113 years ago today

635 emigrants, headed west on the emigrant ship SS Norge, perished at Rockall when their vessel sank. A handful of survivors were put ashore at Stornoway, where 9 (mostly children) succumbed to the after effects of their ordeal. It was determined that the loss of life would have been far less had their been sufficient life-saving apparatus on board. This recommendation, reached in 1905, was not put into law at the time. If it had been, the loss of life from the sinking of RMS Titanic in 1912 would have been far less.