HISTORY

The Norderney was built in 1949 as the MV HH 294 Paul J Müller in Hamburg-Finkenwerder. This 50 meter long trawler was in service as fishing-vessel in the waters around Island from 1950 until 1956 and in July of that year it was sold to the Niedersächsische Hochseefischerei GmbH. (Lower Saxony deepsea fishing Ltd.) and was re-christened as NC 420 Norderney.

In 1960 the then 11 year old vessel was sold to a Dutch company for scrapping. In early 1964 the brothers Verweij bought the ship. The 3 brothers formed the management of Radio Veronica. The Norderney was bought to replace the former German lightvessel Borkum Riff from 1911 as that vessel was completely worn-out and also a little bit to small to continue to be operated as a radio ship. As (former) light-vessel the Borkum Riff had her name printed in large letters on the hull of the ship: this idea was copied on the Norderney, even though she wasn't a light-ship.

On the Zaanlandse Scheepsbouw Maatschappij shipyard in Zaandam the trawler was transformed into an offshore radio-ship. The works included placement of two 25 meter high wooden antenna-masts to connect the washing-line antenna (nickname for the random wire antenna). Originally the Norderney was built as a steamship and the boiler and engine was already removed from the ship when it was bought by the Verweij brothers. This provided the required space for a large studio and a separate large room for the transmission equipment.

A Continental Electronics 316 C medium wave transmitter of 10 Kilowatt. At a later date a second similar transmitter was installed as backup. In November 1964 the Norderney entered service and took over the role of the old Borkum Riff.