A LADY FIGHTS BACK

out of the passing parade of our time we take now not the story of a human being but of a mass of gigantic living machinery over which lay the curse of one of the darkest mysteries of the war her name we all remember Normandy and this is the story of her life and death in 1935 we forgot the depression in all New York turned out to meet her for the first time it was the coming-out party of a mechanical princess and you'd have thought she was a world famed hero instead of a machine she had crossed the peaceful ocean in four days three hours and two minutes she was the fastest thing that ever floated on water while radio networks broadcasts her arrival over the nation everything in the north river that could hoop tour tutor whistle went into action Tony SOGs overgrown Mickey Mouse floated along in the wind the fireboats tried to turn the harbor into one great mountain board and they actually drape to american beer with flowers and streamers of silk france afloat she was called the france that in our minds stood for crystal flagons of perfume and two hundred dollar dresses and dry champagne the france that would never have to grow serious again she was longer than the Empire State Building more than a thousand feet she had 11 decks and 22 elevators she carried two thousand passengers and 1300 servants to wait on Polly would never call to a movie set as enormous and impressive as her love in the main dining salon seven hundred persons could feast at one time the latest movies were shown every night in her theater you could swim inside in the indoor pool if you liked art the greatest painters have done the murals that glittered everywhere and you could kneel to pray in the Magnificent Chuck in the vast shining kitchens a hundred and eighty nine chefs prepared your meals the stoves were 56 feet long more than half a million pounds of food was stored in the refrigerator's 21,000 bottles of champagne and 30-year old bourbon an 18 year old scotch and 60 year-old brandy were stored in her wine cellars 4,000 pounds of fresh caviar were carried on every voyage and it was the most of the chefs but no dish ever invented anywhere on the earth could not be prepared and served to you if you desire even the dogs were provided with a menu grilled French lamb chops chicken liver patties food for dogs that one day the human beings of Europe would dream about as they themselves faced starvation this was the Normandy hundreds lounging sleepily on the sundeck the swimming pools of crystal water ping pong if you are full of pet wireless telephones to any office on the globe and special decks of toys and games just for your children little French children many of them now orphans who do no more dancing in the Sun and finally and at night the lovers standing close together by the rail and the wind blowing in their hair and the old romantic words spoken out to the sea but the ship they sailed upon was not fast enough to race ahead of hate you the party was over out from the steel shell came the silver in the goal the crystal and polished woods the lady was now prepared to work for a living soul of Normandy was forgotten because Americans now face the tragic business of war yet one night they looked up saw a stunning sight the one time luxury liner Normandy a fire at a midtown Manhattan gear as the three top decks go up in smoke 200 of the 1,500 workmen converting her into the Navy auxiliary Lafayette are trapped aboard fire engines and fireboats battle to bring the blaze under control tons of water poured into the smoky Inferno threatened to unbalance the mighty vessel four hours the blaze rages and a 20-degree list snapped the mooring losses those five tubs pushing against the utah output to keep her from capsizing damage about 5 million dollars but the Navy says the ex queen of the Atlantic will again sail the seas you like the nation that gave her birth that normally was gone she was lost in the darkness of bitter ill-luck and tragic error yet in the wreckage of the nation men began to stir and with a kind of desperate power the impossible began to become reality and as Frenchmen staggered toward Africa to form new armies the wreckage that was the Normandy too slowly began the return to life the scenes that follow in a few seconds actually cover weeks and months of ceaseless toil and although the Navy was careful not to tell it to the world it was in this virtually impossible feat of engineering that we learned for mysteries and trained the men who saved the ruined fleet at Pearl Harbor and thus performed one of the mechanical miracles of the Second World War you and this is the last few our cameras were allowed to take a bird as the one time princess now gray with battle paint sailed past the Statue of Liberty and into the secrecy of war now she's a tool in the Navy which will cleanse the Atlantic of submarines sweep the hidden minds away free the ocean of its deadly fear and make it once again a place where white and shining palaces and sail in peace and that is the story of a ship her life her death and her resurrection the passing for