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When launched the empty hull weighed 32,000 tons. Completed the Normandie will be a liner of 73,000 tons, thus far outranking the present world's largest Majestic (56,621 tons). As everyone knows the Bremen is the world's fastest ship, with a transatlantic performance of a little more than 4½ days,† a horsepower of 100,000. The Normandie with 160,000 h. p. is expected to outspeed the Bremen, the Rex and the new high-speed liner which Italy is putting into service late this month, the Conte di Savoia.
Luxury on the Normandie will begin in her engine room where a vibrationless electric drive will transmit power from steam turbogenerators to four 40,000-h. p. electric motors, one on each propeller shaft. No other great liner is thus driven, but electric drive has proved practical on the world's most powerful ships, the U. S. aircraft carriers Lexington and Saratoga, each driven by eight 22,500-h. p. motors.
Luxury of appointments on the Normandie will include fresh bath water in all first-class cabins, a theatre with permanent seats (as distinguished from the usual liner's ballroom-theatre), ten passenger elevators, a winter garden boasting 150 tons of dirt and the largest chapel, largest garage, largest nightclub, largest room (the Dining Salon) afloat.
*Worst recent fiasco was the launching of the latest German pocket battleship (TIME, June 1, 1931). She was one-third into the water before Christener-President Paul von Hindenburg cried, "Deutschland be thy name!"
†Designed to be faster, the Rex suffered a delay on her maiden voyage (TIME, Oct. 10), may beat the Bremen later.