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.

[5] In mid-January 1911, shipping entrepreneur James Playfair made a bid to purchase the Northern on behalf of himself and his associates.

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.

Built for passenger and package freight service on the Great Lakes,[8] Noronic had five decks, was 362 feet (110 m) in length, and measured 6,095 gross register tons.

[9]: 146 Noronic had eight fleetmate ships: City of Midland, Doric, Germanic, Ionic, Majestic, Waubic, Huronic and Hamonic.

[11] On September 14, 1949, Noronic embarked on a seven-day pleasure cruise of Lake Ontario from Detroit, Michigan, United States.

[3]: 177  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.

Finding that the smoke was coming from a locked linen closet, he notified bellboy Earnest O'Neil of the fire.

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.

[9]: 147 Church, O'Neil, another bellboy, and another passenger attempted to fight the blaze with fire extinguishers, but were forced to retreat almost immediately by the spreading flames.

After working a late shift at a nearby Goodyear Tire plant, the former lake freighter deckhand wanted to see Noronic, which he knew was in port.

Williamson arrived to the sound of the ship's distress whistle, as the fire was quickly growing and people were frantically jumping into the lake.

Spotting a large painters’ raft nearby, he released it and pushed it into a position near the ship's port bow.

[14] 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.

[14] Anderson stripped his uniform off, jumped into the frigid, oily water, and began to assist Williamson on the raft.

Moments before the whistle sounded, the pier's night watchman noticed the flames coming from the ship and contacted the Toronto Fire Department.

[9]: 148  The scene was later described as one of great panic, with people jumping from the upper decks engulfed in flames and some falling to their deaths onto the pier below.

After an hour of fighting the blaze, Noronic was so full of water from fire hoses that it listed severely toward the pier, causing firefighters to retreat.

The high death toll was blamed largely on the ineptitude and cowardice of the crew, too few of whom were on duty at the time the fire began and none of whom attempted to wake the passengers.

During the fire, he broke windows, pulling trapped passengers from their rooms, and was among the last of the crew to leave the vessel.

[22] The hull of Charles A. Reed, Toronto's wooden-hulled fireboat, was damaged by the fire's extreme heat, triggering city council to seek to replace her with a more powerful, modern, steel-hulled vessel.