Giant Liner Leaves Port -- An aerial view of the giant giant liner Normandie as she left St. Nazare on May 5. The French super liner, 79, 280 ton Normandie, went out to sea for the first on May 5, through a channel specially dredged for her through the River Loire. She left St Nazaire for Brest for final speed trials before the maiden voyage to New York on May 29. June 3, 1935. (Photo by Associated Press Photo). During World War II, Normandie was seized by U.S. authorities at New York and renamed USS Lafayette. In 1942, the liner caught fire while being converted to a troopship, capsized onto her port side and came to rest on the mud of the Hudson River at Pier 88