MV Norderney

• Paul J. Müller

The Norderney (Fisheries number HH 294 ) is a ship of the type Logger with built- diesel engine, which was built in 1950 as a fishing boat and later as a radio ship for a pirate radio station on the high seas was used and is being used as a floating cafe.

History

Construction

The HH 294 Paul J. Müller has been built in the years 1949/1950 at the Deutsche Werft AG in Finkenwerder for the shipping company Paul Meyer in Hamburg. The logger had a survey of 399 GRT was 44.05 meters long and 8.22 meters wide.

Trawler

The ship was used for herring fishing in 1951 in international waters off Iceland. In July 1956, the Lower Saxon sea fishing GmbH bought from Cuxhaven the logger and baptized him according to the homonymous island in order to Norderney.

Radio ship

In 1960 the ship for scrapping in the Netherlands was sold. First, then, the logger was in IJmuiden and later in Haarlem and Spaame where the Radio Veronica Consortium ( VRON ) acquired the ship as a replacement for the pirate radio station Veronica.

At this time the ship's mast and the bridge were already scrapped. In Zaandam they took on behalf of the new owners make the necessary conversions. The engine was removed and placed in the vacated space was the 10 kW medium-wave transmitter into place. In addition, two each 24 -meter-high wooden poles were used for the transmit antennas.

From September 1964, the fully equipped radio ship was anchored three miles off Scheveningen and thus replaced the lightship Borkumriff III. Until 31 August 1974, the Norderney served as a floating base for the offshore radio station.

Restaurant Schiff

After the end of the pirate radio time off the Dutch coast, the ship was converted to a restaurant, then guested at many events at ports in the Netherlands and in Emden. It retained, however, its complete transmission equipment.

On 31 August 2003 was the now legal Veronica Broadcasting Organisation ( VOO ), 29 years after the off as an illegal offshore radio, a day license in order to send for six hours from aboard the traditional vessel a historic radio program.

Whereabouts

Today the ship is located in the port of Antwerp and is operated as a floating cafe.