A little whimsy for a Thursday afternoon with a step back in time to the glamour of ocean liners in the 1960s. This website celebrates the 50th anniversary of the launch of The France which was the longest passenger ship ever built at the time of her launch in 1960. She was built at the Atlantic yard in Saint-Naizaire by the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique which has connections to John Scott of Scott Shipbuilding and Engineering.
The company ordered its first three ships from the Greenock yard of John Scott and in 1861 asked him to establish a shipbuilding yard for them at Saint-Nazaire-Penhoët. By 1863 Scott was employing 1,800 workers at the new yard
The website has a beautifully designed interactive cross-section map of the ship here which if you zoom in allows you to click on the different sections and see images of the rooms and facilities of the ship all decked out in great modernist style.
The website is part of the National Maritime Museum of France and there is an exhibition on the liner at the Paris museum until 23 October 2011.
