 The "lady" of the title is the French luxury liner Normandie. When it was built, it was the largest and most luxurious ocean liner afloat. On its maiden voyage in 1935, she set a trans-Atlantic speed record that stood for 3 years. When war came to Europe in the late 1930s, she was moored in New York to keep her out of German hands. Shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government seized the ship, renamed her the USS Lafayette, and started refitting her as a troop carrier. A fire in February 1942 gutted her, and so much water was used to extinguish the fire, that she listed and lay on her side at her New York pier. It took about 17 months to get her shipshape again to serve in the war.