Nineteenth century shipwreck found off Texel

Off the Dutch island of Texel, a diving team has discovered the wreck of a two-masted ship, the SS Nordlyset (not shown here), a cargo ship that sank during a storm – as ships usually do – while transporting a load of grain from Riga to Antwerp.

Back in the day, many rescue workers from Den Helder, North Holland were killed during a rescue operation for the ship’s crew, as out of the 23 people who ended up in the water, nine drowned, while the others made it to shore.

The shipping company under which the Nordlyset sailed apparently still exists. According to the divers, the company is enthusiastic about the discovery.

‘Nordlyset’ means Northern Light (singular) In Norwegian, and if you know anything more about this cargo ship or my interpretation of Norwegian, let us know.

(Links: nltimes.nl, nos.nl, Photo of the Batavia replica by Wikimedia user ADZee who released it to the public domain)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 31st, 2018 at 11:14 am and is filed under History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Tags: Norwegian, ship, Texel, vessel