of the Costa Concordia incident of 2013. Even after the ship was but a blistered hull, with most of her superstructure gone, he strongly believed she was salvageable. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and others in the War Department felt the same way, but further inspections of her innovative hull nevertheless uncovered damages and other issues in the ship and made her, according to experts, beyond economical repair. The idea of having the former ocean liner rebuilt as an aircraft carrier was also shelved. The Normandie's eventual scrapping in 1946 was said to have been heartbreaking to Yourkevitch. Later life In the post-war years of 1954–1957, Yourkevitch worked on a project of a giant ship that would carry six thousand passengers from New York to Le Havre within three days for only 50 dollars. Two ships of this class were supposed to service the line between the United States and Germany. For several years the American press made a fuss over the sensational project, but it was never realised. To a significant degree, the realisation was hampered by the financial difficulties of the customer, and also by the shipping and airline companies that were afraid of losing passengers and profits. Almost to the end of his days he worked as a consultant for big shipbuilding companies in England, Canada, and the US. Yourkevitch died in December 1964. He was buried at the Russian Orthodox cemetery at the Novo-Diveevo Convent in Nanuet, New York. See also List of Russian inventors External links Biography of Yourkevitch Biography of Yourkevitch 1885 births 1964 deaths Engineers from Moscow White Russian emigrants to the United States Russian inventors Russian naval architects French naval architects Imperial Russian Navy personnel United States Navy civilians American people of Russian descent Burials at Novo-Diveevo Russian Cemetery Emigrants from the Russian Empire to France White Russian emigrants to France 20th-century American inventors Military personnel from Moscow