SS Noronic was a Canadian passenger ship that was destroyed by fire in Toronto Harbour in September 1949 with the loss of at least 118 lives.
thumb|Dining room on the SS Noronic
In mid-January 1911, shipping entrepreneur James Playfair made a bid to purchase the Northern on behalf of himself and his associates. The offer was subject to approval by the GTR, concerning the previous operating agreement. Playfair's offer was to purchase the company at C$1,250,000 for the C$1,000,000 worth of stock and other terms. Northern's president, W. J. Sheppard, communicated the offer to GTR president Charles Melville Hays, who in turn discussed the matter with his company's passenger and freight departments. Hays asked Sheppard if he would consider whether or not the business outlook would warrant the company to place an order for a steamship of equal capacity and general style to Hamonic, to run in the line with that vessel.
Hays did not approve of the proposed transfer of ownership and the deal with Playfair fell through. However, Playfair then went to work to change his mind and managed to secure the GTR's approval. On February 6, Hays notified that, under the agreement with the two companies, Northern would provide a new steamship within eighteen months. The new vessel would be ready no later than the opening of navigation in 1913, and would probably be 400 feet long. Hays' untimely death aboard the Titanic likely contributed to a delay to the start of construction.
Description
left|thumb|SS Noronic travelling through the Sault Ste. Marie canal, circa 1948
SS Noronic was launched June 2, 1913, in Port Arthur, Ontario. She was built by the Western Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company for Canada Steamship Lines.
Built for passenger and package freight service on the Great Lakes, Noronic had five decks, was in length, and measured 6,095 gross register tons. At maximum capacity, she could hold 600 passengers and 200 crew. One of Canada's largest and most beautiful passenger ships at the time, she was nicknamed the “Queen of the Lakes."
Passenger decks were labelled A, B, C, and D, and none had direct gangplank access to the dock. The only exits were located on the lowest deck, E deck. There were two gangplanks on the port side and two on the starboard side, and only two were operational at a time. Hamonic burned in 1945 and Huronic was retired and scrapped in 1950.
Fire
On September 14, 1949, Noronic embarked on a seven-day pleasure cruise of Lake Ontario from Detroit, Michigan, United States. She departed from Detroit and picked up additional passengers at Cleveland, Ohio, from where she was scheduled to travel to Prescott, Ontario, and the Thousand Islands before returning to Sarnia, where she would have remained over the winter. Noronic was carrying 524 passengers, all but twenty of whom were American, and 171 crew members, all Canadian.
At 2:30 a.m., passenger Don Church noticed smoke in the aft part of the starboard corridor on C deck. Church followed the smell of smoke to a small room off the port corridor, just forward of a women's washroom. Finding that the smoke was coming from a locked linen closet, he notified bellboy Earnest O'Neil of the fire. Without sounding the alarm, O'Neil ran to the steward’s office on D deck to retrieve the keys to the closet. Once the closet was opened, the fire exploded into the hallway; it spread quickly, fueled by the lemon-oil-polished wood paneling on the walls.
Responding to a "routine" box call, Toronto police constables Ronald Anderson and Warren Shaddock turned their "accident" car onto Queen's Quay in time to see the ship erupt in flames as high as the mast. Their cruiser was immediately surrounded by survivors, many in shock, some on fire. A passenger alerted Anderson to those in the water and those on the decks, some in flames. It was deemed likely that a cigarette was carelessly dropped by a member of the laundry staff.
Noronic, which settled to the bottom in shallow water, was partially taken apart at the scene. The upper decks were cut away, and the hull was re-floated on November 29, 1949. It was towed to Hamilton, Ontario, where it was scrapped. Her sister ship, the smaller Huronic, was retired and scrapped in 1950. By 1967, Canada Steamship Lines phased out its remaining passenger ships from the fleet due to new international regulations relating to ships containing wood and other flammable materials. Civil lawsuits for Noronic were settled for just over C$2 million.
Noronics whistle is displayed in a nautical museum on Toronto's Waterfront. The Ontario Heritage Foundation placed a plaque near the site of the disaster on its 50th anniversary.