French Builders Waiting for Their Ship Order to Come In

Ship painter Ludovic Loreau worked on the Queen Mary 2 right up until the day in December when the vessel went to sea, putting final touches on the 24-foot columns of its sumptuous restaurant with the care of a craftsman bidding farewell to his masterpiece.

Loreau has kept photos of the ship as mementos for his two children. The painter and his co-workers follow the progress of the new giant of the seas, which recently completed its maiden voyage from Britain to Florida, with proprietary pride.

But the pleasure of the 20,000 people who took part in the construction at Chantiers de l’Atlantique, a shipyard on France’s northwestern coast, is tinged with concern.

Although their efforts produced a boatload of superlatives -- the longest (377 yards), tallest (79 yards), most expensive (approximately $800 million) cruise ship ever built -- they face the stark economic fact that shipyards these days don’t exactly churn out one mammoth ocean liner after another.

Since getting the Queen Mary 2 contract from Britain’s Cunard Line company in 2001, the yard has not received any new orders for cruisers.

In the port town of St. Nazaire, the impending potential loss of 5,000 jobs will have an impact that one union leader compared to an earthquake.

So when British flags and French military jets colored the sky in red, white and blue contrails above docks crowded for the launch of the Queen Mary 2 a few days before Christmas, the mood among the workers was “very quiet, very moving,” Loreau said.

“Everybody, even the people who had not worked on the boat, were proud and admiring,” he said. “But they were also anxious about the lack of job prospects at the Chantiers. I don’t think the Chantiers will build another ship like this anytime soon. France has a certain savoir-faire for luxurious equipment, but most ship companies look for lower costs.”

The melancholy was amplified by a freak accident in November in which a gangway collapsed during a visit arranged for workers’ families, killing 15 people.

“On the launch day, the sadness was stronger than usual,” said Philippe Kasse, spokesman for Chantiers de l’Atlantique. “We were relieved because the job was accomplished and we were also sad because of the tragedy and because she wasn’t ours anymore.”

The sheer spectacle of the vessel is astounding. In the main lobby, glass elevators face a circular white marble staircase that inevitably recalls the movie “Titanic.”

There are statues, crystal chandeliers, gilding, six miles of red carpet and $6.4 million worth of artwork adorning the walls. The decor and the details evoke the golden era of legendary transatlantic liners.

“It was monumental,” said Loreau, who worked on one of the 15 restaurants. “The ceilings were so high -- the scale was really larger than on all the boats I had worked on.”

The price for a cruise ranges from about $1,800 to more than $37,000. (For the latter you get a duplex suite with private elevators, whirlpool bathtub, fitness machine, terrace and a butler.)

Nonetheless, the workers have some mild complaints about the final product. In awkward contrast to all the glamour, Loreau said, are cafeterias that look too much like, well, cafeterias.

“Overall, the style is a success. There are lot of things to do on board,” he said. “But I think some places are not stylish enough and a little bit cheap-looking.”

On a more serious issue, the realities of the post-Sept. 11 world made Cunard focus intensely on security. The company has displayed X-ray equipment and metal detectors that officials say will make luggage screening comparable to safeguards used at airports.

The Queen Mary 2 is not the only exceptional boat born in St. Nazaire. The shipyards there also produced the Normandie, a 1935 liner that epitomized the grand days of luxury ocean travel.

Once a simple fishermen’s village on the Atlantic coast at the mouth of the Loire River, St. Nazaire became a point of departure for ocean liners in the 19th century. During World War II, the Nazis used it as a submarine base, which resulted in the devastation of the town by Allied bombs.

Today, St. Nazaire is home to an Airbus jetliner factory as well as its longtime port-related industries.

The shipbuilders are hoping they will have another chance to make history.

“We are sure that some good opportunities remain to be seized,” Kasse said. “We have a future, and we’ll build other wonderful boats.”

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Times staff writer Sebastian Rotella contributed to this report.