"The Blue Lady" Remembered. A Card Deck For The Ocean Liner "France"
Kishor Gordhandas
16 February 2008, 02:01In the year 1960, Madame Charles De Gaulle launched what was to the last transatlantic Liner built, designed for year round express service across the North Atlantic to New York. The Ship was called France and the owner was the Compagnie Generale Transatlantique (CGT), known as French Line, and she made her maiden voyage to New York in February 1962. A special non-standard pack of cards was produced for the maiden voyage of the ‘France’. Designed by M. Marie, the pack was made by B. P. Grimaud.
The Ace of each of the four suits depicts a previous ship named France with the court cards showing representative crew and passengers of the appropriate era. The two Jokers show 20th century cabin boys of the French Line. The cards have gold corners and the pack comes as a pair with different colour backs in an upright white double box. It is quite likely that the cards were available for a few years after 1962.
The Hearts, Clubs, and Diamonds suits show ships, all called France, owned by the French Line, while the Spades suit shows a ship from 1664 that pre-dates the founding of the company. The designs on the Spades suit reflect the fact that in 1664, King Louis XIV’s adviser, Colbert, was instrumental in persuading the King to establish a mercantile fleet and this date is viewed by some as the start of commercial French international marine trade.
The CGT’ Line’s ship France of 1864 is featured on the Diamonds suit. This ship had an astonishing long life and was finally scrapped in 1910 having given CGT 46 years service. The crew and passengers of the Liner France of 1912 are shown on the Clubs suit. This was the only four-funnelled ship built in France and was by far the largest ship built for the CGT and was scrapped in 1935 after 23 years service.
The France of 1962 is shown on the Hearts suit. This ship carried 407 First Class and 1,637 Tourist Class passengers at a speed of about 40 mph between Europe and New York. At 66,348 tons she was not at that time the biggest liner in the world but she was, still is, and likely always to be the longest at 1035 feet. Why the date printed on the Ace of Hearts is 1961 is uncertain. Construction of the ship began in 1957, was launched in 1960, and made her maiden voyage in 1962. The new Liner was undergoing sea trials in 1961, and the date printed on the cards may reflect this. France was a popular ship, but still needed to be sustained by a subsidy from the French Government. With air travel superseding travel to the USA by ship, and fuel prices rising, trans-Atlantic passenger service by ship became uneconomical. So in 1974, when the French Government withdrew their subsidy, after only 12 years service the France was laid up in Le Havre awaiting an uncertain future.
In 1979, the ship was purchased by a Norwegian cruise line and was converted from an enclosed cold weather Atlantic liner into an open hot weather cruise ship. Speed was no longer an issue and engines were replaced with more efficient ones that reduced her speed to about 15 mph, but cost a lot less to run. The France was renamed Norway, and under that name had a second career from 1980 on operating as a cruise ship out of Miami, in the Caribbean. In this role she was a great success, and inspired the construction of today’s huge cruise liners. In the year 1992, when two additional decks were added to increase the passenger capacity and maintain her profitability, this sleek ‘ocean greyhound’ lines of the France/Norway were somewhat spoiled.
In the year 2003, a serious fire in the ship’s engine room put her future in doubt and she was towed to Bremerhaven, Germany, to assess the cost of new boilers. The owners decided that she would not sail again commercially but she made a final voyage to Port Kerlang in Malaysia in 2005 where it was proposed to convert the ship into a floating casino. However, attempts to preserve them or adapt these liners for another purpose, almost always end in failure. It would seem likely that soon France-Norway will meet her destiny in a scrap-yard in the far east. The Playing Cards of the ship are likely to long outlive her.
Readers will be interested to know that, France/Norway was recently beached for scrapping at Alang, near Bhavnagar, Gujarat State and is now being demolished. It’s something of a coincidence that the France/Norway, made in France and circled around the globe is now here in India for scrapping. while the ‘France’ Playing Cards, commemorating her and all ships of that name from the year 1664 onwards, have obtained Historical status. It is truly a collectible item now!
