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D/S Akabahra To Akabahra on the "Ships starting with A" page. Owner: D/S A/S Akabahra. Built by Porsgrund mek. Verksted, Porsgrunn, Norway, delivered in 1929. Previous name: Ørnefjell until 1937. Captain: Alf Møller Mathiesen, later Marcus Grepne. Her voyages are listed on these original images from the Norwegian National Archives: Please compare the above voyages with Arnold Hague's Voyage Record below.
Follow the convoy links provided for more information on each.
A. Hague has included Akabahra in the U.K.-Norway Convoy ON 19 in the middle of March-1940, and she's said to have returned to the U.K. at the end of that month with Convoy HN 23A (Commodore in Regin). She's also mentioned in the Advance Sailing Telegram for Convoy HN 22, but obvisously did not sail in this convoy (ships in the 2 convoys HN 23A and HN 22 appear to be listed on one and the same document), and I'm not entirely sure if she could have been in HN 23A either; just before the German invasion of Norway, she's listed in Convoy HN 25, departing Bergen on Apr. 7 - see also Page 1 of the archive documents.
In Aug.-1940, she made a voyage across the North Atlantic, having joined Convoy OA 196, according to A. Hague, who says she arrived Chichibucto, via Sydney, C.B., on Aug. 28, while Page 1 calls it Richibucto. Fidelio, Gulhaug, Isbjørn, Slemmestad, Sommerstad and Tai Yin are also listed in OA 196, which had departed Methil on Aug. 9 and dispersed on the 15th. Akabahra headed back to the U.K. on Sept. 10 in the slow Convoy SC 4 from Sydney, C.B. She was bound for Hull with a cargo of pit props and arrived her destination on Oct. 14, remaining there for a month. She later shows up, together with Henrik Ibsen, Inger Elisabeth, Ledaal, Mathilda, Rolf Jarl, Sandanger and Selbo, in Convoy OB 256, originating in Liverpool on Dec. 8, dispersed Dec. 12, Akabahra arriving St. John's, N.F. on Dec. 23 (she had started out from Oban on the 9th). The external website that I've linked to within the table above has more on the OA and OB convoy mentioned here. She now appears to have remained at St. John's for quite some time; departure is given as Febr. 2-1941 when she proceeded to Yarmouth, N.S., continuing to Halifax on Febr. 23, where she also stayed for a long time (Page 1). In March she's listed in the slow Halifax-U.K. Convoy SC 26, in which Helle and several others were sunk (follow the links for details), but she returned to port and later joined Convoy SC 28 on Apr. 9, bound for London with lumber, station 24. As will be seen when following the link to my page about this convoy, the Commodore says she was "a careless station keeper sometimes being 6 cables astern of station when convoy was going 6 knots." Escort's report is also available for this convoy. According to the archive document, she arrived Gravesend (via Oban and Methil) on May 10, remaining there until July 4. We subsequently find her, along with Astra, Balduin, Bjørkhaug, Fido, Gudrun, Hestmanden, Leka, Marga, Maridal, Orania, Siak, Spes and Sveve, in Convoy OB 347, originting in Liverpool on July 16, dispersed July 31, Akabahra arriving Montreal on Aug. 5 (she had sailed from Loch Ewe on July 18). From Montreal, she proceeded to Sydney, C.B. a few days later, and A. Hague now has her in Convoy SC 41* from there on Aug. 24. She stopped at Belfast Lough on Sept. 11 and had again been in the company of several other Norwegian ships, namely Astra, Audun, Balduin, Blink, Carrier (returned), Einvik (sunk - follow link for details), Evviva, Fagersten, Fanefjeld, Grado, Gudrun, Heien, Hestmanden, Hildur I, Ledaal, Leka, Lom, Marga, Nesttun, Orania (returned), Reiaas, Siak and Spes (quite a few of these joined the convoy from Iceland). Later that month, Akabahra was scheduled for the westbound North Atlantic Convoy ON 19, joining from Belfast Lough, but returned, joining Convoy ON 29* a month later (Eglantine and Montbretia are named among the escorts; see ON convoy escorts), but again returned to port. According to Page 2, which gives her destination as Father Point, she arrived Reykjavik on Oct. 29, and from there she joined Convoy ON 31 on Nov. 4. She arrived Sydney, C.B. on Nov. 18, the convoy having been dispersed on the 15th. From Sydney, C.B. she continued to Montreal that same day, with arrival Nov. 22, then returned to Sydney, C.B. a few of days later in order to join Convoy SC 58 back to the U.K. on Dec. 4, cargo of flour for London. Montbretia is again named among the escorts (Nidardal was lost - follow the link for details). Akabahra subsequently made voyages mostly around the U.K. - again, see Page 2, as well as Page 3 - convoy information for some of these can be found in the Voyage Record.
Skipping now to Apr.-1942, when we find her, together with Brisk, Bruse Jarl, Don, Evviva, Gezina, Henrik Ibsen, Inger Lise, Marga, Senta, Spurt and Star, in the westbound North Atlantic Convoy ON 88*, which originated in Liverpool on Apr. 21; Akabahra sailed from Loch Ewe that day and arrived St. John's, N.F. on May 4. Some of these ships, including Akabahra, returned to the U.K. in Convoy SC 85 from Sydney, C.B. at the end of May. She had a cargo of lumber for Hull, where she arrived, via various other ports, on June 15. With Hallfried, Heimgar, Henrik Ibsen and Novasli, she's now listed in the westbound Convoy ON 110*, which sailed from Liverpool on July 6 - Akabahra started out from Loch Ewe that day and arrived Halifax July 22 - again, see Page 3 and the above Voyage Record for details on her subsequent voyages. With a cargo of flour for Bristol, she was scheduled to go back to the U.K. with the Sydney portion of Convoy SC 96 on Aug. 12, but instead proceeded to Halifax the next day, joining Convoy SC 97 from there on Aug. 22 - her cargo is now given as lumber. The Norwegian Bronxville was sunk; follow the link for more info (Vice Commodore was in Bonneville). Akabahra arrived Bristol, via Belfast Lough, on Sept. 10 - see Page 4.
Captain Marcus Grepne. Akabahra was used as military transport for the Torch operations (see also Page 4, A. Hague's Voyage Record above and Athos). On Jan. 7-1943 she was in station 45 (54?) of Convoy KMS 6, on a voyage from Algiers to Bone, having departed Algiers that same morning with a cargo of railroad tracks and crossties as well as misc. food stuffs. That afternoon, the convoy was attacked by around 15 aircraft, and she was hit by a torpedo on the port side, probably in the boiler room, and started to sink right away (37 07N 04 38E). The port lifeboat was destroyed in the explosion, but the starboard boat was successfully launched, while 4-5 crew members jumped overboard and were later picked up by this boat. An attempt to get one of the rafts out failed as it got caught, but the aft raft was put on the water with 9 men. The captain placed himself in the motor lifeboat which floated free as the ship sank after about 10-12 minutes. All 25 survived and were picked up by the escort vessel HMS Bicester (S.W.F.B. Bennets), which also picked up some of the survivors from the British Benalbanach, a victim of the same attack with great loss of life (follow the link to KMS 6 for details). They were landed in Bone on Jan. 8. According to a personal story I've found, the survivors were placed in a military camp for a few days (location not named) before being sent "across the mountains" by train to Algiers, where they were given lodgings at a school. They were later sent to England.
Crew List:
Norwegian, unless otherwise noted * Gunnar Knudsen had previously served on M/T Skaraas (from 1939), M/T Nortind (paid off just a few days before she embarked on her last voyage), M/T Polarsol, then Akabahra. After the loss of the latter he signed on D/S Knoll, and later took part in the Normandie invasion with Skarv. Today he spends his time accompanying school groups to former concentration camps, and has taken part in 77 such trips with over 6000 young students. A book has been written about his war experiences, entitled "Krigsseiler og tidsvitne" (by Oddvar Schjølberg), which he recently kindly sent me as a gift.
Back to Akabahra on the "Ships starting with A" page. An earlier Akabahra: Norway (possibly the same company) also had a ship named Akabahra in 1933-1935 (ex Fager), became Mirva in 1935 ('36?) then D/S Knoll in 1939 ('37?); follow the link for more details on this ship. The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, "The Allied Convoy System", Arnold Hague, "Sjøforklaringer fra 2. verdenskrig", Norwegian Maritime Museum, Volume I, and misc - ref My sources.
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