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Under her own power for the very first time, shepherded by a flotilla of tugs and pilot boats, the great ship eased slowly seawards along the broad estuary of the river Loire to begin the trials which would shortly culminate in the raising of the red ensign and her acceptance by Cunard. Towering some 200 feet above the sea, the aseptic whiteness of her superstructure warmed by the setting sun, the sheer majesty of her presence was sufficient to stop traffic on the sweeping Pont de Saint-Nazaire and raise cheers from the thousands of expectant 'Nazairiens' who packed the quays, the jetties and the shoreline east and south of the town.

Constructed by Alstom-Chantiers de l'Atlantique, Queen Mary 2 is the latest and grandest creation of the various shipyards which, over the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, have helped transform Saint-Nazaire from the sleepy fishing village whose potential was first recognized by Napoleon 1, into one of the most important ports in France. Initially developed in conjunction with the Clydeside firm of John Scott, these sweep along the right bank of the river, their industry and bustle conjoining with that of the commercial port and the facilities of Airbus. Encompassing much of the eastward extension of Saint-Nazaire, the Chantier's slipways, docks and gantries are isolated from the residential developments of the Second Empire by the Saint-Nazaire and Penhoët Basins, huge wet docks which together extend for almost a mile to the north of the Avant Port.

For almost a century and a half these yards and basins have given life to an enviable dynasty of vessels, both military and commercial; to warships such as Strasbourg and Jean Bart, and to opulent liners such as Paris, Ile de France and the beautiful, inimitable Normandie, the scale and grandeur of whose construction during the years immediately preceeding the Second World War would serve to redefine not only the engineering potential of the port, but also its physical form.

At 80,000 tons very much the giant of her day, Normandie entered service in 1935 her speed and luxury speaking volumes for the particular skills of the Penhoët Yard, the organization contracted to build her for the 'French Line'. Designed for the singular purpose of pampering the rich and famous as they travelled in style between Europe and America, there was a certain irony in the fact that her own journey to completion during the depression years had been characterized above all else by acute shortages of cash: for in addition to the financial strains imposed by her groundbreaking construction, the extent to which Normandie would dwarf existing facilities required major, and expensive, alterations to the structure of the port itself, giving Saint-Nazaire the configuration that would become familiar to planners of both sides during the war years. Prior to her keel being laid it was necessary to construct a completely new building slip, in addition to which excavations began at an early stage for the vast new lock by means of which Normandie, having been launched into the river, would be able to reach her fitting out berth in the land-locked Penhoët Basin.

Completed in 1932 this structure, amongst the largest of its kind in the world, was officially named the Forme Ecluse Louis Joubert, after the then President of the Saint-Nazaire Chamber of Commerce: however, because of its intimate association with so famous a ship many would come to know it simply as the 'Normandie' dock.

Truly massive by the standards of the day, it was 350m long, 50m wide and 16m deep. Capped at each end by hollow 1,500 ton steel caissons, which could be wound in and out of sockets set into the western quayside, it had the very great advantage of being able to act as passage lock or dry dock as required. Capable of housing ships of up to 85,000 tons, the vast enclosure could be filled in only fourteen hours by powerful impeller pumps hidden deep beneath the Pumping Station next to the southernmost winding house. Considering the ease with which it could accommodate the most powerful warships then known, the 'Normandie' dock's strategic location and scale gave it an obvious military value; however, the more sinister implications of this were yet to be discerned in a world drifting only slowly towards war.

On 29 October, 1932, Normandie was launched to the strains of La Marseillaise and towed through the great dock to begin the lengthy process of fitting out. In the event her transformation into the ship whose honour it would be to win for France the Blue Riband for the fastest passage between Old World and New, was to take two and a half years; and it was not until 5 May, 1935, that she was ready to meet her element as the last word in elegance, the most beautiful ship afloat.

With Captain Rene Pugnet as master, she returned through the Forme Ecluse and, escorted by the destroyers Adroit and Foudroyant, made her way along the narrow channel which wound its way through the treacherous estuary shoals. As she slipped past the cheering multitudes who had come to bid her Godspeed, her departure was attended by ceremony such as would not be seen again until it was time for the new Queen Mary to make the same triumphant passage almost seventy years into the future.

Having been, for so many years, the pride of Saint-Nazaire, the departure of both great ships, despite their separation in years, would precipitate the same emotional void and the same fears for the continued employment of the multiplicity of skills which had contributed to their speed and beauty. However, while the new Queen Mary stands at the threshold of a working career likely to encompass some forty years of peaceful service, Normandie's days of glory were already numbered by the ignoble fate awaiting her in the distant Hudson River: and as for all those who had come to cheer her passage, who amongst the throng could possibly have foreseen the crushing, demoralizing occupation that would all too soon follow defeat in war - still less the bloody battle which, in March of 1942, would play itself out amidst the very quays and jetties where they had stood at the moment of their city's greatest triumph.