SS France/Norway


Book Description

Completed in the early 1960s, the France was the last of the great French Line passenger ships on the celebrated run to and from New York. She was not only the national flagship, but the longest liner yet built, and a ship with fantastic interiors, superb service, and the most exquisite food. Highly successful, she did lose out in the end to the unsurpassable speed of jet aircraft, was laid-up, and lingered for five years before becoming a hugely successful cruise ship. In 1979–80, the indoor France was converted to the outdoor Norway. She became the largest cruise ship in the world, an innovator, a great prelude to today’s mega-liners. She endured until 2005 and has since ended her days at the hands of scrappers in far-off India. Indeed, she was one of the greatest, grandest, most beloved of all 20th-century ocean liners.




Atlantic Liners: A Trio of Trios


Book Description

They formed three trios of wonder ships. From the Cunard Line came the Lusitania, Mauretania, and Aquitania. From the White Star Line came the Olympic, the infamous Titanic, and the Britannic. From the Hamburg-Amerika Line came the Imperator, Vaterland and Bismarck, which would later find service as Cunard's Berengaria, the U.S. Line's Leviathan, and White Star's Majestic. They were, in turn, the fastest, most powerful, largest and most luxurious ocean liners that had ever sailed that ocean. Some would find great success; others would suffer disaster. Their careers would be affected by natural elements, by mismanagement, and by the brutalities of war. Their fates were also inextricably intertwined. The all-new 2009 Version of "Atlantic Liners" boasts over 730 photos, as well as nearly a dozen general arrangement plans of the ships. An Introduction has been penned by Mark Chirnside.




France Norway


Book Description

The dean of ocean-liner historians brings to life one of the last transatlantic liners: the legendary France, later renamed Norway. As a dedicated passenger during both the vessel's lives, John Maxtone-Graham is in a perfect position to give us this rich, profusely illustrated history of France/Norway. The French Line's dazzling ocean liner S.S. France was alone in her class until the arrival of the QE2 in 1967. She was fast, chic, lavishly manned, and offered sumptuous catering. For a dozen years she was a star on the North Atlantic. However, in the summer of 1974, with jet airliners dominating transatlantic travel, France was withdrawn and allowed to molder for five years. Then a miraculous reprieve: the head of Norwegian Cruise Line decided to buy France; the vessel was revamped for warm weather and rechristened Norway. One of the last North Atlantic liners became the Caribbean's first megaship. The singularity of this incredible hull that sailed in two contrasting modes demands remembrance—she was the pioneering big ship, popularizing a scale of cruising then unknown.




Hitler's Pre-emptive War


Book Description

An “excellent” history of the often overlooked WWII campaign in which Hitler secured a vital resource lifeline for the Third Reich (Library Journal). After Hitler conquered Poland and was still fine-tuning his plans against France, the British began to exert control over the coastline of neutral Norway, an action that threatened to cut off Germany’s iron-ore conduit to Sweden and outflank from the start its hegemony on the Continent. The Germans responded with a dizzying series of assaults, using every tool of modern warfare developed in the previous generation. Airlifted infantry, mountain troops, and paratroopers were dispatched to the north, seizing Norwegian strongpoints while forestalling larger but more cumbersome Allied units. The German navy also set sail, taking a brutal beating at the hands of Britannia, but ensuring with its sacrifice that key harbors would be held open for resupply. As dive-bombers soared overhead, small but elite German units traversed forbidding terrain to ambush Allied units trying to forge inland. At Narvik, some six thousand German troops battled twenty thousand French and British until the Allies were finally forced to withdraw by the great disaster in France, which had then gotten underway. Henrik Lunde, a native Norwegian and former US Special Operations colonel, has written the most objective account to date of a campaign in which twentieth-century military innovation found its first fertile playing field.




SS Normandie


Book Description

Learn the full story behind the most decoratively striking of all the great Atlantic liners, the SS Normandie A creation of the extravagant 1930s, the Normandie was the pride of the great French Line, the national flagship, and a ship well ahead of almost all other passenger ships of her time. She was the largest, longest, and fastest, but also the most decoratively stunning and had the most striking and innovative overall design. Her dining room was longer than the famed Hall of Mirrors at Versailles and her outer decks were uncluttered, superbly balanced, and streamlined. Her career was, however, highly dramatic and quite tragic in the end. She sailed commercially for just four years, and then was laid up in New York due to the start of World War II; she suffered the fate of burning at her pier, capsizing, and becoming a complete loss. In 1946, to the great sadness of her endless fans, the 11-year-old ship went to the breakers. This book, through added insight and anecdotes by experts with many superb, unpublished photos, greatly adds to the story of this finest of French liners.




Foreign Legions of the Third Reich


Book Description

Bind 1 (norske, danske og franske frivillige), bind 3 (sydeuropæiske frivillige) og bind 4 (østeuropæiske frivillige) findes under SYSnumrene hhv. 5088, 5099 og 5105.




The Persistence of Technology


Book Description

Repair, reuse and disposal are closely interlinked phenomena related to the service lives and persistence of technologies. When technical artefacts become old and worn out, decisions have to be taken: is it necessary, worthwhile or even possible to maintain and repair, reuse or dismantle them - or must they be discarded? These decisions depend on factors such as the availability of second-hand markets, repair infrastructures and dismantling or disposal facilities. In telling the stories of China's power grid, Canadian telephones, German automobiles and India's shipbreaking business, among others, the contributions in this volume highlight the persistence of technologies and show that maintenance and repair are not obsolete in modern industries and consumer societies.




A History of Ocean Liners in 50 Objects


Book Description

Explore the history of ocean liners through the objects that bring them to life. Liners represented the ambitions of their nations in peace and war; their design, interiors and fittings incorporated the finest contemporary technological and artistic features. In peacetime they carried celebrities, vacationers and emigrants; while in war they carried thousands of troops – and then war brides seeking new lives. A History of Ocean Liners in 50 Objects takes in evolving technology, supreme luxury and fine cuisine, as well as hardship and the burning hope for a better life. There is peril, disaster and death, international pride and competition, glory and war. The objects tell a fascinating story, showing how the functional sea voyage has evolved from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century to the huge cruise industry we have today.




The Black Diamond


Book Description




Concentrated Investing


Book Description

Discover the secrets of the world's top concentrated value investors Concentrated Investing: Strategies of the World's Greatest Concentrated Value Investors chronicles the virtually unknown—but wildly successful—value investors who have regularly and spectacularly blown away the results of even the world's top fund managers. Sharing the insights of these top value investors, expert authors Allen Benello, Michael van Biema, and Tobias Carlisle unveil the strategies that make concentrated value investing incredibly profitable, while at the same time showing how to mitigate risk over time. Highlighting the history and approaches of four top value investors, the authors tell the fascinating story of the investors who dare to tread where few others have, and the wildly-successful track records that have resulted. Turning the notion of diversification on its head, concentrated value investors pick a small group of undervalued stocks and hold onto them through even the lean years. The approach has been championed by Warren Buffett, the best known value investor of our time, but a small group of lesser-known investors has also used this approach to achieve outstanding returns. Discover the success of Lou Simpson, a former GEICO investment manager and eventual successor to Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway Read about Kristian Siem, described as "Norway's Warren Buffett," and the success he has had at Siem Industries Concentrated Investing will quickly have you re-thinking the conventional wisdom related to diversification and learning from the top concentrated value investors the world has never heard of.