title: SS France (1960)

text: In the end, the ship was sold in 1979 to Knut Kloster, the owner of Norwegian Caribbean Line for $18 million for conversion into the world's largest cruise ship. Just before "France" was renamed "Norway" one last marriage was performed aboard the ship at the quay in Le Havre. The wedding was performed by Reverend Agnar Holme, the Norwegian Seaman's chaplain. Greg Tighe, Director of Research and Corporate Development for NCL, was married to Lorraine Anne Evering in "France's" chapel. Witnesses included the ship's Captain, and several members of NCL's management team. This marked the last marriage to be performed aboard "France", which had hosted hundreds of weddings over her transatlantic career.


title: SS France (1960)

text: By August of that year "Norway" was moved to the Lloyd shipyards in Bremerhaven, Germany, where she would undergo renovations to the cost of $80 million.


title: SS France (1960)

text: "Norway" was registered in Oslo, given the call sign LITA (literally meaning "small"), and was re-christened on 14 April 1980. She was the first (and only) purpose-built transatlantic ocean liner that was remodeled to be employed exclusively in luxury cruise service. Her hull form, bow design, and accommodation layout had been designed specifically for the rigors of crossing the North Atlantic, year-round. In her remodeling for cruise service, she was given a more generous accommodation, as well as larger and more numerous public spaces for the cruise-type recreations. Mechanically, the four screw propulsion plant was reduced to two screws. And in a bid for economy, she was given a complete set of bow/stern thrusters to give her the flexibility she needed to bring her into harbour and to dock without resorting to the expensive pilot and tugboat operations that were standard procedure in the heyday of the transatlantic express liners. When her re-fit was completed, and on her maiden call to Oslo, Senior Steward Wesley Samuels of Jamaica, in the presence of King Olav V, hoisted the United Nations flag as a sign of the ship's international crew.


title: SS France (1960)

text: She began her maiden voyage to Miami that same year, amidst speculation about her future in the cruise industry. "France" had been built as an ocean liner: for speed; long, narrow, with a deep draft, as well as an array of cabin shapes and sizes designed in a compact manner more for purpose travel than languid cruising. But "Norway" proved popular, and made the notion of the ship being a destination in itself credible. Her size, passenger capacity, and amenities revolutionized the cruise industry and started a building frenzy as competitors began to order larger ships.


title: SS France (1960)

text: As cruise competition attempted to take some of "Norway's" brisk business, "Norway" herself was upgraded several times in order to maintain her position as the "grande dame" of the Caribbean. In September and October 1990, there was the addition of two decks atop her superstructure, adding 135 new suites and luxury cabins. While many ship aficionados believe the new decks spoiled her original clean, classic lines, the new private veranda cabins on the added decks were instrumental in keeping "Norway" financially afloat during the later years of her operation, as these became a common feature throughout the cruise industry. She received additional refits in 1993 and 1996 in order to comply with the new SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea) regulations.


title: SS France (1960)

text: Competition eventually overtook "Norway", and she even started taking a back seat to other, newly built ships in NCL's lineup itself. No longer the "Ship amongst Ships", NCL severely cut back on her maintenance and upkeep. She experienced several mechanical breakdowns, fires, incidents of illegal waste dumping, and safety violations for which she was detained at port pending repairs. Despite the cutbacks, the ship remained extremely popular among cruise enthusiasts, some of whom questioned the owner's actions in light of the continuing successful operation of "Queen Elizabeth 2", which had become a well-maintained rival still operating 5-star luxury cruises and transatlantic crossings for Cunard. In spite of this, the cutbacks continued and problems mounted even as the ship continued to sail with full occupancy. A turbocharger fire erupted on "Norway" as she entered Barcelona in 1999, which pulled her out of service for three weeks. During one of the following cruises to Norway she broke down in Bergen with leaks to one of the propeller seals delaying sailing until repaired.


title: SS France (1960)

text: Slated for retirement, "Norway" sailed out of Manhattan's west side piers for the last time on 5 September 2001, on yet another transatlantic crossing to Greenock, Scotland, and then on to her home port of Le Havre, France. Her passengers would learn of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington six days later, while in mid-ocean. As the cruise industry reeled from the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, her owners decided to place her back into service – operating bargain-basement cruises from Miami, after a brief cosmetic refit that failed to address her mounting mechanical and infrastructure problems.


title: SS France (1960)

text: On 25 May 2003, after docking in Miami at 5:00 a.m., "Norway" was seriously damaged by a boiler explosion at 6:37 a.m. that killed eight crew members and injured seventeen as superheated steam flooded the boiler room and blasted into crew quarters above through ruptured decking. None of the passengers were injured. The National Transportation Safety Board determined that "the probable cause of the boiler rupture on the "Norway" was the deficient boiler operation, maintenance, and inspection practices". On 27 June 2003, NCL/Star decided to relocate "Norway", and she departed Miami under tow, although at first NCL/Star refused to announce her destination. She headed towards Europe and eventually arrived in Bremerhaven on 23 September 2003. NCL announced that constructing a new boiler was not possible but boiler parts were available to make the needed repairs. In Bremerhaven she was used as accommodation for NCL crew training to take their places on board the line's new Pride of America.


title: SS France (1960)

text: NCL originally planned for "Norway" to sail empty from Germany to Miami, but a pre-inaugural cruise was added, with only a select number of passengers allowed to sail. Starting from Oslo, Norway, stopping at Southampton, England, and ending in New York City. A 6-day cruise to Bermuda was planned but cancelled at the last minute in favor of fixing some problems. She set sail on her first inaugural cruise from Miami, Florida, on 1 June 1980, a 7-day cruise with only two stops, one in Little San Salvador then followed by a stop in St. Thomas, USVI. The other days of the cruise were sea days as "Norway" was the destination itself. This remained her main itinerary from 1980 to 1982 until NCL announced Nassau, Bahamas was added. By 1985 St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles was added. In 1987 her new itinerary was introduced: a 7-day cruise from Miami stopping at St. Maarten, St. John, USVI; St. Thomas and Great Stirrup Cay. Her Western Caribbean cruises later introduced were 7-days stopping at Cozumel, Mexico; Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands; Roatan and NCL's private island Great Stirrup Cay. Between regular cruising in the Caribbean and dry dock periods, she sailed many cruises to Western Mediterranean, Western Europe coast, Northern Europe, the British Isles and the Norwegian fjords.


title: SS France (1960)

text: Her official farewell cruise was a 17-day transatlantic cruise from Miami stopping at New York; Halifax, Nova Scotia; St John's, Newfoundland and Labrador; Greenock, Scotland; Le Havre, France and ending in Southampton. But a decision was made to keep "Norway" sailing bargain-based Caribbean cruises out of Miami. This continued until her demise in May 2003.


title: SS France (1960)

text: "The "Norway" will never sail again," it was announced on 23 March 2004, by NCL Chief Executive Colin Veitch. The ship's ownership was transferred to NCL's parent company, Star Cruises.


title: SS France (1960)

text: Due to large amounts of asbestos aboard the ship (mostly in machine and bulkhead areas), "Norway" was not allowed to leave Germany for any scrap yards due to the Basel Convention. After assuring the German authorities that "Norway" would go to Asia for repairs and further operation in Australia, she was allowed to leave port under tow. It was reported that the art from her two dining rooms, children's playroom, stairtower, and library were removed and placed in storage, to possibly be utilized on board a revitalized , or another ship in the NCL fleet. Later photos of "Norway" at the scrapyards of Alang, India, would prove this statement to be untrue. "Norway" left Bremerhaven under tow on 23 May 2005, and reached Port Klang, Malaysia on 10 August 2005.


title: SS France (1960)

text: In fact, the ship was sold to an American naval demolition dealer for scrap value in December 2005. After eventually reselling the ship to a scrap yard, the ship was to be towed to India for demolition. In light of protests from Greenpeace, potentially lengthy legal battles due to environmental concerns over the ship's breakup, and amidst charges of fraudulent declarations made by the company to obtain permission to leave Bremerhaven, her owners cancelled the sale contract, refunded the purchase price, and left the ship where she was.


title: SS France (1960)

text: "Norway" was sold in April 2006 to Bridgend Shipping Limited of Monrovia, Liberia, and renamed "Blue Lady" in preparation for scrapping. One month later she was again sold, to Haryana Ship Demolition Pvt. Ltd., and was subsequently left anchored in waters off the Malaysian coast after the government of Bangladesh refused "Blue Lady" entry into their waters due to the onboard asbestos. Three weeks later, the ship began its journey towards Indian waters, though it was announced that she had left Malaysian waters for the United Arab Emirates for repairs and to take on new crew and supplies.


title: SS France (1960)

text: Upon learning of the ship's destination, Gopal Krishna, an environmentalist and an anti-asbestos activist, filed an application before the Supreme Court of India to ensure that the ship, reportedly containing asbestos, complied with the Court's 14 October 2003 order which sought prior decontamination of ships in the country of export before they could be allowed entry into Indian waters. On 17 May 2006, Kalraj Mishra expressed his concern to the Indian Parliament over possible hazards "Blue Lady" presented, and requested that the government put a halt to the ship's entry. As the Indian Supreme Court had lifted any ban on the ship's entry, "Blue Lady" was anchored 100 km off the Indian coast in mid-July, coming from Fujairah, UAE.


title: SS France (1960)

text: This also cleared the way for her scrapping at Alang, in Gujarat, pending an inspection of the on-board asbestos by experts from the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB).


title: SS France (1960)

text: After GPCB chairman, K.Z. Bhanujan, said the Board had constituted an experts' committee for inspection, "Blue Lady" was docked in Pipavav, Amreli district. On 2 August 2006, after a five-day inspection, the experts declared the ship safe for beaching and dismantling in Alang. This prompted a fury of controversy over the legality of such an act, including a press release from the NGO Platform on Shipbreaking that critiqued the technical report, alleging that the Technical Committee was under undue pressure to allow the ship to be beached, and had failed to follow the Basel Convention and the Supreme Court of India's order that ships must be decontaminated of hazardous substances such as PCBs and asbestos, and, in any case, must be fully inventoried and formally notified prior to arrival in the importing country. No such notification was made by either Malaysia (last country of departure) nor Germany (country where the ship became waste).


title: SS France (1960)

text: The NGO Platform on Shipbreaking also announced that it was prepared to launch a global campaign against Star Cruises and their subsidiary Norwegian Cruise Lines for corporate negligence in this case.


title: SS France (1960)

text: Photos from Alang revealed that "Blue Lady" was still partially afloat off the coast; her bow on dry beach at low tide, and the ship fully afloat at high tide. The photos also showed that neither NCL nor Star Cruises had removed any of the ship's onboard furniture or artworks (including the murals in the Windward Dining Room and Children's Playroom, and the Steinway piano in Le Bistro), as had previously been reported.


title: SS France (1960)

text: Fans of "France" became concerned about the future of the art pieces, both due to the ship lying at anchor in a very humid environment without power for air conditioning, and due to lack of concern for preservation on the part of the scrappers. Still, it was stated that as of early September 2006, the ship's owner had signed contracts with various buyers, including auctioneers and a French museum, to sell the artworks. Other fittings were to be sold by the ton.


title: SS France (1960)

text: Gopal Krishna again moved an application seeking compliance with the Basel Convention, and three days later the Indian Supreme Court decided that the scrapping was to be postponed, stipulating that the Technical Committee, which earlier approved the scrapping, were to write a new report to be submitted before the Court's final decision. That decision was reached on 11 September 2007 (the 33rd anniversary of "France's" last day on the Atlantic), when the court ruled that "Blue Lady" was safe to scrap, a decision that was received negatively by environmentalists.


title: SS France (1960)

text: By 4 December of the same year, it was confirmed that the tip of "Blue Lady's" bow had been cut; a ceremonial move done to most ships that end up in Alang just prior to the full-scale breaking of a ship. It was confirmed on 20 January that "Blue Lady" had commenced scrapping. Scrapping began on the forward part of the sun deck. The suites added during the 1990 refit were gone by March, briefly returning the ship to her pre-1990 profile.


title: SS France (1960)

text: By 12 July 2008 the bow and the stern of the ship had been removed, with little of the ship's famous profile still recognizable. By September 2008, most of what remained above the waterline had been cut away, and the ship's demolition was essentially completed by late 2008.


title: SS France (1960)

text: In 2009 the tip of the bow of "Blue Lady" was returned to the country of her birth as one of a catalogue of auction pieces removed from the ship before scrapping commenced. The auction was held on 8 and 9 February. It is now on public display at Paris Yacht Marina, Port de Grenelle, Paris 15e.


title: SS France (1960)

text: In January 2010 one of the two sets of neon letters which sat atop the superstructure of "France" before her conversion was restored and put on display. The letters, which spell "France", were displayed at the Musée national de la Marine in Paris. After this they were returned to Le Havre and presented to the Musée Malraux, and now face the front of the harbor.


title: SS France (1960)

text: When "France" was commissioned in 1956 the French Line asked for a ship which was to be the longest ever built, as well as one of the fastest. But beyond the technicalities, the ship was also to be an ocean-going symbol of France and thus had to be artfully designed. Her 316-meter (1,035 ft) hull was designed with a traditional tumble-home, but with a flared stem line at the bow, which ended in a bulbous bow beneath the waterline, evoking similar lines on . Also similar to "Normandie", "France" was equipped with a whaleback on her bow.


title: SS France (1960)

text: Deckhouses on France's superstructure were built of aluminium, to reduce the ship's weight and thereby conserve fuel in operation. Within the superstructure a full-length outdoor promenade deck was designed into both sides of the Pont Canots. Unlike on many other ships, this deck did not wrap completely around the ship, being blocked at the forward end by cabins built in behind the bridgescreen.


title: SS France (1960)

text: One of "France"s most distinguishable features were her funnels, designed not only to be eye-catching but functional as well. They were constructed with two wings on the sides, each to lead the exhaust fumes outwards into the ship's slipstream, where they would be caught by the wind and carried away from the passenger decks below. In addition, each stack had a device that filtered solids from the outlet, returned it into the depths of the ship and then disposed of it into the ocean.


title: SS France (1960)

text: Despite the modern appearance of "France", she was painted in the traditional CGT colours, used since the 19th century, of a black hull with red boot-topping and white superstructure, and funnels in red with black cap-bands.


title: SS France (1960)

text: In the conversion of "France" into a ship used for cruising, many alterations were made to her exterior decks.


title: SS France (1960)

text: Most notably, vast areas of deck space were opened up, and extended at the stern. A large lido deck was created at the very aft, built so wide, to accommodate as many sunbathing passengers as possible, that it cantilevered over the hull below, which narrowed in towards the stern at that point. The terrace off the First Class Smoking Room was lost in the construction of an outdoor buffet restaurant, and the Patio Provençal on the Sun Deck was filled in with a top-side swimming pool. This last addition created an odd space on "Norway", where a tunnel-like space remained around the tank of the pool, into which the original exterior windows and doors of the surrounding cabins, which once looked into the Patio Provençal, still opened, all in their original 1960s colours.


title: SS France (1960)

text: On the forecastle, behind the whaleback, the two cargo kingposts were removed and giant davits were installed to hoist two two-deck, 11-knot tenders, built by Holen Mekaniske Verksted in Norway, and used to transfer passengers between "Norway" and island docks where the harbour would not allow for the ship's 9-meter (35 ft) draft. Based on a World War II landing craft design, these tenders were named "Little Norway I" and "Little Norway II", and were each themselves registered as ships, making "Norway" the only passenger ship in the world to carry ships. The two tenders were removed after the ship's retirement and moved to Norwegian's private island at Great Stirrup Cay in the Bahamas. Both vessels are still in service.


title: SS France (1960)

text: Below the waterline, the forward engine room was dismantled and the two outboard propellers were removed to reduce fuel consumption as a high service speed was no longer required as she was now a cruise ship.


title: SS France (1960)

text: Her operation was revived three further times, in 1990, 1997, and 2001, after machinery, decks, and recreational facilities were renovated. During her 1990 refit, two further decks were added to the top of her structure that featured luxury suites with private verandas. This addition raised her overall tonnage to 76,049 (reclaiming the title of largest passenger ship in the world, from the 73,000-ton "Sovereign of the Seas"), her passenger capacity to 2,565, and gave her a competitive edge against newer ships being built at that time which featured more and more private balcony suites for their passengers. The addition of the decks was criticised by ship fans for making "Norway" appear top-heavy.


title: SS France (1960)

text: "France"<nowiki>'s</nowiki> interiors were where the ship displayed its purpose as a showcase of modern French art and design. However, the interior designers were burdened with the pressure of living up to France's last great Ship of State, "Normandie", whose interiors had been on a scale never surpassed either before or since her construction. On top of this they had to work within the more strict fire regulations laid down after the end of World War II, which gave them a limited palette consisting of few woods and much aluminium, Formica, and plastic veneers. This was very much like the interiors of , put into service nearly ten years previous, and inspired the design of the public rooms on "Queen Elizabeth 2" eight years later. Also, fire regulations would not allow "France" to have the grand vistas that were constructed through "Normandie's" main First Class rooms. "France's" only double-height spaces were the theatre, First Class smoking room, and both first and tourist Class dining rooms.


title: SS France (1960)

text: One area given an unusual amount of attention was the ship's kitchens; 1,500 square meters in area, and placed almost amidships, between the two dining rooms which the one kitchen served. It was thought by the CGT directors that "France" would not only display the best in French art and design, but also French cuisine. The kitchens were equipped with the most advanced machinery available, as well as many traditional cooking aides, including a stove that was 12 meters long and 2.5 meters wide. Staffed with 180 of "France"'s best cooks, sauce and pastry chefs, rotisserie cooks, head waiters and wine stewards, this team made "France" one of the finest restaurants in the world, and the food on board prompted food critic Craig Claiborne to state "France's" Grille Room was the "best French restaurant in the world."


title: SS France (1960)

text: "France's" dog kennels were located on the Sun Deck, and, as they served both European and American dogs, the run was installed with both a Parisian milestone and a New York City fire hydrant.


title: SS France (1960)

text: For First Class passengers, the Pont Veranda (Veranda Deck) held most of the public rooms. These included the Library and Reading Room, Smoking Room, Grand Salon, and balcony of the theatre, which was dedicated to First Class passengers only. These rooms were arranged down the centre of the ship, with large, glass-enclosed promenades to either side. The Library was a circular room with glass and lacquered aluminum enclosed book-cases all around, holding 2,200 editions, and was overseen by an attendant who regulated the borrowing and returning of books, as well as assisting passengers with their choices. The Grand Salon had a raised ceiling in the centre, over the abstract grey and white marble mosaic dance floor, with lower more intimate spaces at the corners. The theatre, which functioned both as a Proscenium (live theatre) and cinema, sat 185 in the balcony, and 479 on the orchestra level, and had a projection booth which could handle 16, 35, and 70 mm film. Until the 1990s it was the largest theatre ever constructed on a ship. However, one of the main showpieces of the First Class salons was the Smoking Room at the very aft of the Pont Veranda. It had a raised section in the centre flanked by columns and double-height windows to port and starboard.


title: SS France (1960)

text: One level down was Pont Promenade, the main Tourist Class deck. The main lounges and rooms here were the Library, Smoking Room, Grand Salon, and orchestra level of the theatre. Like the Pont Veranda, Pont Promenade also had a glass-enclosed promenade along the port and starboard sides of the ship, though the windows did not run full height, nor were the spaces as long.


title: SS France (1960)

text: Pont A held both First Class and Tourist Class dining rooms. These rooms served as the gastronomic counterparts to the smoking rooms, in terms of importance, and thus of form and décor. The First Class Dining Room was located amidships, and spanned the full width of the ship, accommodating 400 passengers. The centre of the space rose to a circular dome, some 5.5 m (18 ft) high and, as on "Normandie", passengers entered from one deck up (Pont Principale) and descended a grand, central staircase to the main dining room floor. Glassware, of which there was 4,800 wine and water glasses, was provided by Saint-Louis crystal factory, and tableware consisted of 22,000 china items, with 25,500 pieces of silverware. The Tourist Class Dining Room similarly was two decks high, but differed in that it had dining on the upper level, with only a well between the two floors, and no connecting staircase. It was placed aft of the kitchens, and sat 826 people. Next to the upper level of this dining room was the Children's Dining Room, which allowed both First and Second class parents to dine without the "inconvenience" of young children.


title: SS France (1960)

text: After the first few of "France's" cruises, CGT executives realised that there was a problem regarding the naming of the public rooms. After her entrance into service, the rooms were simply known as the "First Class Grand Salon," "First Class Dining Room," "Tourist Class Library," etc. However, during a cruise, where class barriers were withdrawn and all passengers were allowed to use all the spaces equally, it became a slight embarrassment for a passenger travelling in a large cabin to ask a steward for directions to the Tourist Class Dining Room. Hence, proper names were applied to each room to avoid the issue:


title: SS France (1960)

text: Some anomalies that contravened the class lines were "Bar de l'Atlantique", essentially an after-hours club for drinking and dancing late into the night which was open to both First and Tourist Class passengers, the Tourist children's playroom, and the chapel, also open to both classes, all of which were located on First Class Pont Veranda.


title: SS France (1960)

text: The décor of the rooms was regarded itself as art, with many notable French designers and artists commissioned to create the most striking spaces at sea. Beyond this, many pieces of artwork were especially ordered to adorn the walls of the dining rooms, lounges and cabins. Within the Salon Riviera the tapestry by Jean Picart le Doux dominated the entire forward wall, at 17.4 m (57 ft) long. In the same room two paintings by Roger Chapelain-Midy occupied niches in opposite corners to the aft. The overall interior was designed by André Arbus, who had previously worked with Chapelain-Midy to design sets for a performance of Les Indes galantes at the Palais Garnier in 1952. Slightly forward, the Salon Fontainebleau was decorated by Maxime Old, and within was contained three tapestries by Lucien Coutaud ("Les femmes fleurs"), two by Claude Idoux ("Jardin magique", "Fée Mirabelle") and Camille Hilaire ("Sous-bois, Forêt de France"). Near to that room was the Salon Debussy (Music Room) with three bronze lacquered panels by Pierre Bobot, and a bronze abstract sculpture of a young woman playing a flute, by Hubert Yencesse. The theatre's interior was done in red, grey and gold by Peynet, with the ceiling in grey mosaic tile, and the port and starboard walls in vertical gold lacquered aluminium panels, tilted outwards to allow for recessed lighting from behind. The chapel's interior was created by Anne Carlu Subes (daughter of Jacques Carlu) in silver anodized aluminium panels arranged in a 45-degree grid pattern. Jacques Noël created trompe-l'œil panels for all four walls of the First Class Children's Playroom in a Renaissance theme, and Jean A. Mercier painted a full mural entitled "Une nouvelle arche de Noé" (A New Noah's Arc) for the Tourist Class Children's Playroom, using an abstract rendition of "France" as the Arc. The Bar de l'Atlantique contained two ceramics by Pablo Picasso, as well three other ceramic sculptures ("Faune cavalier", "Portrait de Jacqueline" and "Joueur de flûte et danseuse") by the artist in the Salon Saint-Tropez.


title: SS France (1960)

text: Lower down the dining rooms were fitted out with the intention that the rooms would be visual equivalents of the excellent food served within them. The Chambord dining room was decorated by Mrs. Darbois-Gaudin in gold anodized aluminium, with monochrome chairs in red, orange and cream. The dome, painted black, contained an array of recessed spot-lights, and sat within a circular band of translucent, fluorescent-lit panels, all on a truncated rotunda of gold aluminium. Around all four walls of the room Jean Mandaroux's continuous mural, painted on 17 lacquered aluminium sheets, was entitled "Les plaisirs de la vie": The Pleasures of Life. Less sumptuous in design, the Versailles dining room was done by Marc Simon in tones of green, white and grey. The walls were produced from Polyrey and Formica with a decoupaged gold leaf abstract pattern. Only the forward wall held a mural done in 14 engraved glass panels by Max Ingrand, as well as two tapestries, "Les amoureux du printemps" by Marc Saint-Saëns, and "Paysage provençal" by Auvigné. Lowest in the ship, the walls of the First Class swimming pool were covered with back-lit engraved glass panels by Max Ingrand, and a ceramic sculptural fountain by Jean Mayodon sat at the forward end of the room.


title: SS France (1960)

text: The First Class cabins also showcased design and art, especially in the Appartements de Grand Luxe. There were two aboard "France", amidships, on the port and starboard sides, on Pont Supérieur. Each had a salon, dining room, two bedrooms, and three bathrooms. The Appartement de Grand Luxe Île de France held a painting, "La place de la Concorde", by Bernard Lamotte, as well as one, "Parc de Versailles", by Jean Carzou, who also designed the suite's main salon. Slightly less expensive were the Appartements de Luxe, of which there were 12, as the Appartement de Luxe Flandres with a painting of Jean Dries. Each of these was decorated by artists, including the bathrooms where mosaic artwork adorned the walls around tubs and showers. Some of the mosaics were by the sculptor Jacques Zwobada.


title: SS France (1960)

text: After the ship was purchased by Kloster in 1979 many of the original 1960s interiors were lost as rooms were either demolished within larger renovations, or redecorated to suit Caribbean cruising, under the direction of maritime architect Tage Wandborg and New York interior designer Angelo Donghia. Areas that were completely remodelled included all of the Tourist Class public rooms, and their indoor promenade areas were filled with prefabricated "junior suite" cabins. The former Versailles dining room, now the Leeward, saw the least remodelling, the wall finish and etched glass mural remaining; however, carpeting and furniture was replaced, the open well was lined with smoked glass and aluminium handrails, an aluminium chandelier was placed over the two-storey space, and a spiral staircase was installed to connect the two levels. The former Salon Saint Tropez became "Norway's" North Cape Lounge for cabaret and other shows; the décor more dark and muted. Further forward on the same deck, the old Café Rive Gauche was transformed into the ship's Monte Carlo casino. With the promenade windows now within cabins, no daylight penetrated to the casino, and so all windows were filled in. The Tourist Class swimming pool, its glass dome gone after the construction of the open pool deck above, was filled with neon lights and covered with a glass dance floor as part of the remodelling of the entire space into the ship's Dazzles disco.


title: SS France (1960)

text: However, most First Class rooms were left intact, save for the Salon Riviera and Salon Fontainebleau. The former was transformed into the Club International (dubbed Club-I by "Norway" aficionados), where every element of the original décor was removed. The square columns were made round with vertical aluminium fluting, the walls were repainted in a cream with baby-blue in the ceiling and wall niches, and all the original artwork and furniture was removed. In the corner niches oversized, crystal encrusted Neptune statues were placed, and similar crystal garlanded busts sat on brackets on the forward bulkhead. Lounge seating, sofas and rattan chairs were placed amongst potted ferns, giving the room an overall Miami art-deco feel. Only the railings and bronze, star-shaped light fixtures were original to the room. The latter space was gutted and remade into Checkers Cabaret; a small show lounge with abstract chrome palm trees around the columns, red lacquered wall panels, and a black-and-white checker board dance floor, again evoking a 1920s jazz club. The First Class Library remained untouched, and still used for the same purpose, while the Salon Debussy was turned into a shop, though its bronze décor and distinctive ceiling remained intact. To either side of these rooms ran the original First Class promenade decks, which were now turned into main circulation halls along the ship's principal public deck; the starboard dubbed Fifth Avenue and the port as Champs-Élysées, complete with columnar advertising posts similar to those found in Paris.


title: SS France (1960)

text: "France" was constructed by the CGT with speed and comfort in mind, and used the most advanced technology of the time in the design of the ship's propulsion system and other power generating machinery. Fuel costs were also an added factor.


title: SS France (1960)

text: Her engines consisted of eight high-pressure, super-heating boilers delivering of pressure and , all weighing 8,000 tons. This delivered and provided for a service speed of and a maximum speed of , with a fuel consumption of 750 tonnes of oil in a 24-hour period. The machinery turning the four propellers was divided into two fore and aft groups, as was the electrical generating station.


title: SS France (1960)

text: When "France" was converted into "Norway", the speed for trans-Atlantic crossing was no longer needed, and so the forward boilers and engines were shut down and eventually dismantled. This move also reduced the fuel consumption to 250 tonnes per 24 hours. The remaining four boilers and engine room were made fully automated, and operated from either a central control station below decks, or from the bridge. Five bow and stern thrusters, developing 10,600 hp, were also installed to increase manoeuvrability in ports without the assistance of tugs.


title: SS France (1960)

text: The Ric Hochet comic album "Rapt sur le France" published in 1968, the story takes place on "France". The front of the comic shows a ship named "France", with the distinctive funnels visible.


title: SS France (1960)

text: "France", as one of the last transatlantic ocean liners before the jet age, was also treated as the connection between, for example, New York and France. This was shown well in "Le Gendarme à New York" where the main characters sail on "France". The film also shows some of the 60s' interior of the ship. At the conclusion of the 1973 film "Serpico", the title character can be seen sitting on the dock with the vessel behind him, as he prepares to sail on her into exile after testifying against the New York Police Department. During the opening of "Dog Day Afternoon", also directed by Sidney Lumet, there is a shot of "France" docked in New York during the opening montage.


title: SS France (1960)

text: "France" was the ship that Elton John crossed the Atlantic Ocean in September 1974, and wrote the music to Bernie Taupin's lyrics for the Captain Fantastic And the Brown Dirt Cowboy album, on the ships piano.


title: SS France (1960)

text: "France" appears in the "" episode "The Werewolf" as the cruise ship (on which the story takes place) at sea.


title: SS France (1960)

text: In 1983, Anne Murray and guests, Richard Simmons, Eddie Rabbitt, and Luis Rodriguez performed musical numbers while aboard the "Norway" for a TV show called Caribbean Cruise.


title: SS France (1960)

text: In 1986, french singer Michel Sardou released a single "Le France" about the end of the ship that was a huge hit in France and French-speaking countries.


title: SS France (1960)

text: "Norway" appears in the 1989 María Sorté/Enrique Novi Mexican telenovela "Mi Segunda Madre" from episode 18 as the cruise ship (on which the romantic story takes place) at PortMiami and at sea.


title: SS France (1960)

text: "Norway" appears during the closing credits of the 1994 Sylvester Stallone/Sharon Stone feature "The Specialist" in a flyover of the Port of Miami.


title: SS France (1960)

text: In 1994, the "Norway", was featured in the children's show Real Wheels in the episode "There Goes A Boat".


title: SS France (1960)

text: On 30 July 1998, at the request of a passenger, the pilots of Proteus Airlines Flight 706 made a slight detour from their intended route from Lyon to Lorient in Brittany, to see "Norway" that was anchored in nearby Quiberon Bay. While circling the ship at a low altitude to give passengers a birds-eye view of the iconic former French vessel, the twin-engined Beechcraft 1900D was hit by a Cessna 177, causing both to crash into the bay and killing all 15 people aboard both aircraft. The event was chronicled in the Canadian TV series, "Mayday" season 16, episode 5: "Deadly Detour".


title: SS France (1960)

text: In "The Simpsons" season 25 episode 12 "Diggs" originally broadcast on March 9th, 2014 the episode's Couch Gag featured an animation by Sylvain Chomet. A picture of "France" replaced the picture of the boat.


title: SS France (1960)

text: "France" was also seen in the 2015 animated feature "Minions". As the Minions leave the water in New York City in 1968, the "France" is seen in the background.


title: Goliad massacre

text: The Goliad massacre was an event of the Texas Revolution that occurred on March 27, 1836, following the Battle of Refugio and the Battle of Coleto; 425–445 prisoners of war from the Texian Army of the Republic of Texas were executed by the Mexican Army in the town of Goliad, Texas.The men surrendered under the belief they would be set free within a few weeks, however this was not to be. Despite appeals for clemency by General José de Urrea, the massacre was carried out by Lt. Colonel José Nicolás de la Portilla, under orders from General and President of Mexico, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna.


title: Goliad massacre

text: The entire Texian force was killed, except for 28 men who feigned death and escaped. Among these was Herman Ehrenberg, who later wrote an account of the massacre; William Lockhart Hunter survived despite being bayoneted and clubbed with a musket. Because of the intervention of Francita Alavez (known as the "Angel of Goliad"), 20 more men were spared to act as doctors, interpreters, or workers. Also spared were the 75 soldiers of the Miller and Nashville Battalion, who were given white arm bands. Among those killed were commanders Colonel James Fannin (of the Coleto battle) and Lieutenant Colonel William Ward (of the Refugio battle).


title: Goliad massacre

text: After Santa Anna learned that a force of Texas rebels was heading toward Matamoros, he sent General Urrea to march north along the coast of Texas to stop them. Urrea arrived in Matamoros and worked to secure cooperation from the local inhabitants on January 31, 1836. Meanwhile, General Sam Houston had persuaded all but 70 to 100 men and their leaders, Frank W. Johnson and James Grant, to give up on the expedition and to defend locations in Texas, principally Goliad. On February 12, Fannin took most of the men to defend Presidio La Bahía at Goliad, which he renamed "Fort Defiance".


title: Goliad massacre

text: On February 16, Urrea crossed the Rio Grande with 188 cavalry and 205 infantry. He recruited about 200 Tejano volunteers from the area, including some previously sympathetic to the Texians, to join him. At 3:00 a.m. on February 27, Urrea's advance patrol surprised Johnson and about 45 men, initiating the Battle of San Patricio. Urrea's force killed 16 men and took 24 prisoners. Johnson and four others escaped in the darkness and rejoined Fannin's command at Goliad, where they said that all the prisoners had been executed. They had first given this account at a ranch where they had taken refuge after the escape. Urrea had sent 18 of the 24 prisoners to Matamoros, where they were sentenced to death, but later released. Johnson's news persuaded Fannin to abandon any further attempt to send relief to the Alamo or to try to secure badly needed supplies waiting at Matagorda; he prepared the Presidio La Bahía at Goliad for defense against the advancing Mexican Army.


title: Goliad massacre

text: On March 2, at the Battle of Agua Dulce, Grant was killed, as were about 20 other men under his command.


title: Goliad massacre

text: On March 6, the Mexican force under Santa Anna stormed the Alamo and killed the garrison. On March 14, Colonel William Ward and 200 men, who had been sent to help Captain Amon B. King evacuate colonists at Refugio, were surrounded by Urrea's force. Although Ward and his men fled that night during a blinding rainstorm, the Mexicans overtook part of Ward's force, killing 18 and capturing 31. King and a group were executed on March 16 at Refugio. After capturing one of Fannin's messengers, who was carrying dispatches that told of the commander's plan to wait at Goliad and retreat after King and Ward returned, Urrea ordered the execution of 30 prisoners who he decided were mercenaries. He freed more than 20 others who he determined to be Mexicans or colonists, so he would not be hindered by taking prisoners along on his advance on Fannin's force.


title: Goliad massacre

text: On March 19, Urrea had quickly advanced and surrounded 300 men of the Texian Army on the open prairie, near La Bahia (Goliad). The two-day Battle of Coleto ensued, with the Texians holding their own on the first day. The Mexicans received overwhelming reinforcements and heavy artillery. In this critical predicament, Fannin and the majority of the men voted to surrender the Texian forces on March 20. Led to believe that they would be paroled and released into the United States, they were returned to the fort at Goliad, now their prison. Albert Clinton Horton and his company had been acting as the advance and rear guards for Fannin's company. Surprised by an overwhelming Mexican force, most were chased off and escaped, but 18 were captured and marched back to Goliad. The 75 soldiers of William Parsons Miller and the Nashville Battalion were captured on March 20 and marched to Goliad on March 23. On March 22, William Ward and the Georgia Battalion (80 men plus Ward) surrendered after escaping from the Battle of Refugio. About 26 men were retained at Victoria as laborers, but 55 of the prisoners were marched into Goliad on March 25.


title: Goliad massacre

text: The Mexicans took the Texians back to Goliad, where they were held as prisoners at Fort Defiance (Presidio La Bahia). The Texians thought they would likely be set free in a few weeks. Urrea departed Goliad, leaving Colonel José Nicolás de la Portilla in command. Urrea wrote to Santa Anna to ask for clemency for the Texians. Under a decree that Santa Anna had pressed and which was passed by the Mexican Congress on December 30, 1835, armed foreigners taken in combat were to be treated as pirates and executed. Urrea wrote in his diary that he "...wished to elude these orders as far as possible without compromising my personal responsibility." Santa Anna responded to this entreaty by repeatedly ordering Urrea to comply with the law and execute the prisoners. He also had a similar order sent directly to the "Officer Commanding the Post of Goliad". This order was received by Portilla on March 26, who decided it was his duty to comply, despite receiving a countermanding order from Urrea later that same day.


title: Goliad massacre

text: The next day, Palm Sunday, March 27, 1836, Portilla had between 425 and 445 Texians marched from Fort Defiance in three columns on the Bexar Road, San Patricio Road, and the Victoria Road, between two rows of Mexican soldiers; they were shot point blank. Wounded survivors were clubbed and knifed to death. Forty Texians were unable to walk. Thirty-nine were killed inside the fort under the direction of Captain Carolino Huerta of the Tres Villas battalion, with Colonel Garay saving one, Jack Shackelford. Fannin was the last to be executed, after seeing his men killed. He was taken by Mexican soldiers to the courtyard in front of the chapel, blindfolded, and seated in a chair. He made three requests: that his personal possessions be sent to his family, to be shot in the heart and not the face, and to be given a Christian burial. The soldiers took his belongings, shot him in the face, and burned his body along with those of the other Texians killed that day.


title: Goliad massacre

text: The entire Texian force was killed, except for 28 men who feigned death and escaped. Among these was Herman Ehrenberg, who later wrote an account of the massacre; William Lockhart Hunter, also of the New Orleans Greys, who survived despite being bayoneted and clubbed with a musket; and four members of Shackelford's Red Rovers: Dillard Cooper, Zachariah S. Brooks, Wilson Simpson, and Isaac D. Hamilton, who escaped after days on the run. Because of the intervention of Francita Alavez (known as the "Angel of Goliad"), 20 more men, including Shackelford, were spared to act as doctors, interpreters, or workers. Also spared were the 75 soldiers of Miller and the Nashville Battalion. They were later marched to Matamoros. Spared men were given white arm bands and, while wearing them, could walk about freely. They were advised not to take off the arm band, since Mexican troops were hunting for those few who had escaped from Coleto, Victoria, and the massacre itself.


title: Goliad massacre

text: The Goliad massacre contributed to the frenzy of the Runaway Scrape. After the executions, the Texians' bodies were piled and burned. Their charred remains were left in the open, unburied, and exposed to vultures and coyotes. Nearly one month later, word reached La Bahia (Goliad) that Santa Anna had been defeated and had surrendered while trying to flee at the Battle of San Jacinto.


title: Goliad massacre

text: General Thomas J. Rusk found the remains of the massacre victims in June 1836 and gave orders for a formal military funeral. The remains were interred at a location southeast of the Presidio la Bahia. This has since been preserved and designated as the Fannin Memorial Monument. The location of the gravesite was forgotten until years later, when human bone fragments were discovered by a group of boys.


title: Goliad massacre

text: The massacre is commemorated in Walt Whitman's poem "Song of Myself", section 34. This is featured in his collected poems titled "Leaves of Grass". In 1939, the Fannin Memorial Monument by Raoul Josset was erected at the gravesite. It features an art deco relief sculpture and the names of the men who were killed.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: Tinker Air Force Base is a major United States Air Force base, with tenant U.S. Navy and other Department of Defense missions, located in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, surrounded by Del City, Oklahoma City, and Midwest City.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: The base, originally known as the Midwest Air Depot, is named in honor of Oklahoma native Major General Clarence L. Tinker, the first Native American major general.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: Tinker is the headquarters of the Air Force Materiel Command's (AFMC) Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center (OC-ALC), which is the worldwide manager for a wide range of aircraft, engines, missiles, software and avionics and accessories components. The commander of Air Force Sustainment Center (AFSC) is Lieutenant General Tom D. Miller and the commander of the OC-ALC is Major General Jeffrey R. King. The host unit at Tinker is the 72nd Air Base Wing (72 ABW) which provides services and support for the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center and its tenant organizations. The Wing and Installation Commander of Tinker Air Force Base is Colonel G. Hall Sebren Jr.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: Tinker Air Force Base is named in honor of Major General Clarence L. Tinker. An Osage from Pawhuska, Oklahoma, he received his wings in 1921. He was a graduate of Wentworth Military Academy who went on to become the first major general of Native American descent in U.S. Army history.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: In 1926 he was awarded the Soldier's Medal for returning to his blazing aircraft to rescue a fellow officer. On 7 June 1942, he led a flight of B-24 Liberators on a long-range strike against Japanese forces on Wake Island during World War II. General Tinker was killed when his aircraft presumably crashed into the sea. At the time of his death, General Tinker was commander of the Hawaii-based Seventh Air Force.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: Several of the base's access gates are named in honor of persons with historic ties to the base or to Oklahoma. On 9 May 1997, base officials placed the following names:


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: In May 1997 the Base named the gates along Douglas Boulevard after aircraft that had been maintained at Tinker:


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: The base has more than 26,000 military and civilian employees and is the largest single-site employer in the state of Oklahoma. The installation covers approx. and has 760 buildings with a building floor space of over . The base is bounded by I-40 on the north and I-240 on the south.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: With the City of Oklahoma City and Oklahoma County owning several square miles of land adjacent to the base, Tinker is one of the few military bases in a major metropolitan area with sufficient room for expansion. Furthermore, Tinker is located in a community that supports expansion; Oklahoma County voters approved a 2008 measure to purchase the former General Motors Oklahoma City Assembly plant (located adjacent to the base) and lease it to Tinker for future expansion. Now known as Building 9001, the former GM plant houses many shops moved from the main maintenance building, 3001.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: In 1940 the War Department was considering the central United States as a location for a supply and maintenance depot. Oklahoma City leaders offered a site and acquired an option for additional land. On 8 April 1941, the order was officially signed awarding the depot to Oklahoma City. The Midwest Air Depot was formally activated later in 1941.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: The depot was the site of a Douglas Aircraft factory producing approximately half of the C-47 Skytrains used in World War II. The site also produced a number of A-20 Havocs. Production ceased in 1945.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: The first successful tornado forecast in history was issued on 25 March 1948 from Tinker, about three hours before a tornado hit the southeast corner of the base. A granite marker in the Heritage Airpark on the base commemorates the event.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: On September 29, 1957 Buddy Holly and The Crickets recorded "An Empty Cup", "Rock Me My Baby", "You've Got Love", and "Maybe Baby" in the Tinker Air Force Base Officer's Club.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: The base hosted the Space Shuttle "Columbia" and its carrier 747 on April 27, 1981, after its first mission (STS-1) during its journey back to Cape Canaveral. Oklahoma governor George Nigh, Oklahoma City mayor Patience Latting and Apollo 10 Commander Tom Stafford were there to greet the crew. The visiting personnel included Deke Slayton, who traveled beside the craft in a T-38 chase plane. An estimated 100,000 people were allowed to enter the base and take pictures.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: On 14 November 1984, a massive fire that burned for two days destroyed or damaged over in the Air Logistics Center, Building 3001. The resulting repairs cost $63.5 million.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: During much of the 1990s, Tinker was home to the Automated Weather Network switching facility, which consolidated all U.S. military weather data worldwide. Originally located at Carswell Air Force Base, this unit was later moved to an Air Force Weather Agency facility at Offutt Air Force Base.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: In May 1992, Tinker became home to the Navy's "Take Charge and Move Out" (TACAMO) wing, which provides maintenance, security, operations, administration, training and logistic support for the Navy's E-6B Mercury aircraft fleet. TACAMO was the first Navy Air Wing fully integrated on an Air Force base, carrying out a Navy mission in joint operations.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: On 3 May 1999, a deadly tornado caused extensive damage to the northwest corner of the base and surrounding communities. For many days afterwards, Tinker personnel helped by providing shelters, search and rescue, and clean-up efforts.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: The Oklahoma Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul Technology Center (MROTC), a public-private partnership, was started in 2003. MROTC is managed by Battelle Oklahoma and owned by Oklahoma Industries Authority (OIA), a public trust housed in the offices of the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce. The first hangars were completed in 2007.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: Tinker celebrated the 30-year anniversary of the E-3 Sentry from 29 June to 1 July 2007. Past and present airmen were invited to swap stories and learn about the latest upgrades.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: On 13 May 2008, Oklahoma County voters voted in favor of $71.5 million in general obligation bonds, the majority of which has been used to purchase the former General Motors Oklahoma City Assembly plant which is located on the southwest section of the base, next to the runway. A 50-year lease-purchase agreement was executed in September 2008 between Oklahoma County and the Air Force, covering the 3.8 million square foot (353,000 m) facility and surrounding acreage. Oklahoma County officials paid $55 million to buy the plant from General Motors, which is now called the Tinker Aerospace Complex.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: From 2008 to 2015, the Oklahoma Air National Guard's 137th Air Refueling Wing also assumed an aerial refueling mission in accordance with the 2005 BRAC Recommendations. The then-137th Airlift Wing (ANG) relocated from Will Rogers Air National Guard Base to Tinker AFB, was redesignated as an air refueling wing, and associated with the 507 ARW while its C-130H aircraft were redistributed to other ANG airlift wings. In 2015, the 137th ended its associate relationship with the 507th, was redesignated as the 137th Special Operations Wing (137 SOW), and returned to Will Rogers ANGB, where it operates the MC-12 Liberty aircraft, operationally gained by Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC).


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: In 2015, it was announced that the Tinker was in the running for a squadron of the new KC-46A Pegasus. In October, it was announced that the base would not be receiving the plane, which instead was given to the 916th Air Refueling Wing at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base. Tinker was also in competition with Westover Air Reserve Base and Grissom Air Reserve Base for the plane.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: Two large tornadoes struck Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, damaging or destroying a large number of aircraft including at least two Douglas C-54 Skymasters, a Douglas C-47 Skytrain, and many Boeing B-29 Superfortresses stored from World War II. In the first storm, "54 aircraft were destroyed, including 17 C-54 transports valued at $500,000 apiece. Also destroyed were 15 P-47 fighters and two B-29 bombers. About 50 other planes were damaged and about 100 vehicles were damaged or destroyed." In the second tornado, "84 planes were hit, 35 of which were destroyed. These included 18 B-29s, 8 P-47s, 20 B-17s, and 3 C-47s. Hangars and other buildings were destroyed." Other types destroyed included Beechcraft AT-11s and Fairchild PT-19s and PT-26 Cornells. Damage from the second tornado was estimated at $6,100,000. Total damages for both storms was estimated at $16,350,000.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: Tinker AFB is home to major Department of Defense, Air Force and Navy units with national defense missions.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: The Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex is the largest air logistics center in the Air Force Materiel Command. It provides depot maintenance, product support, services and supply chain management, and information support for 31 weapon systems, 10 commands, 93 Air Force bases and 46 foreign nations. It is the contracting office for the Air Force's Contract Field Teams program.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: The Air Logistics Complex includes the 76 Aircraft Maintenance Group, the 76 Propulsion Maintenance Group, the 76 Commodities Maintenance Group, the 76 Software Engineering Group and the 76 Maintenance Support Group. Combined, these groups provide depot-level maintenance, repair and overhaul of KC-135, B-52, E-3, E-6, and B-1 aircraft, as well as engines, components, support equipment, and associated software for the US Air Force and US Navy.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: The 72nd Air Base Wing is a multi-unit, multi-mission wing that includes base services and support for the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, associate organizations, dependents, and retirees.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: The 38th Cyberspace Engineering Group, Air Force Space Command, has worldwide responsibility for engineering, installation, and interoperability of all communications and electronic facilities for the Air Force.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: Oklahoma Wing Civil Air Patrol Headquarters is located at the base ops building and provides state-level support to the 17 units across the state. The Flying Castle Composite Squadron is a Civil Air Patrol squadron that is composed of cadet and senior members that meet Tuesday evenings.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: The 552nd Air Control Wing flies Air Combat Command's E-3 Sentry AWACS aircraft. The E-3's radar and other sensors provide deep-look surveillance, warning, interception control and airborne battle management. The 552 ACW encompasses 3 groups: 552nd Operations Group, 552nd Maintenance Group and 552nd Air Control Group.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: The 507th Air Refueling Wing of the Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC) is one of two Air Force Reserve flying units in the state of Oklahoma and administratively reports to Fourth Air Force (4 AF). The wing operates twelve KC-135R "Stratotanker" air refueling aircraft at Tinker and is operationally gained by Air Mobility Command (AMC). As an associate unit, the 507 ARW also operates the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) British Aerospace 125-800 aircraft (ex-USAF C-29A) in the aviation standards and navigational aid inspection mission.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: The United States Navy's Strategic Communications Wing One consists of three squadrons and a wing staff, and employs over 1,300 active-duty sailors and 100 contractors to provide maintenance, security, operations, administration, training and logistic support for the E-6 Mercury aircraft fleet. The E-6B Mercury enables the president of the United States and the Secretary of Defense to directly contact submarines, bombers and missile silos enforcing the country's national security through nuclear deterrence. The wing also operates alert facilities for E-6B aircraft at Travis AFB, California and Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: Defense Mega Center Oklahoma City is the local branch of the Defense Information Systems Agency. The Mega center operates computer systems for the base and serves 110 other bases in 46 states.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: Tinker has on-base several offices of the Defense Logistics Agency, the agency that provides supplies to the military services and supports their acquisition and transportation of repair parts and other materials.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: Community support for Tinker can be seen by the establishment of two public/private partnerships that support base operations by using local dollars to make available additional facilities for base use. While these partnerships are technically separate facilities, Tinker's security perimeter is extended around these facilities.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: The first of the public/private partnerships is The Oklahoma Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul Technology Center (MROTC), managed by Battelle Oklahoma, owned by Oklahoma Industries Authority (OIA), and partners with the Department of Defense to provide a national center for technical solutions to aging commercial and military aircraft. The MROTC is a MRO facility, on the southeast side of Tinker AFB, sharing runways and security with the base. The MROTC complex is planned as a major military and commercial aircraft facility with 17 hangars and more than one million square feet of related industrial space and education and training facilities. The facility currently houses three hangars, one leased by Boeing (designed to accommodate Boeing 767-400 class aircraft), a second hangar for 767 for lease, and a third hangar designed to accommodate Boeing 707-300 class aircraft.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: The second of the public-private partnerships is Building 9001, originally known as the Tinker Aerospace Complex housed in the former General Motors Oklahoma City Assembly Plant located west of the runway on the south side of the base, north of I-240. A 50-year lease-purchase agreement was executed in September 2008 between Oklahoma County and the Air Force, covering the 2.5 million square foot (353,000 m) facility and . Previously, the largest single building at the base was Building 3001 at . Tinker has leased about 4/5 of the facility and will host some current 76th Maintenance Wing operations as well as other Department of Defense missions, including work on the C-17 engines, joint strike fighter engines and core work on the new KC-46 tanker. Work being transferred to the complex is currently being done at 69 separate facilities on base, many of which are World War II-era temporary buildings located in runway clear zones. Burlington Northern Santa Fe provides a rail spur into the complex.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: In 2014 Oklahoma County agreed to issue $10 million in bonds to help finance the purchase of a BNSF Railway marshaling yard, just north of the TAC building.


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: In addition to providing space for the work of the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, the Tinker Aerospace Complex can also be used to house public/private business partnerships. Currently, there are three programs. The Cooperative Research and Development Partnership has the objective of advancing science and technology to meet Air Force requirements and transferring technology into the commercial marketplace (CRADA, governed by Title 15 USC 3710a). Public-Private Partnerships, or statutory partnering, is where the government acts as a seller to private industry in either a direct sales agreement, Workshare Partnering Agreement, or a Facilities Use Agreement (governed by Title 10 USC 2474). Finally, the Enhanced Use Lease requires Congressional approval and full fair market value rent for underutilized Air Force assets(governed by 10 USC 2667).


title: Tinker Air Force Base

text: Units marked GSU are Geographically Separate Units, which although based at Tinker, are subordinate to a parent unit based at another location.


title: Maya the Bee

text: Maya the Bee () is the main character in The Adventures of Maya the Bee, a German book written by Waldemar Bonsels and published in 1912. The book has been published in many other languages and adapted into different media. The first American edition was published in 1922 by Thomas Seltzer. The latter's wife Adele Szold-Seltzer (1876-1940), the daughter of Benjamin Szold and younger sister of Henrietta Szold, was the translator.


title: Maya the Bee

text: The stories revolve around a little bee named Maya and her friends Willy the bee, Flip the grasshopper (referred to as "Maja", "Willi" and "Philip" respectively in some versions), Miss Cassandra (Maya's teacher), and many other insects and other creatures. The book depicts Maya's development from an adventurous youngster to a responsible adult member of bee society.


title: Maya the Bee

text: Bonsels' original book contains fewer than 200 pages. The storyline is centered on the relation of Maya and her many adventures.


title: Maya the Bee

text: Maya is a bee born in a bee hive during internal unrest: the hive is dividing itself into two new colonies. Maya is raised by her teacher, Miss Cassandra. Despite Miss Cassandra's warnings, Maya wants to explore the wide world and commits the unforgivable crime of leaving the hive. During her adventures, Maya, now in exile, befriends other insects and braves dangers with them. In the climax of the book, Maya is taken prisoner by hornets, the bees' sworn enemies.


title: Maya the Bee

text: Prisoner of the hornets, Maya learns of a hornet plan to attack her native hive. Maya is faced with the decision to either return to hive and suffer her due punishment, saving the hive, or leaving the plan unannounced, saving herself but destroying the hive. After severe pondering, she makes the decision to return. In the hive, she announces the coming attack and is unexpectedly pardoned. The forewarned bees triumph over the hornet attack force. Maya, now a heroine of the hive, becomes a teacher like Miss Cassandra and shares her experiences and wisdom with the future generation.


title: Maya the Bee

text: It has been suggested that the book may have carried a political message, analogous to Jean de La Fontaine's or Ivan Krylov's work. According to this view, Maya represents the ideal citizen, and the beehive represents a well-organised militarist society. It has also elements of nationalism and speciesism. Maya gets angry in two instances. First, a grasshopper fails to distinguish between bees and wasps. Maya's verbal response includes calling the wasps "a useless gang of bandits" ["Räubergeschlecht"] that have no "home or faith" ["Heimat und Glauben"]. Second, a fly calls Maya an idiot, which prompts Maya to shout that she's going to teach "respect for bees" and to threaten the fly with her stinger. The critic interprets this to mean that respect is based on the threat of violence. Collectivism versus individualism is also a theme. Maya's independence and departure from the beehive is seen as reproachable, but it is atoned by her warning of the hornets' attack. This show of loyalty restores her position in the society. In the hornet attack part of the story, the bees' will to defend the hive and the heroic deaths of bee officers are glorified, often in overtly militarist tones.


title: Maya the Bee

text: In the post-WWII adaptations, the militarist element was toned down considerably, the hornets' role reduced, and the character of Willy, a lazy and quite un-warlike drone bee, was introduced (he does not appear in the novel). In the cartoon series, the briskly marching, but ridiculously incompetent ant armies provide a parody of militarism.


title: Maya the Bee

text: German director Wolfram Junghans made a 1924 silent version ("starring" real insects). The film was lost for a decade until the only original copy of the film was found in Finland. The material was restored in 2005 with a new musical score and released on DVD in 2012, in collaboration with the KAVI and the Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv, and the film was screened in both Hamburg and Helsinki.


title: Maya the Bee

text: Perhaps the most popular and widely known adaptation of the story is the Japanese anime . Originally aired on Japanese TV in 1975, the anime has been dubbed into 42 languages and screened on television in various territories. The Japanese TV series was preceded by Tokyo Kodomo Club's musical play based on the short story, presented as "Mitsubachi Māya" ("Maya the Honeybee"), distributed on an LP album.


title: Maya the Bee

text: The original theme was composed by Karel Svoboda and sung by Karel Gott in the German, Czech and Slovak versions; Zbigniew Wodecki in the Polish version.


title: Maya the Bee

text: In 2012 Studio 100 Animation produced a 78-episode, 13-minute TV series. The series was rendered in CGI animation. A second 52 episode season aired in 2017.


title: Maya the Bee

text: A 2014 film adaptation based upon the 2012 series was released. In 2018, a sequel to the 2014 film, titled "", released on March 1, 2018 in Germany and May 1, 2018 in United States.


title: Maya the Bee

text: In 2021, third film, titled "" was released on January 7, 2021 in Australia. It was delayed from its original 2020 release date due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Maya the Bee

text: "Maya the Bee" also served as the basis for a children's opera written by the Croatian composer Bruno Bjelinski in 1963. In 2008 it was staged in Villach, Austria as part of their Carinthian Summer Music Festival. This performance was distinguished by having the "bees" played by children and not professional opera singers as it is usually the case.


title: Maya the Bee

text: Singer-songwriter Nancy Harrow created a jazz-musical version of the story, called "The Adventures of Maya the Bee", that featured puppets by Zofia Czechlewska. Harrow's adaptation was produced in New York City by The Culture Project in 2000, and was revived in 2012.


title: Maya the Bee

text: On October 10, 2016, Belgian company Studio 100 (the current owners of the series) created a Flemish stage musical called "Maya en de Pollenbollen" based on the 2012 series that has the people dressed in costumes for the characters from the show. The show contains songs made by Studio 100 with a few news songs created exclusively for the show. The musical centers around Maya alongside Flip and Beatrice celebrating Willy's birthday. The musical later returned in the Spring of 2017.


title: Maya the Bee

text: Since 2016, live actors from the original stage show make numerous appearances at numerous stage shows and special events held by Studio 100. Notably Studio 100's annual "De Grote Sinterklaasshow" held from late November till early December featuring Sinterklaas and Zwarte Pieten watching various Studio 100 Characters such as Kabouter Plop, and Piet Piraat (including Maya and friends) perform musical numbers on stage. The same actress that portrayed Maya in the musical is also the official Flemish voice of the character and reprised her role for Studio 100's "De Liedjestuin" where Maya is singing various Dutch children's songs and nursery rhymes. In The French and Walloon version "Le Jardin des Refrains", Maya is played by a different actress.


title: Maya the Bee

text: After Studio 100's acquisition of the franchise, Plopsa began expanding the franchise to its own theme parks. Plopsaland De Panne opened an indoor children's area called "Mayaland" on July 3rd, 2011 before the CGI incarnation's begun airing on numerous television stations across Europe. Maya alongside Flip, and Willy would also appear at other Plopsa owned parks such as Plopsa Coo and Plopsa Indoor Hasselt. In Poland, Plopsa opened an indoor theme park called "Majaland Kownaty" which opened to the public on September 28th, 2018 which is mostly themed to Maya the Bee but features other Studio 100's IPs (such as Bumba and Piet Piraat).


title: Maya the Bee

text: A year after Mayaland opened in Plopsaland, Holiday Park, Germany opened a similar Maya the Bee children's area called "Majaland" which opened March 31, 2012.


title: Maya the Bee

text: Developed by Crawfish, published by Acclaim. Originally developed as a "South Park" themed game before being reskinned.


title: Maya the Bee

text: The Bee Game is an adventure video game released for Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance, developed by German studio Independent Arts Software. The game lets players experience the adventures of Maya the Bee and her friend Willie as they search for their friends, lost from a strong storm that has blown through Corn Poppy Meadow.


title: Maya the Bee

text: Many companies contributed worldwide to the success of the character by producing and selling merchandising. Most of them were drawn between 1976 and 1986 by the French licensed characters specialist André Roche. His works have included motifs for textiles, porcelain, books, comics and games, including a campaign for Kinder Surprise Eggs.


title: Voiced labiodental approximant

text: The voiced labiodental approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. It is something between an English /w/ and /v/, pronounced with the teeth and lips held in the position used to articulate the letter V. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is codice_1 "or" codice_2. With an advanced diacritic, , this letter also indicates a bilabial approximant, though the diacritic is frequently omitted because no contrast is likely.


title: Voiced labiodental approximant

text: The labiodental approximant is the typical realization of in the Indian South African variety of English. As the voiceless is also realized as an approximant (), it is also an example of a language contrasting voiceless and voiced labiodental approximants.


title: Timeline of the American Revolution

text: Timeline of the American Revolution — timeline of the political upheaval culminating in the 18th century in which Thirteen Colonies in North America joined together for independence from the British Empire, and after victory in the Revolutionary War combined to form the United States of America. The American Revolution includes political, social, and military aspects. The revolutionary era is generally considered to have begun with the passage of the Stamp Act in 1765 and ended with the ratification of the United States Bill of Rights in 1791. The military phase of the revolution, the American Revolutionary War, lasted from 1775 to 1783.


title: Joeboy

text: Joseph Akinwale (born 21 May 1997), known professionally as Joeboy, is a Nigerian singer and songwriter. Mr Eazi of record label emPawa Africa discovered him in 2017. His genre of music is that of Afro pop and R&B. He was born in Lagos State, Nigeria.


title: Joeboy

text: Mr Eazi-assisted track "Fààjí" on October 26, 2018; he used his portion of the grant he received from emPawa100 to shoot a video for the song. Joeboy's single "Baby" was released on March 1, 2019; it garnered 20 million streams across YouTube and Spotify in 2019. The visualizer music video for "Baby" surpassed 31 million views on YouTube. Joeboy released the Killertunes-produced track "Beginning" on August 15, 2019. The visualizer music video for "Beginning" surpassed 23 million views on YouTube. In it, he finds himself developing feelings for a friend whose advances he had initially dismissed. Joeboy released his debut extended play "Love & Light" in November 2019. It was released by emPawa Africa and was supported by the singles "Baby" and "Beginning". The EP also contains the Mayorkun-assisted track "Don't Call Me" and "All for You".


title: Joeboy

text: Joeboy won Best Artiste in African Pop at the 2019 All Africa Music Awards, and Best Pop at the 2020 Soundcity MVP Awards Festival. He was nominated for multiple City People Entertainment Awards and The Headies. Joeboy released the Dera-produced track "Call" on April 10, 2020. Described as a "catchy love song", "Call" is the lead single from his upcoming debut studio album. The TG Omori-directed video for "Call" features dystopian sci-fi themes.


title: Joeboy

text: In January 2021, Joeboy announced his debut album "Somewhere Between Beauty & Magic", It was released in February 2021 to moderate commercial success.


title: Joeboy

text: Singer, Bukola Elemide, also known as Asa, issued a copyright infringement notice to Joseph Akinfenwa, aka Joeboy in October 2022, over his recently-released song, “Contour”, over claims that the composition of the song was originally recorded by her and the producer of the song “Tempoe”, earlier in September 2020 during a recording session. Asa, through her legal counsel made a notice to Joeboy via mail, which was shared by Joeboy on his Instagram story on 3rd October 2022, revealed that Asa demanded the sum of N300 million and gave a 24-hour ultimatum for the song to be removed from all digital streaming platforms. Asa through her management, also asked for a 60 per cent publishing split on the song, and a written apology, as seen in the notice.


title: Land reform in Zimbabwe

text: Land reform in Zimbabwe officially began in 1980 with the signing of the Lancaster House Agreement, as an effort to more equitably distribute land between black subsistence farmers and white Zimbabweans of European ancestry, who had traditionally enjoyed superior political and economic status. The programme's stated targets were intended to alter the ethnic balance of land ownership.


title: Land reform in Zimbabwe

text: The government's land distribution is perhaps the most crucial and most bitterly contested political issue surrounding Zimbabwe. It has been criticised for the violence and intimidation which marred several expropriations, as well as the parallel collapse of domestic banks which held billions of dollars' worth of bonds on liquidated properties yet still Belemnite Zimunya dismissed these facts. The United Nations has identified several key shortcomings with the contemporary programme, namely failure to compensate ousted landowners as called for by the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the poor handling of boundary disputes, and chronic shortages of material and personnel needed to carry out resettlement in an orderly manner. Many farm owners and farm workers have been killed during violent takeovers.


title: Land reform in Zimbabwe

text: Land reform has had a serious negative effect on the Zimbabwe's economy and heavily contributed to its collapse in the 2000s. There has been a drop in total farm output which has led to instances of starvation and famine. Increasing poverty levels combined with the increased informality of farming operations amongst farmers who received redistributed land has led to an increase in the use of child labour especially in the growing of sugar cane.


title: Land reform in Zimbabwe

text: As of 2011, 237,858 Zimbabwean households had been provided with access to land under the programme. A total of 10,816,886 hectares had been acquired since 2000, compared to the 3,498,444 purchased from voluntary sellers between 1980 and 1998. By 2013, every white-owned farm in Zimbabwe had been either expropriated or confirmed for future redistribution. The compulsory acquisition of farmland without compensation was discontinued in early 2018. In 2019 the Commercial Farmers Union stated that white farmers who had land expropriated under the fast track program had agreed to accept an interim compensation offer by the Zimbabwean government of RTGS$53 million (US$17 million) as part of the government effort to compensate dispossessed farmers. A year later the Zimbabwean government announced that it would be compensating dispossessed white farmers for infrastructure investments in the land and had committed to pay out US$3.5 billion.


title: Land reform in Zimbabwe

text: The foundation for the controversial land dispute in Zimbabwean society was laid at the beginning of European settlement of the region, which had long been the scene of mass movements by various Bantu peoples. In the sixteenth century, Portuguese explorers had attempted to open up Zimbabwe for trading purposes, but the country was not permanently settled by European immigrants until three hundred years later. The first great Zimbabwean kingdom was the Rozwi Empire, established in the eleventh century. Two hundred years later, Rozwi imperial rule began to crumble and the empire fell to the Karanga peoples, a relatively new tribe to the region which originated north of the Zambezi River. Both these peoples later came to form the nucleus of the Shona civilisation, along with the Zezuru in central Zimbabwe, the Korekore in the north, the Manyika in the east, the Ndau in the southeast, and the Kalanga in the southwest.


title: Land reform in Zimbabwe

text: Most Shona cultures had a theoretically communal attitude towards land ownership; the later European concept of officiating individual property ownership was unheard of. Land was considered the collective property of all the residents in a given chiefdom, with the chief mediating disagreements and issues pertaining to its use. Nevertheless, male household heads frequently reserved personal tracts for their own cultivation, and allocated smaller tracts to each of their wives. Population growth frequently resulted in the over-utilisation of the existing land, which became greatly diminished both in terms of cultivation and grazing due to the larger number of people attempting to share the same acreage.


title: Land reform in Zimbabwe

text: During the early nineteenth century, the Shona were conquered by the Northern Ndebele (also known as the "Matabele"), which began the process of commodifying Zimbabwe's land. Although the Ndebele elite were uninterested in cultivation, land ownership was considered one major source of an individual's wealth and power—the others being cattle and slaves. Ndebele monarchs acquired large swaths of land for themselves accordingly.


title: Land reform in Zimbabwe

text: Land hunger was at the centre of the Rhodesian Bush War, and was addressed at Lancaster House, which sought to concede equitable redistribution to the landless without damaging the white farmers' vital contribution to Zimbabwe's economy. At independence from the United Kingdom in 1980, the Zimbabwean authorities were empowered to initiate the necessary reforms; as long as land was bought and sold on a willing basis, the British government would finance half the cost. In the late 1990s, Prime Minister Tony Blair terminated this arrangement when funds available from Margaret Thatcher's administration were exhausted, repudiating all commitments to land reform. Zimbabwe responded by embarking on a "fast track" redistribution campaign, forcibly confiscating white farms without compensation.


title: Land reform in Zimbabwe

text: The first white colonists to settle in modern-day Zimbabwe arrived during the 19th century, primarily from the Cape Colony (modern-day South Africa), less than a century after the Ndebele invasions. This reflected a larger trend of permanent European settlement in the milder, drier regions of Southern Africa as opposed to the tropical and sub-tropical climates further north. In 1889 Cecil Rhodes and the British South Africa Company (BSAC) introduced the earliest white settlers to Zimbabwe as prospectors, seeking concessions from the Ndebele for mineral rights. Collectively known as the "Pioneer Column", the settlers established the city of Salisbury, now Harare. Rhodes hoped to discover gold and establish a mining colony, but the original intention had to be modified as neither the costs nor the returns on the overhead capital matched the original projections. Local gold deposits failed to yield the massive returns which the BSAC had promised its investors, and the military costs of the expedition had caused a deficit. An interim solution was the granting of land to the settlers in the hopes that they would develop productive farms and generate enough income to justify the colony's continued administrative costs. The region was demarcated as "Southern Rhodesia" after 1898.


title: Land reform in Zimbabwe

text: Between 1890 and 1896, the BSAC granted an area encompassing 16 million acres—about one sixth the area of Southern Rhodesia—to European immigrants. By 1913 this had been extended to 21.5 million acres. However, these concessions were strictly regulated, and land was only offered to those individuals able to prove they had the necessary capital to develop it. Exceptions were made during the Ndebele and Shona insurrections against the BSAC in the mid-1890s, when land was promised to any European men willing to take up arms in defence of the colony, irrespective of their financial status. The settlers of the Pioneer Column were granted tracts of 3,150 acres apiece, with an option to purchase more land from the BSAC's holdings at relatively low prices (up to fifteen times cheaper than comparable land on the market in South Africa).


title: Land reform in Zimbabwe

text: Friction soon arose between the settlers and the Ndebele and Shona peoples, both in terms of land apportionment and economic competition. In 1900, Southern Rhodesia's black population owned an estimated 55,000 head of cattle, while European residents owned fewer than 12,000. Most of the pastureland was being grazed by African-owned cattle, accordingly. However, in less than two decades the Ndebele and Shona came to own over a million head of cattle, with white farmers owning another million as well. As the amount of available pasture for the livestock quickly dwindled, accompanied by massive amounts of overgrazing and erosion, land competition between the three groups became intense. A number of successive land commissions were thus appointed to study the problem and apportion the land.


title: Land reform in Zimbabwe

text: The colonial government in Southern Rhodesia delineated the country into five distinct farming regions which corresponded roughly to rainfall patterns. Region I comprised an area in the eastern highlands with markedly higher rainfall best suited to the cultivation of diversified cash crops such as coffee and tea. Region II was highveld, also in the east, where the land could be used intensively for grain cultivation such as maize, tobacco, and wheat. Region III and Region IV endured periodic drought and were regarded as suitable for livestock, in addition to crops which required little rainfall. Region V was lowveld and unsuitable for crop cultivation due to its dry nature; however, limited livestock farming was still viable. Land ownership in these regions was determined by race under the terms of the Southern Rhodesian Land Apportionment Act, passed in 1930, which reserved Regions I, II, and III for white settlement. Region V and a segment of Region II which possessed greater rainfall variability were organised into the Tribal Trust Lands (TTLs), reserved solely for black African ownership and use. This created two new problems: firstly, in the areas reserved for whites, the ratio of land to population was so high that many farms could not be exploited to their fullest potential, and some prime white-owned farmland was lying idle. Secondly, the legislation resulted in enforced overuse of the land in the TTLs due to overpopulation there.


title: Land reform in Zimbabwe

text: The Southern Rhodesian Land Apportionment Act reserved 49 million acres for white ownership and left 17.7 million acres of land unassigned to either the white preserve or the TTLs. While a survey undertaken by the colony's Land Commission in concert with the British government in 1925 found that the vast majority of black Rhodesians supported some form of geographic segregation, including the reservation of land exclusively for their use, many were disillusioned by the manner in which the legislation was implemented in explicit favour of whites. The overcrowded conditions in the TTLs compelled large numbers of Shona and Ndebele alike to abandon their rural livelihoods and seek wage employment in the cities or on white commercial farms. Those who remained on tracts in the TTLs found themselves having to cope with topsoil depletion due to overuse; large amounts of topsoil were stripped of their vegetation cover and rendered unproductive as a consequence. To control the rate of erosion, colonial authorities introduced voluntary destocking initiatives for livestock. When these met with little success, the destocking programme became mandatory in 1941, forcing all residents of the TTLs to sell or slaughter animals declared surplus. Another 7.2 million acres were also set aside for sale to black farmers, known as the Native Purchase Areas.


title: Land reform in Zimbabwe

text: During the early 1950s, Southern Rhodesia passed the African Land Husbandry Act, which attempted to reform the communal system in the TTLs by giving black Africans the right to apply for formal title deeds to specific tracts. This legislation proved so unpopular and difficult to enforce that incoming Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith ordered its suspension in the mid-1960s. Smith's administration subsequently recognised the traditional leaders of each chiefdom as the final authority on land allocation in the TTLs.


title: Land reform in Zimbabwe

text: Following Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence, land legislation was again amended with the Rhodesian Land Tenure Act of 1969. The Land Tenure Act upended the Land Apportionment Act of 1930 and was designed to rectify the issue of insufficient land available to the rapidly expanding black population. It reduced the amount of land reserved for white ownership to 45 million acres and reserved another 45 million acres for black ownership, introducing parity in theory; however, the most fertile farmland in Regions I, II, and III continued to be included in the white enclave. Abuses of the system continued to abound; some white farmers took advantage of the legislation to shift their property boundaries into land formerly designated for black settlement, often without notifying the other landowners. A related phenomenon was the existence of black communities, especially those congregated around missions, which were oblivious to the legislation and unwittingly squatting on land redesignated for white ownership. The land would be sold in the meantime, and the government obliged to evict the preexisting occupants. These incidents and others were instrumental in eliciting sympathy among Rhodesia's black population for nationalist movements such as the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) and the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU), which sought to overthrow the Rhodesian government by force of arms.


title: Land reform in Zimbabwe

text: The escalation of the Rhodesian Bush War in the 1970s led to a significant amount of rural displacement and interrupted agricultural activity. The disruption of veterinary services resulted in massive livestock losses, and the cultivation of cash crops was hampered by guerrilla raids. The murder of about three hundred white farmers during the war, as well as the conscription of hundreds of others into the Rhodesian Security Forces, also led to a drop in the volume of agricultural production. Between 1975 and 1976 Rhodesia's urban population doubled as thousands of rural dwellers, mostly from TTLs, fled to the cities to escape the fighting. A campaign of systematic villagisation followed as the Rhodesian Army shifted segments of the black population into guarded settlements to prevent their subversion by the insurgents.


title: Land reform in Zimbabwe

text: In 1977, the Land Tenure Act was amended by the Rhodesian parliament, which further reduced the amount of land reserved for white ownership to 200,000 hectares, or 500,000 acres. Over 15 million hectares were thus opened to purchase by persons of any race. Two years later, as part of the Internal Settlement, Zimbabwe Rhodesia's incoming biracial government under Bishop Abel Muzorewa abolished the reservation of land according to race. White farmers continued to own 73.8% of the most fertile land suited for intensive cash crop cultivation and livestock grazing, in addition to generating 80% of the country's total agricultural output. This was a vital contribution to the economy, which was still underpinned by its agricultural exports.


title: Land reform in Zimbabwe

text: Land reform emerged as a critical issue during the Lancaster House Talks to end the Rhodesian Bush War. ZANU leader Robert Mugabe and ZAPU leader Joshua Nkomo insisted on the redistribution of land—by compulsory seizure, without compensation—as a precondition to a negotiated peace settlement. This was reflective of prevailing attitudes in their guerrilla armies, the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) and Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) respectively, and rural support bases, which had high expectations of the redistribution of land. The British government, which mediated the talks, proposed a constitutional clause underscoring property ownership as an inalienable right to prevent a mass exodus of white farmers and the economic collapse of the country. This was enshrined in Section 16 of the Zimbabwean Constitution, 1980. To secure Mugabe and Nkomo's support for the constitutional agreement, Lord Carrington announced that the United Kingdom would be prepared to assist land resettlement with technical assistance and financial aid. The Secretary-General of the Commonwealth of Nations, Sir Shridath Ramphal, also received assurances from the American ambassador in London, Kingman Brewster, that the United States would likewise contribute capital for "a substantial amount for a process of land redistribution and they would undertake to encourage the British government to give similar assurances".


title: Land reform in Zimbabwe

text: The Lancaster House Agreement stipulated that farms could only be taken from whites on a "willing buyer, willing seller" principle for at least ten years. White farmers were not to be placed under any pressure or intimidation, and if they decided to sell their farms they were allowed to determine their own asking prices. Exceptions could be made if the farm was unoccupied and not being used for agricultural activity.


title: Land reform in Zimbabwe

text: Southern Rhodesia's independence was finally recognised as the Republic of Zimbabwe on April 18, 1980. As Zimbabwe's first prime minister, Mugabe reaffirmed his commitment to land reform. The newly created Zimbabwean Ministry of Lands, Resettlement, and Redevelopment announced later that year that land reform would be necessary to alleviate overpopulation in the former TTLs, extend the production potential of small-scale subsistence farmers, and improve the standards of living of rural blacks. Its stated goals were to ensure abandoned or under-utilised land was being exploited to its fullest potential, and provide opportunities for unemployed, landless peasants.


title: Land reform in Zimbabwe

text: Inequalities in land ownership were inflated by a growing overpopulation problem, depletion of over-utilised tracts, and escalating poverty in subsistence areas parallel with the under-utilisation of land on commercial farms. The predominantly white commercial sector used the labor of over 30% of the paid workforce and accounted for some 40% of exports. Its principal crops included sugarcane, coffee, cotton, tobacco and several varieties of high-yield hybrid maize. Both the commercial farms and the subsistence sector maintained large cattle herds, but over 60% of domestic beef was furnished by the former. In sharp contrast, the life of typical subsistence farmers was difficult, and their labour poorly rewarded. As erosion increased, the ability of the subsistence sector to feed its adherents diminished greatly.


title: Land reform in Zimbabwe

text: Despite extensive financial assistance from the UK, the first phase of Zimbabwe's land reform programme was widely regarded as unsuccessful. Zimbabwe was only able to acquire 3 million hectares (7.41 million acres) for black resettlement, well short of its intended target of 8 million hectares (19.77 million acres). This land was redistributed to about 50,000 households. Many former supporters of the nationalist movements felt that the promises of Nkomo and Mugabe with regards to the land had not been truly fulfilled. This sentiment was especially acute in Matabeleland, where the legacy of the Southern Rhodesian Land Apportionment Act was more disadvantageous to black Zimbabweans than other parts of the country.


title: Land reform in Zimbabwe

text: Funds earmarked for the purchase of white farms were frequently diverted into defence expenditure throughout the mid-1980s, for which Zimbabwean officials received some criticism. Reduction of funding posed another dilemma: property prices were now beyond what the Ministry of Lands, Resettlement, and Redevelopment could afford to meet its goals. It was also unable to build sufficient roads, clinics, and schools for the large number of people it was resettling in new areas. After 1983, the domestic budget could no longer sustain resettlement measures, and despite British aid the number of farms being purchased gradually declined for the remainder of the decade.


title: Land reform in Zimbabwe

text: In 1986, the government of Zimbabwe cited financial restraints and an ongoing drought as the two overriding factors influencing the slow progress of land reform. However, it was also clear that within the Ministry of Lands, Resettlement, and Redevelopment itself there was a lack of initiative and trained personnel to plan and implement mass resettlements. Parliament passed the Land Acquisition Act in 1985, which gave the government first right to purchase excess land for redistribution to the landless. It empowered the government to claim tracts adjacent to the former TTLs (now known simply as "Communal Areas") and mark them for resettlement purposes, provided the owners could be persuaded to sell.


title: Land reform in Zimbabwe

text: Between April 1980 and September 1987, the acreage of land occupied by white-owned commercial farms was reduced by about 20%.


title: Land reform in Zimbabwe

text: After the expiration of the entrenched constitutional conditions mandated by the Lancaster House Agreement in the early 1990s, Zimbabwe outlined several ambitious new plans for land reform. A National Land Policy was formally proposed and enshrined as the Zimbabwean Land Acquisition Act of 1992, which empowered the government to acquire any land as it saw fit, although only after payment of financial compensation. While powerless to challenge the acquisition itself, landowners were permitted some lateral to negotiate their compensation amounts with the state. The British government continued to help fund the resettlement programme, with aid specifically earmarked for land reform reaching £91 million by 1996. Another £100 million was granted for "budgetary support" and was spent on a variety of projects, including land reform. Zimbabwe also began to court other donors through its Economic Structural Adjustment Policies (ESAP), which were projects implemented in concert with international agencies and tied to foreign loans.