Laid down 9 February 1911 Launched 12 July 1911 Displacement 7.92 million kg | Yard number 792 Construction started 9 February 1911 Weight 8,870 tons | |
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Name 1911-1919 Normanby1919-1929 Norwich City Owner 1911-1919 London & Northern Steamship Co Ltd (Pyman Brothers), London1919-1929 St Just Steamship Co Ltd (Sir William Reardon Smith & Sons Ltd), Cardiff Builder William Gray & Co. Ltd., West Hartlepool | ||
Ss norwich city
The SS Norwich City was an oil-fired steam freighter powered by a triple expansion steam engine.
Contents
History
She was built in 1911 by William Gray & Company, Ltd., West Hartlepool, England, with engines by the company's Central Marine Engine Works.
On 23 or 24 April 1928 (sources differ), the ship ran into the Second Narrows Bridge in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and lost her funnel and masts.
Wreck
During a storm on 29 November 1929, the unladen freighter was carrying a crew of 35 men when it ran aground on the reef at the northwest end of the small central Pacific atoll known as Nikumaroro Island (then known as Gardner Island). A fire broke out in the engine room and all hands abandoned ship in darkness having to make their way across the wide and dangerous coral reef being pounded by dangerous storm waves. In total, 11 men lost their lives. The survivors camped near collapsed structures from a late-19th century coconut-planting project and were rescued after several days on the island.
The devastated wreck of the Norwich City was a prominent landmark on the reef for 70 years, though by 2007, only the ship's keel, engine, and two large tanks remained. By 2010, only the engine remained above water on the reef. In 2016, storm activity washed one of the two large tanks shoreward and the two-story engine was broken off and dropped over the edge of the reef into deep water.
