D/S Balder
Updated March 8-2011

To Balder on the "Ships starting with B" page.


Bjørn Milde's postcard collection.

Misc. Voyages:

For information on voyages made in between those mentioned here, please see the documents received from the National Archives of Norway and Hague's Voyage Record above. Follow the convoy links provided for further details; several Norwegian ships took part.

Balder is listed in Convoy HN 11 from Norway to the U.K. in Febr.-1940, bound for Methil in ballast. Later that month A. Hague has included her in the U.K.-Norway Convoy ON 16, and at the end of March-1940, shortly before the German invasion of Norway, we find her in Convoy HN 22, bound for Tyne in ballast, thereby ending up in allied service. According to Page 1 of the archive documents, she arrived Shields on March 31, having started out from Bergen on the 26th.

She was subsequently in service around the U.K.

In May-1940 she's listed in Convoy OA 141, which left Southend on May 3 and dispersed on the 6th; Balder had arrived Portsmouth on the 4th. The Norwegian Hjalmar Wessel is also included. Balder shows up again in Convoy OA 151, which left Southend on May 19 (dispersed May 22). She was again bound for Portsmouth, where she arrived on May 20 - please see the external links provided within the table above.

In June-1940 Arnold Hague has her in Convoy OA 169, which left Southend on June 17 and was dispersed 2 days later. Her destination is again given as Portsmouth, where she arrived on June 18 (according to Hague). There seems to be some disagreement as to whether this was the Icelandic Baldur, or the Norwegian Balder. It'll be noticed, when going back to Page 1 of the archive documents, that she did leave Southend on June 17 and was bound for Portsmouth - arrival not given. This convoy was composed of 2 parts, OA 169(1) and OA 169(2), Balder (or Baldur) being in station 66 of Part 2, which had several Norwegian ships, namely Gulhaug, Lom, Roy, Røyksund, Thorøy and Varegg, while Vinland is included in Part 1- see the external website that I've linked to at the end of this page, as well as link to A. Hague's listing in the Voyage Record above.

Balder was 2 miles south of Dover in Convoy CW 5 on July 14-1940 when attacked by two aircraft, hit aft by a bomb and set ablaze. The 4* on gun duty were killed, but had managed to hit one of the planes. 14 survivors, 2 of whom were injured, were picked up from a lifeboat by the Norwegian MTB 5 (Ø. Schau) under continuous air attacks (10 aircraft were involved), then landed in Dover where the wounded were given medical treatment. The Norwegian Ara is also listed in Convoy CW 5, as will be seen when following the link in the table above.

* Steward Thorstein Kristoffersen, Ordinary Seaman Lars Martinus Lorentzen, 1st Mate Kristian Jensenius Skjervik, and 2nd Engineer Petter Severin J. Solberg are commemorated at the memorial for seamen in Stavern, Norway. Ref. link at the end of this page.

I've been told by a visitor to my site that according to British records Balder was on a voyage from South Shields to Portsmouth with a cargo of coal at the time, having left Southend on July 14-1940, adding she was bombed aft and amidships at 03.10 pm that day and that 8 crew were uninjured, 2 injured, 4 killed.

After the fire had been extinguished, Balder was taken in tow to Dover by the tug Lady Bassey and repaired enough to where she could sail again, then joined the westbound convoy CW 8 consisting of 21 ships on July 25, escorted by the armed trawlers Arctic Pioneer, Drangey and Amethyst. The convoy was attacked by an estimated 75 German aircraft shortly after departure, and by that afternoon several ships had been sunk. MTB 5 and MTB 6, stationed at Dover as a subdivision of the 11th MTB flotille, rescued many survivors that day. When passing Dungeness that same night German E-boats attacked, but Balder escaped these attacks unharmed and arrived Portsmouth on July 26 - again, see Page 1.

Other ships in Convoy CW 8 were:
Broadhurst (sunk by E-boat), Corhaven (sunk), Grønland (Commodore vessel, damaged, later sunk in air attack in Dover on July 29), Henry Moen (sunk), Hodder (damaged), Leo (sunk), London Trader (sunk), Lulonga (sunk), Newminster (damaged), Polgrange (sunk), Portslade (sunk), Summity (damaged, beached at Dover), Tamworth (damaged), Mistley, Jolly Nights, Dominence, Surte, Sanfry, Arthur Wright, British Scout. As will be seen when following the link to CW convoys in the table above (based on A. Hague's database), the list of ships in CW 8 differs slightly from what I've given here (source at the bottom of this page).

The last convoy Balder appears in, together with Rolf Jarl, is PW 459 in Jan.-1944 (her voyages in this period are shown on Page 8). She was subsequently used as a training ship for frogmen in preparation for the first phase of the Normandie landings, and continued to be used as such until the spring of 1946. See also Page 9.

POST WAR:

Sold in March-1946 to Cristos Pappas & Athanasios Coumandareas, Panama and renamed Cape Matapan. Sold in 1947 to China Maritime Trust Ltd., Shanghai, China, renamed Pei Ching. Sold in 1951 to Pacific Union Marine Corp., Panama and renamed Northern Phoenix. Deleted from registers in 1956.

Related external links:
OB (& OA) convoys - OA 169 part 1 and part 2 are included.

Stavern Memorial commemorations - The 4 crew members named in my text above are commemorated at this memorial for seamen in Stavern, Norway.

Back to Balder on the "Ships starting with B" page.

Norway had previously had another Balder, delivered in Nov.-1882 to Johan Chr. Gjertsen, Bergen, 485 gt. This ship sank in the North Sea on Aug. 31-1898, voyage Drammen-Gt. Yarmouth.

The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, "Calamity Corner - The Wrecks of the Eastern English Channel", Anthony Lane - and misc.