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. 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 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, and the 1400 hp engine gave a speed of 10 kn. 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, the final death toll was 635, among them 225 Norwegians. The 160 survivors spent up to eight days in open lifeboats before rescue. Several more people died in the days that followed rescue as a result of their exposure to the elements and drinking the salt water.

Among the survivors was the poet Herman Wildenvey. 

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