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The Sub Chaser That Became a Packer Norking
by Drew Clarke 2017
The Norking on the Ways at Celtic Shipyard. (Photo from the Drew Clarke collection.)
The Norking was built as the USS PC–1039, later renamed as the USS SC–1039, and lastly as Norking. In 1942 she was built by Rice Bros. & Co. at Rockport TX USA. She was 32.64m x 5.58m x 2.87m (107.1’ x 18.3’ x 9.4’) wood hull 134.87gt 91.71rt. She was powered by a 1000bhp engine and later repowered with a 500hp engine (1957c); a 365bhp diesel engine (2004c).
The Norking (Photo from the Drew Clarke collection.)
In 1942–1946 she was a patrol vessel owned by the United States Navy. As the SC–1039 was transferred to the Maritime Commission on 2/9/1948. In 1948 she was owned by North Shore Packing Co. Ltd., Vancouver BC. In 1953–1958 she was owned by Seymour Navigation Co. Ltd., North Vancouver BC. In 1961–1977 she was owned by Queen Charlotte Fisheries Ltd., Richmond BC. In 1978–1986 she was owned by McIntosh Packing Ltd., Richmond BC. In 1987–2007 she was owned by Teraco Packing Inc., Richmond ON. In 2007–2015 she was owned by Andrew M. Clark, Salt Spring Island BC.
The Norking (Photo from the Drew Clarke collection.)
She escorted convoys along the northern coast of South America and near Guadalcanal in the South Pacific. On 1/29/1945, SC 1039 was damaged, along with four other small ships, when the cargo ship Serpens (AK–97) was sunk by an explosion of undetermined origin off Guadalcanal. Andrew Clarke reports that "She was sold to a new owner in 2014 at Ladysmith BC. He put her on the beach to clean the hull and she fell over. The owner then stripped her and scuttled her in 2015." I was very disappointed to learn of this unfortunate turn of events.
The Norking (Photo from the Drew Clarke collection.)
The Norking (Photo from the John MacFarlane collection.)
The Norking (Photo from the John MacFarlane collection.)
To quote from this article please cite:
Clarke, Drew (2017) The Sub Chaser That Became a Packer: the Norking. Nauticapedia.ca 2017. http://nauticapedia.ca/Gallery/Norking.php
Site News: December 21, 2024
The vessel database has been updated and is now holding 94,824 vessel histories (with 16,274 images and 13,929 records of ship wrecks and marine disasters).
Vessel records are currently being reviewed and updated with more than 45,000 processed so far this year (2024).
The mariner and naval biography database has also been updated and now contains 58,599 entries (with 3996 images).
Thanks to Ray Warren who is beginning a long process of filling gaps in the photo record of vessel histories in the database. Ray has been documenting the ships of Vancouver Harbour for more than 60 years.
Thanks to contributor Mike Rydqvist McCammon for the hundreds of photos he has contributed to illustrate British Columbia’s floating heritage.
My very special thanks to our volunteer IT adviser, John Eyre, who (since 2021) has modernized, simplified and improved the update process for the databases into semi–automated processes. His participation has been vital to keeping the Nauticapedia available to our netizens.