 1929 and sank,^[19] but was refloated on 11 September 1929, was repaired, received a major overhaul and returned to service after being immobilized for six months.

During her career, she made crossings between New York and Le Havre, as well as cruises in the Caribbean and the Mediterranean. With the onset of the Great Depression late in 1929, even the French Line′s stylish ships were sailing only a third full. The French Line avoided the possibility of laying them up by pressing them into cruise work. To some, it seemed scandalous to have such ships lazily roaming the Mediterranean or Scandinavia as cruise ships with a mere 300 passengers on board.

During her last crossings, her hull may have been painted white. However, no photograph of Paris bearing this color has been found. Following the entry into service of the SS Normandie, the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique planned to make Paris a ship exclusively intended for cruises.

This idea will never be implemented. In fact, in 1939, while Paris was moored in Le Havre and art collections were loaded there for the New York World's Fair, a fire broke out in the ship's bakery, which was completely ravaged by flames. The works of art disappeared in the fire followed by a shipwreck. The Paris, has the fate that Normandie will undergo three years later: the extreme quantity water sprayed from firemen from only one side of the ship causes Paris to capsize on the day after the fire. It is necessary to saw the masts of Paris to allow Normandie to leave the dry dock where it was under fairing.

Because of the outbreak Second World War, her hull was not demolished. It will even be the cause of a new accident. Following the breaking of its moorings, the SS Liberté, a liner recently acquired by the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, collided with the hull of the Paris and sank. Refloated in 1947, the Liberté will continue on to have an honorable career under the French flag. As for the hull of the Paris, it was dismantled on site the same year.

Loss[]

On 18 April 1939, Paris caught fire while docked in Le Havre and temporarily blocked the new superliner Normandie from exiting dry dock. She capsized and sank in her berth where she remained until after World War II, almost a decade later. A year after the war had ended, the 50,000-ton German liner Europa was handed over to the French Line as compensation for Normandie and renamed Liberté. While Liberté was being refitted in Le Havre, a December gale tore the ship from her moorings and threw her into the half-submerged wreck of Paris. She settled quickly, but in an upright position. Six months later Liberté was refloated and by spring 1947 she was in St. Nazaire for her final rebuilding. The wreck of Paris remained on the spot until 1947, when she finally was scrapped on site.^[20]

Paris was one of the nearly a dozen French ships destroyed by fire during the 1930s and 1940s.

Wreck of the Paris 1941 in Le Havre

Liberté after being deliberately sunk on an even keel, following her collision with the wreck of Paris, lying on her side top of picture

References[]

Popular Cultural references Downton Abby, Season 6, episode 7 Dowager Countess of Grantham, Violet Crawley, actress Maggie Smith, mentions to Isobel Crawley, actress Penelope Wilton, she will sail on the S.S. Paris from Southampton and will cruise around the Mediterranean.

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Paris (ship, 1921).

• Photos of the SS Paris