Newest image taken yesterday (April 4) in India, just posted on www.midshipcentury.com. More work has been done but not as much as one would think. However, the forward funnel is slightly cut and will probably be gone soon. The cutting now almost seems random as the ship is still not in her "proper" plot.
Originally posted by Peter Knego: Newest image taken yesterday (April 4) in India, just posted on www.midshipcentury.com. More work has been done but not as much as one would think. However, the forward funnel is slightly cut and will probably be gone soon. The cutting now almost seems random as the ship is still not in her "proper" plot.
The web site www.midshipcentury.com was interesting. It shows furniture for sale from the Franconia- The first ship my wife sailed on back in 1969. The asking price for 3 of the ottoman's is about what she paid for the cruise! I can only wonder what happened to the furniture from the Norway.
http://www.revedefrance.com/blue_lady.htm This appeared on another forum, it's dated the same as Peter's pic, but looks fake. My guess is more propaganda from Mr Metha, although aside from the symbolic point, quite what showing a doctored picture of her without her funnel would achieve is beyond me. The real photo's are sad enough.
Posts: 39 | Location: Dorset, UK | Registered: December 06, 2007
.. although on closer inspection, it's not doctored from the april 4th picture, as there is a small boat to her starboard bow which isn't present in the midshipcentury picture, also the tide seems lower, and there's no barge alongside. However, her name doesn't appear to have been removed from the stern as it does in the April 4th pic. On balance, i'm still fairly convinced it's fake.
Posts: 39 | Location: Dorset, UK | Registered: December 06, 2007
Hello Derf, yes you´re right, the picture from revedefrance is a fake. I posted this picture in an other forum before seeing the picture from midshipcentury. After compare the pictures i can say the picture without the funnel is 100% a fake. You can see there little parts of sky deck (near the aft funnel) and olympic deck (near the forward funnel)which are still in place. But on the picture from midshipcentury they are already gone.
Interesting on the reve-de-france image. These people just post anyone's copyrighted photos on their site, permission or not. Anyway, I have not been able to analyze their image too carefully yet but if it is a fake, they seem to have done a better job with it than the current YouTube scam. My agent told me he went to Alang specifically at my request to photograph the ship yesterday. There is no reason for him to send me an old photo but with India, you never know. What is almost certain is that the rest of the forward funnel will be coming down soon, marking a particularly sad milestone in the slow death of this beloved ship. And, I would guess that her interiors are completely stripped by now. Hopefully Mehta, if he has not been able to sell the items at his ridiculous prices, is at least taking care of these things instead of leaving them out in the mud and heat (like he did with so many beautiful but ruined bits of RMS WINDSOR CASTLE).
Hello Peter Knego, although your pictures make me vary sad, i want to thank you for sharing them with "NORWAY-lovers" around the world. midshipcentury is the onliest website in the world where we can see the last actual photos of this unique ship. I don´t know if you can understand what i mean, but i personally need those images for to say good bye to this ship and i`m waiting nearly everyday for news regarding the NORWAY So i want to ask you if it would be possible to tell your agent to take the pictures more often (maybe every week, or every 2nd week)?
Thanks for your message. I get many letters asking me to continue posting these images, as sad as they are. I think they are historically very important and that they reveal a sad reality that most people have never faced regarding these beautiful ships. As much as it hurts to see the photos, I also think it helps with accepting and understanding this process. After so many years of visiting Alang and having witnessed dozens of ships I loved as much or more than NORWAY, I have still am shocked by them, myself. It has made me more determined than ever to sail in and document all the ships that I can as they are all so finite. And if I can rescue things at a reasonable price before they are ruined by the likes of Sanjay Mehta and Ravi Arya (another notorious breaker), then all the better. As for getting more images, I badger my poor agent constantly. At this rate, I have to be happy if he just gets one good view a month and am thrilled when he does more. It is an awful drive to Alang and a risk to take photos (even for him), so he is really being a hero to many by doing what he does. He actually has learned to love these old ships, maybe not as much as we do, but knows now that what he is doing is very important.
Who would have interest to edit picture of the France without one funnel, I don't clearly see if it's fake or not, and I don't see why would it be fake ? In whom interst ? ? ? Still I was a bit shocked by the picture from Rêve de France.
Its clearly a fake. If you follow the Hull where the blue and white meet. You go just past the bridge and before the first funnel There where the second big hole is cut in her. Look down below the second hole right at the water line. On earlier pictures from Peter you can see a big hole cut in the hull right at the water line. In this fake photo the hole in the hull is not there. I am new to this forum as a poster but have read it since it started and will miss this fine Lady as much as many.
Hello again The picture is on Peters site its dated Feb 8 you can see the big hole at the water line right under the second hole from the bow. In this french picture the hole is not there. This is way I am sure it is a fake photo. Also the bridge seems to close to the mast. If you look at these to photos you'll see the whole I'm talking about is now gone. Hope this helps some in seeing this french phot is a fake.
Thank you, Classic Liners. I forwarded a copy of the Reve image to my contact in India. His response was that it was definitely a retouched image and he does not know why someone would do such a thing. He did say that the forward funnel would probably be coming down this week.
I reckon it's a fake - the sky doesn't look right though I don't see the point in faking the picture as the scrapping is well under way in any case. :-(
quote:
Originally posted by Derf: .. although on closer inspection, it's not doctored from the april 4th picture, as there is a small boat to her starboard bow which isn't present in the midshipcentury picture, also the tide seems lower, and there's no barge alongside. However, her name doesn't appear to have been removed from the stern as it does in the April 4th pic. On balance, i'm still fairly convinced it's fake.
... as you can see from one of the earlier photo's, the workers in the small boat in the fore-ground were all kitted out with hard-hats, gloves, and other protective clothing, just as the courts were promised! (and certainly wern't stood in a boat with cotton shirts , shorts and bare feet!)
Posts: 39 | Location: Dorset, UK | Registered: December 06, 2007
Hi everyone, I was reading the latest on the breakup of the SS Norway on the Reve De France website when I came across this message that was posted:
quote:
Saint-Nazaire retrieves memories of France
The city of Saint-Nazaire puts his hand to the pocket and has acquired, for the sum of € 178000, about twenty pieces of the legendary liner France. It is no longer the France, the liner built in Saint-Nazaire and launched in 1960. The naval city has to acquire several works of art: fourteen lacquer panels from the music room Debussy, four aluminum panels that adorn the dining room tourist class, two tables in the dining room of the Carré des Officiers , and a tapestry of the first class lounge smokehouse.
Structure of the acquisition.
To purchase any of these items, the municipality had to be well skilled. "We worked under the cover of anonymity and lowered prices by 50% because if we had given the identity of the Ecomuseum, prices have tripled" Sicard says Daniel, the director of the Ecomuseum. Negotiations have been rough between the Écomusée mandated by the council and supported by Liliane Mickelson, devotees of the boat, and Andrew Shaw, brocanteur.
The total cost of works of art amounts to € 178000. The fourteen panels of the music room for € 100000, the four panels of the dining room € 20000, each of the two 5000 paintings and tapestries € € 48000.
A false?
But it has had little to the council finds himself with a fake on the arm. Indeed, lacquered plywood panels have failed to pass Mandaroux Jean, an artist of the french decorative art. "Thanks to Florence Camard, the expert, that the fraud was discovered. Fortunately, the money has not been released and the transaction stopped, "says Daniel Sicard. But this, it has played a "hair" as Liliane Mickelson.
The artworks will be exhibited at Escal'Atlantic and at City Hall. "You have to develop the heritage. He must live and not to stay in the sheds. In addition, the City can be proud because the Ecomuseum is the only institution of France bringing together such a collection of objects on liners "expresses Joel Batteux, the mayor of Saint-Nazaire.
Dismantlement of the liner.
Meanwhile, France is currently in the Bay of Alang, India, being dismantled. The hull and the vessel chimneys interest the United Arab Emirates. Negotiations are underway to $ 400 million.
Stephanie Leborgne - Press Ocean - April 10, 2008 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If Dubai is able to retreive the Hull and funnels of the SS Norway, they are going to spend a hell of a fortune to rebuild the ship as the SS France again! But if you don't believe me, read the information for yourselves:
cant help thinking, the forward funnel is in bits lying next to the hull plate bearing her name on a picture i saw on another forum.
I would be interested to see a recent picture of her. I would have thought she is totally unmovable by now (save for a drag forward). Mr Metha would have made sure there are plenty of holes cut close to the waterline.
Posts: 39 | Location: Dorset, UK | Registered: December 06, 2007
