# SS La Touraine whistle/siren sound, description?



## FireOnTheOcean (May 20, 2011)

I've come across a couple of mentions about the siren of CGT liner _La Touraine_ (1891) as being distinctive. In 1913, Captain Caussin, commander of _La Touraine_ described it as being quite unique and recognizable (actual quote: "assez particulier et reconnaissable"). A passenger, describing a near collision from on board _La Touraine_, wrote: "Those who know the _Touraine_ will never forget her siren-whistle. Now it pierced the dark with an agonized shriek."

Does anyone have any idea about why the whistle/siren was so distinctive? Was the whistle unique to _La Touraine_, or to her and her sister ships, or was it a CGT-wide sound?

There are YouTube videos of SS _Normandie_'s whistle (which sounds to me just like a regular ship horn), but does anyone know of any recording of _La Touraine_'s whistle?


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## R58484956 (Apr 19, 2004)

Greetings *FOTO* and welcome to* SN *from across the pond. Bon voyage.


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## eldersuk (Oct 24, 2005)

I have always understood that ship's whistles were tuned to two octaves below Middle A. 

Derek


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