PHOTO CREDIT DNAinfo/Julie Shapiro
Last Thursday, the mellifluous blast of the SS Normandie‘s steam whistle once gain reverberated across the piers of the South Street Seaport in New York. The blowing of the steam whistle celebrated the anniversary of the arrival of French luxury liner to New York seventy five years ago. A new exhibit at the South Street Seaport Museum also celebrates the grand old ship – DecoDence: Legendary Interiors and Illustrious Travelers Aboard the SS Normandie.
I had every intention to stop by the Seaport to hear the whistle blow but couldn’t get away. Fortunately Will at the Tugster blog video-taped the proceedings. While this was the first time in 25 years that the Normandie’s steam whistle has sounded at the seaport, its beautiful bellow is heard yearly at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Conrad Milster, the chief engineer at the Pratt Institute, has been the custodian of the whistle for 25 years. Every year the Normandie whistle, along with others in his collection are blown to welcome in the New Year.
Bosun send a man to polish that brass!!
Good Watch
Thank you. I’m so glad to have found your website and to hear Normandie’s whistle. Tho I never heard it before, I did get to see her standing proudly at her NYC berth shortly before she succumbed to the fire that caused her death. My father served aboard her – changing over her engine room from French to American – at that time. Tho I was only 4 years old at the time, I still remember her clipper-ship bow, arcing gracefully into the night, high above me. Hearing her whistle and seeing her maiden voyage and her demise thru your site brought tears to my eyes. As any sailor will who has lost a ship, my father mourned her death.
Hello Eleanor,
That is a wonderful story about the Normandie’s sad demise. Thanks for passing it along. It is great that Conrad Milster and others have preserved the whistle and just a bit of the ship’s proud heritage.
S.S.normandie Whistles