Norman (ship, 1894)
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The Norman was a passenger steamer put into service in 1894, which was used by the British shipping company Union Line (later Union-Castle Line ) in passenger and mail traffic between Great Britain and South Africa . During the First World War it transported troops. In the mid-1920s she was replaced by a newer ship and scrapped.
The ship
The 7,537 GRT steamship was built by Harland & Wolff in Belfast , Northern Ireland , and was launched on July 18, 1894. The 149.60 meter long passenger and cargo ship was built for the Union Line ( Union Steamship Company Ltd. , founded 1857), which in 1900 merged with the Castle Line ( Castle Mail Packet Company Ltd. , founded 1862) to form the Union-Castle Line united. In October 1894, the ship was completed and then placed in the passenger and mail traffic from Southampton to South Africa. She often needed less than 16 days for the complete round trip, which was quick at the time.
The Norman was considered ahead of its time in terms of passenger accommodation and comfort. The ship could accommodate 190 passengers in the first, 114 in the second and 138 in the third class. The ship had two funnels, two masts and two propellers, and was powered by two Harland & Wolff triple expansion steam engines that could accelerate the ship up to 17 knots.
In July 1895 the Norman ran aground near Port Shepstone . The damage to the ship was minor, but Captain William Bainbridge was relieved of his command. In March 1896, a film was shown for the first time on board the Norman . The American magician Carl Hertz (1859–1924), who often built film screenings into his performances, showed the other passengers film material with a projector called Robert W. Paul's "Theatrograph".
War missions and late years
From November 1899, the passenger ship was used as a troop transport in the Second Boer War . After the end of the war it was returned to the newly renamed Union-Castle Line. This had it overhauled by Harland & Wolff from January to April 1904. The passenger capacities changed in the course of the modifications (170 first class, 108 second class, 120 third class). When the new and larger ships Edinburgh Castle and Balmoral Castle (each over 13,000 GRT) were put into service in 1910 , the shipping company no longer had any use for the 16-year-old Norman . The ship was laid up in Netley Abbey in 1911 and was only used as a substitute in the years up to the First World War .
After the outbreak of war in 1914, the Norman was reactivated and used to transport troops to France . In August 1914, for example, they brought the British Expeditionary Force's first contingent to France. It was then temporarily used again for the commercial South African route. In 1915 their home port was moved to Tilbury . In 1917, like many other merchant ships, she fell under the Liner Requisition Scheme. From May 1918 troop trips followed in the Mediterranean area . In May 1919 the Norman made a crossing to Australia under the charter of the P&O .
After that, the Norman was again regularly active in the South African service of the Union-Castle Line until it was converted to the express service called London-South and East Africa Intermediate Service in passenger and freight traffic in 1921. In 1923, the implementation followed the "Round Africa" service to South and East Africa , where it crossed the Suez Canal . In 1925, the ship was finally decommissioned and scrapped the following year at Thomas W. Ward Shipbreakers in Morecambe .