Posted by Visje visje@tref.nl on April 26, 2001 - along with a picture, which can now be found at

[www.warsailors.com]



Hi,

Found this picture in one of my sources. I was curious which ship this is. The biline mentions that it was one of the factoryships captured by the raider Penguin in the South Atlantic. Here it is photographed in Bordeaux with "22.000 tons of whale-oil. Thanks in advance.



PS To Siri: It's yours if you want it.....



RESPONSES:



Posted by Roger W Jordan rogwj@aol.com on April 27, 2001.

This image is of the whale factory OLE WEGGER, which was captured in the South Atlantic in position 57 40S 05 45W by the German auxiliary cruiser PINGUIN on 14 January 1941. Some details of the encounter can be found under the "Globe" whalers in the Second World War vessels entries on this site.

OLE WEGGER was owned by A/S Ornen and managed by A/S Thor Dahl of Sandefjord. She had been purchased in 1928 and converted from an oil tanker. She was 12,201 gross tons, 7272 net tons, 16,500 deadweight tons, 527.1 feet registered length, 66.75 inches breadth, 33.9 feet draught, and 42.1 feet registered depth. She was fitted with a quadruple-expansion four-cylinder steam engine of 787 nominal horsepower, had a speed of 10 knots and carried about 2000 tons of fuel oil.

As the 16,203 tons deadweight tanker SAN LORENZO, she was launched by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson Ltd, Wallsend, River Tyne, on 27 December 1913, and was delivered to her owners Eagle Oil Transport Co Ltd, London, on 10 February 1914. During the First World War she was employed as a naval base fleet oiler.

On 3 June 1917 she was torpedoed by the German submarine U54 about 140 miles off northwest Ireland. The submarine reported that about 1700 hours on that day a convoy of two tankers escorted by armed trawlers was sighted by periscope proceeding on a westerly course; U54 surfaced and pursued the ships and at 2145 hours dived for a submerged attack on the leading tanker. Both tankers were carrying out a zig-zag course and it was not until 2300 hours that U54 was able to fire a torpedo, at a range of 560 metres, and this hit the leading tanker, which was SAN LORENZO.

Another German submarine, U70, was in the vicinity and witness the attack. U54 surfaced shortly after midnight and observed that the tanker was stopped, but on an even keel, with two armed trawlers standing by. When U54 returned for a daybreak attack shortly before 0500 hours on 4 June, the tanker had gone and was presumed sunk. But despite having extensive damage, SAN LORENZO was able to get to port safely and was repaired.

On 14 September 1928 SAN LORENZO was sold to Thor Dahl, converted into a whale factory, and renamed OLE WEGGER.

After capture by PINGUIN and being sent to Bordeaux, OLE WEGGER was taken over by the German navy and used as a base ship. On 22 August 1944 she was scuttled as a blockship in the River Seine at Rouen-Sahurs. She was raised in August 1945 and it was intended to tow her to Plymouth. She left Rouen on 21 August 1945 but she ran aground while on route. She was refloated and towed back to Rouen for inspection. Later, OLE WEGGER was towed to Falmouth, where she was found to be beyond economical repair. She was sold to a Swedish shipbreaking company and towed to Gothenburg in May 1946 and broken up during 1947.

As far as identification is concerned, the other two whale factory vessels captured by PINGUIN, which were PELAGOS and SOLGLIMT, both had funnels amidships. When purchased by their respective owners they had previously been in service as passengers liners.

Roger W Jordan

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Posted by Siri siri@lawson.net on April 27, 2001.

All I can say is - DOUBLE WOW!!

Thanks for saving me a lot of work, I'll just copy and paste this into my O-list!



And Jan, thanks for the picture, It's a great one - I'll replace the one I have with yours.