104 and 112 years ago

104 years ago today, RMS ‪Titanic‬ arrived in Southampton for her maiden voyage to New York. 112 years ago next June, the SS Norge departed Christiania (modern day Oslo) for New York. Both ships were to founder on voyage. Did you ever hear of the Norge? On 28th June 1904, she went down at Rockall, 250 miles west of Scotland, with the loss of 635 souls. A naval inquiry in Scandinavia found that there were insufficient life-saving apparatus on board for all passengers and crew. A recommendation was made for all ships to carry enough lifeboats etc to account for all on board. Had this recommendation to have been enshrined in law around the world, Titanic's sinking would not have been prevented, but the number of people saved would have been much, much higher.


Tombstone for victims from the Norge, who succumbed after landing at Stornoway


Memorial plaque to the Norge in the Stornoway ferry terminal

The emigrant ship

Wide open ocean, headed southwest
Morning is breaking, all is set fair
Compass is pointing, but not the right way
From points in the east they have all come

Breakfast time comes, but the water is salt
A rock in the bottom, now a bottomless ship
Going back makes a right-angled turn
From east - now down

A new beginning from a stifling stranglehold
Young, old, and all, for reasons too old
A man and a cross, an onion-domed palace
Flocked to the northland, to now make the west

What's left is in boats, drifting northeast
Away from the new life, but for now still in life
Not all will reach salvation
As their coracles drift on the currents

A fishing boat here, another one there
Help is at hand, and terra firma beckons
An island and town, and a gravestone by a wall
All went for the new life, some do yet gain it

One boats drifts northeast, past the isle of the sheep
past the line of long sun, into the great cold
Never seen again in this life
Lessons were taught, but were they learned?

TITANIC
Describing the sinking of the emigrant ship Norge at Rockall in June 1904

Titanic 100 - Norge 108

At midday today, a recording of Titanic's ship's whistle was sounded across Southampton docks, at the exact hour 100 years ago that RMS Titanic slipped its moorings and set sail on its doomed voyage. A modern cruisliner, MS Balmoral is in the North Atlantic, braving early spring gales as it retraces the route that Titanic took in 1912. On Saturday evening, it should be at the site where the Titanic went down. As we all know, more than 1500 souls were lost on 15 April 1912.


Does anyone know about the nearly 700 souls that were lost on board the emigrant ship Norge, which foundered at Rockall on 28 June 1904? You may wonder about the connection, but the connection is there, and it's a stark one. When the inquiry was held into the sinking of the Titanic, one of the contributory factors to the number of lives lost was the lack of lifeboats and other life-saving apparatus on board. After the loss of the Norge, it was also found that there was a lack of lifeboats on board. The recommendation that there should be sufficient lifeboats to accommodate all aboard, was never followed up.

And it was this omission that made the sinking of the Titanic such a dreadful loss of life.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, at 12.40 am, I shall remember the loss of 1500 lives on board Titanic. I shall also remember the 700 lost on board the Norge, eight years previous. For their loss was in vain, as Titanic proved.