SS Norge

Career
Name: SS Pieter de Coninck
Owner: Theodore C. Engels & Co
Port of registry:  Belgium
Builder: Alex Stephen & Sons Ltd of Linthouse, Glasgow
Launched: 1881
Career
Name: SS Norge
Owner: A/S Dampskibs-selskabet Thingvalla
Port of registry:  Denmark
Acquired: 1889
Fate: Ran aground and sank on June 28, 1904
General characteristics
Tonnage:3,359 Gross Register Tons
Installed power:1,400 hp (1,000 kW)
Speed:10 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Capacity:800 passengers

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. It remained the biggest civilian maritime disaster in the Atlantic Ocean until the sinking of the RMS Titanic eight years later.

She was built in 1881 by Alexander Stephen and Sons 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 tonnes 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 Scandinavia-America Line) and renamed Norge.

On 28 June 1904, Norge ran aground on Hasselwood Rock, close to Rockall, on St Helen's Reef. According to Sebak's comprehensive account, over 635 people died during the sinking, among them 225 Norwegians. The 160 survivors spent up to eight days in open lifeboats before rescue. Several more people lost their lives in the days that followed rescue as a result of their exposure to the elements and drinking salt water.

Among the survivors was the poet Herman Wildenvey.[1]

The wreck of Norge was located off Rockall in July 2003.

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Norge (ship, 1881).
  1. ↑ wildenvey.com

External links

Coordinates: 57°35′48″N 13°41′19″W / 57.5967°N 13.6887°W