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M/S Austvard To Austvard on the "Ships starting with A" page. Manager: Lauritz Kloster, Oslo Built in Copenhagen 1925. Captain: Arne Kjos
(Received from Don Kindell - His source: The late Arnold Hague's database). Follow the convoy links provided for more information on each.
As mentioned above, Austvard was in Convoy SL 33, which departed Freetown on May 23-1940 and arrived Liverpool on June 9. She had a cargo of grain for Limerick and sailed in station 43 of the convoy. She's also listed in Convoy OB 178, which left Liverpool on July 3-1940 and dispersed on the 7th. Her destination is given as Hampton Roads, cargo of coal. The Norwegian Benjamin Franklin, Hellen, Ingerfem, Margrethe Bakke, Senta, and Skrim are also listed. Austvard headed back to the U.K. in Convoy HX 69 from Halifax. She was bound for Clyde with scrap iron in station 72 of the convoy, which departed Halifax on Aug. 28 and arrived Liverpool on Sept. 12 - follow the link for more convoy details; several Norwegian ships took part. The following month we find her, together with Grey County, in Convoy OB 234, which left Liverpool on Oct. 24 and dispersed on the 30th. See the external links provided within the above table for more on the OB convoys mentioned here.
Austvard departed Lourenço Marques for Immingham with a cargo of iron ore on Dec. 21 (Dec. 20?)-1940, stopping at Capetown for bunkers on the 25th, continuing the following day. Arrived Freetown on Jan. 8-1941, then departed in convoy SL 62 on the 10th (together with the Norwegian Borgland and Tyr(?) - the latter ship is not included in this convoy by A. Hague). Two weeks into the voyage heavy weather was encountered and by the 28th she was alone, though managed to catch up in view of 7 of the ships in the course of that afternoon, but by the next day she saw only a tanker far off on her starboard side. In the morning of January 30 she was bombed by German aircraft and sunk 130 miles west of Galway Island (Ireland), shortly before reaching her destination. She was hit by 5 bombs, 3 in the waterline on the port side and 2 on the boat deck. 2 of the lifeboats were destroyed in the attack and a 3rd was damaged during launching. Machine gun fire destroyed the radio station, but it appears the radio operator had time to send out a distress call because 40 minutes later the escort vessel Anthony was ordered out to assist an unknown vessel in that position, but Austvard was gone. The damaged lifeboat with 16 men got clear of the ship before she sank about 10 minutes after the first bomb had hit, but 12 were pulled under, only 6 came back up and were able to get on a raft. The people in the lifeboat found another raft, enabling them to repair the boat so that it could hold 8 men. The others distributed themselves on the 2 rafts and headed for Ireland in tow of the lifeboat, but in the bad weather it was very slow going, so the next day it was decided that the boat with 8 survivors commanded by 1st Mate Knut Dykesten should go on ahead to get help as quickly as possible, because many of the men were injured. The lifeboat with 6 survivors (Boatswain Karl G. Holbein and Oiler Jens Brandvold had died en route) landed at Clogher, Ballyferriter, County Kervy on Febr. 4. All 6 were taken to a hospital in Dingle, where Mechanic Alfred Andersen died the next day. The 2 rafts and their occupants were never found. 23 had died in all, among them the captain, 3 British, 1 Finnish, 1 from Estonia, the rest were Norwegian. Only 5 survived. The maritime hearings were held in Dublin on May 19-1941 with all the survivors appearing.
Related external links: Some of the casualties - Norwegians only are commemorated at this Memorial for Seamen in Stavern, Norway (the names in this list differ slightly from mine above). The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, "Sjøforklaringer fra 2. verdenskrig", Norwegian Maritime Museum, Volume I, and misc - ref My sources.
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