between 1935 and 1939. She was the first liner longer than l ,000 fee t, o ne of the onl y three ever to gross more than 80 ,000 tons, the fi rst of the mammoth breed to sport a clipper-type bow and a raki sh hull that encased the apogee of Gallic lu xury. The Normandie was not a money-maker in her short life, and she came to a sad end . The enemy didn ' t sink her at sea; she burned and went down ignominiously at her West 48th Street pier in Manhattan in 1942, while incompetents were transformi ng her into a troop ship . Navy salvage experts learned their trade by raising her, but she was a dowdy hulk , useless for war or peace , and was hauled off to a knacker' s yard in New Jersey to be demoli shed. Mr. Bray nard captures the spi rit that people in ves ted in this queen of the seas. The Normandie was a nova that bri ghtened the firmament of ships for a moment , only to fade a few years before her pro ud contemporaries , the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth , also were lost in a storm of travel innovation. RI CHARD F. S HEPA RD Mr . Sh epard was fo r many years maritime reporter fo r The New York T imes. This review originally appeared in The T imes and we gratefully ackno wledge their permission to reprint it here . The Last Grain Race, Eric Newby (V iking-Penguin , New York , 1986 (repr. 1956 ed .) , 25 lpp , $7.95 pb) After reading Eric Newby's colorful yam of his voyage round Cape Horn in the Moshulu just before World War II , I happened to lunch aboard the great bark , now fi tted out as a restaurant ship in Philadelphia. The fine food did not excuse what had been done to the staunch Cape Homer, winner of the last Grain Race from Australia to the United Kingdom. I went on deck and tried to see past the phony riggi ng and spars. Everywhere, one was reminded that she was now a dead ship . Trivial wire lawn fu rnitu re stood on the now spongy rotted decks. It was hard to believe that thi s was where the seas broke gree n and deadly as the big fo ur poster ran th ro ugh the roaring forties. Her bell caught my eye. On it was inscribed " Kurt , Hamburg ." As I looked at that piece of well tra velled bronze I saw the ship again , her spars towering over the shipyard cranes on Belfas t Lough . This time 1 saw her through the eyes of young Eric Newby. Eric Newby is a likable writer. H e was not, however, the most popul ar me mber of the crew- at least not according to other Englishmen who sailed with him SEA HISTORY , AUTUMN 1987
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