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adb41 · Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2010 3:58 pm Post subject: Norge disaster, 1904 - fb

In the cemetery at Sandwick, just east of Stornoway, an unusual memorial can be found. It stands in the Old Cemetery, closest to the shore, along the wall fronting the sea.

The Norge was an emigrant ship that was headed for New York in June 1904, when it hit Hazelwood Rock, a spur of Rockall, some 250 miles west of northern Scotland. Upon striking rock the captain reversed engines which freed the ship from the reef. Unfortunately, this served to rip the keel out of the vessel, causing it to sink within 20 minutes. Some 700 people drowned. Several dozen managed to reach dry land in lifeboats, and a number ended up in Stornoway. Those that did succumbed to their ordeal lie buried by this stone in Sandwick.

There is an eminently readable account of the background to this tragedy in a book called Titanic’s Predecessor - The S/S Norge Disaster of 1904 by Per Kristian Sebak.

adb41 · Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2010 3:59 pm Post subject:

A plaque, commemorating the centenary anniversary of the Norge disaster, is affixed in the ferry terminal in Stornoway.

Adam Brown · Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 2:10 pm Post subject:

Guido

Thanks for these posts. I'd never heard of the SS Norge. I suppose because the passengers were Scandinavian rather than British it is not well known over here apart from Stornoway.

Regards

Adam
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Scottish War Memorials Project
Scottish War Graves Project

Adam Brown · Posted: Sun Oct 24, 2010 11:05 pm Post subject:

From

http://timelines.com/1904/6/28/sinking-of-the-ss-norge

SS Norge was a Danish passenger liner sailing from Copenhagen, Oslo and Kristiansand to New York, mainly with emigrants, which sank off Rockall in 1904 in the biggest civilian maritime disaster in the Atlantic Ocean up to that time.

She was built in 1881 by Alex Stephen & Sons Ltd of Linthouse, Glasgow, for the Belgian company Theodore C. Engels & Co of Antwerp; her original name was Pieter de Coninck. The ship was 3,359 GRT and 3,700 metric tons deadweight (DWT), and the 1,400-horsepower (1.0 MW) engine gave a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). She could carry a maximum of 800 passengers.

In 1889 she was sold to A/S Dampskibs-selskabet Thingvalla of Denmark (later to be the Skandinavien-Amerika Linien or Scandinavian-America Line) and renamed Norge.

On 28 June 1904 Norge ran aground close to Rockall, on St Helen's Reef. According to Sebak's comprehensive account, the final death toll was 635, among them 225 Norwegians. The 160 survivors spent up to eight days in open lifeboats before rescue.
_________________
Scottish War Memorials Project
Scottish War Graves Project

adb41 · Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2010 10:03 am Post subject:

Adam,
Thank you very much for adding the link on the story of the Norge. The Titanic's sinking has gone down in the history books because the ship was billed as unsinkable and was surrounded by all that razzmatazz - and because 1500 people were lost.
The Norge carried some of the poorest people in Europe and was just another of those unfortunate losses at sea. If the lessons out of her sinking had been learned, the Titanic would have carried sufficient life-saving equipment for ALL on board. But lessons were not learned and the resulting tragedy ensued 8 years later.

Adam Brown · Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2010 12:19 pm Post subject:

Guido

Thanks for the update. It seems to have been a forgotten disaster even at the time. As you point out no-one was interested in the death of poor emigrants 100 years ago.

Thanks

Adam
_________________
Scottish War Memorials Project
Scottish War Graves Project