M/S Danio

To Danio on the "Ships starting with D" page.


Post war picture when named Canasta (see post war info at the end of this page).
From Sverre Johansen's postcard collection.

Some of Danio's War Voyages:

Partly from 1st Mate (later Captain) Hans Birger Hjertaker's own story

H. B. Hjertaker had served as 3rd mate, later as 1st mate on M/S Margrethe Bakke early in the war. He joined Danio as 3rd mate in the fall of 1940, but became 1st mate later that year. His story can be found in the book "Sjøfolk i krig" by Leif M. Bjørkelund, which is based on interviews with seamen 50 years after the war, and includes many interesting personal stories (used for this site with the author's permission).

Danio was mostly trading between U.S./Canada and the U.K. from 1940 until she entered supply service for the North Africa front in 1942.

She's listed in the Halifax-U.K. Convoy HX 86 in Nov.-1940 - follow link for more more convoy information. Several Norwegian ships took part.

In June/July-1941 sailed in Convoy HX 135, bound for Liverpool with a cargo of sugar, joining from Bermuda, and the following month we find her, with several other Norwegian ships, in the westbound Convoy ON 10, leaving Liverpool on Aug. 27. Danio's destination is given as New York, station 12.

According to the first external website that I've linked to below Danio was in Convoy OS 11 in Nov.-1941, on a voyage from Clyde to Freetown - Takoradi with war stores. Other Norwegian ships taking part were Dagrun, Tigre, Fana and Elg. In Jan.-1942 we find her going in the other direction with Convoy SL 98, which departed Freetown on Jan. 15-1942 and arrived Liverpool on Febr. 5. Danio's voyage is given as Lagos-Belfast, cargo of cocoa. That spring she had taken on a cargo of general, war materials and ammunition in New York, departing alone for Suez in Apr.-1942, arriving Cape Town in June, then continued to Durban before joining a convoy for Suez in July. Once her cargo had been unloaded she returned to the U.S. via the same route, arriving Baltimore in Nov. She then loaded General Grant tanks, jeeps, locomotives, aircraft, ammunition and general before proceeding in convoy to Christobal via Cuba, passing the Panama Canal in Dec. and then continued alone. She proceeded to Durban to join a convoy there, arriving Suez in Febr.-1943. After cargo had been unloaded she took on board some kind of salt in the Suez Canal, before heading to the Red Sea for a cargo of ore for South Africa. On July 27-1943 she was back in Aden, loaded a cargo of coal and continued to Suez.

She was part of a convoy that arrived Salerno on Sept. 16-1943 (a week after the main allied attack on Italy started) and experienced the intense air raids there for several days, and also in Napoli where she arrived on Oct. 13, but escaped both ordeals unharmed. Naples had been conquered by the allies on Oct. 1, but there were still some air attacks out in the bay. There's mention of her witnessing an American ship being hit by a bomb and sunk on Oct. 23. (This might have been the James Iredell mentioned for Oct. 23 in "The Official Chronology of the U.S. Navy in World War II" by Robert J. Cressman, ref. link to Hyperwar below). Danio departed Napoli on Oct. 28. According to the external website about the SL convoys below she made a voyage Bone-Barrow with Convoy SL 140 / MKS 31 the following month, cargo of iron ore. SL 140 had departed Freetown on Nov. 12, joined up with MKS 31 from Gibraltar on the 24th (with which Danio joined, together with the Norwegian Slemmestad and Lynghaug), and arrived Liverpool on Dec. 7-1943. Note that the Gibraltar portion of this convoy is also available on my own site at MKS 31, and as will be seen by scrolling down to the second table on that page, Danio had arrived Gibraltar from Bone with the Port Said portion of the convoy.

After having taken part in the Italy campaigns, Danio re-entered the North Atlantic service in the winter of 1943/44. After several months at a yard in Boston she returned to England in May/June, then to the Dominican Republic for a cargo of sugar for England (she is, in fact, listed in the New York-U.K. Convoy HX 294 early in June-1944).

In Oct.-1944 she was in Greenock, Scotland, having arrived from the U.S. with Convoy HX 309, then travelled to Pugwash, Canada for a cargo of lumber for the U.K. Dec./Jan. saw her in Leith unloading the lumber, having arrived with the Sydney, C. B. portion of the slow Halifax-U.K. Convoy SC 162, then back to New York in ballast, where she took on board a cargo for Liverpool around Febr./March 1945, back to Montreal, Canada, took on a general cargo for Norway, and arrived Oslo at the beginning of July as the first vessel from Canada after the war had ended. Hjertaker took over as captain of the ship at this time. Danio returned to Canada for more lumber for the U.K., and then made a few trips for The Norwegian State, making, among others, a voyage to West Africa for coffee, cocoa beans and nuts which were discharged in Sandefjord, Fredrikstad and Oslo, Norway.

POST WAR:

Sold on May 12-1948 to D/S Patria A/S (Oluf Skjelbred Knudsen), Kristiansand. In liner service Chile-U.S East Coast. To D/S A/S Patria II P/R on Dec. 28-1948. Purchased by P/R Canasta, Haugesund on Aug. 26-1950, (H. Krohn Brekke) and renamed Canasta. Sold on March 7-1952 to Partsrederei M/S Michael (Holsten Reederei GmbH), and registered under German flag as Michael. Company name changed to Holsten Reederei, Lenth & Co. in 1956. Sold in Oct.-1958 to Eisen & Metal K. G. Lehr & Co., Hamburg for breaking up. Resold in Febr.-1960 to Eiich Drechser. Returned to Eisen & Metal in May-1960 and broken up.

To Danio on the "Ships starting with D" page.

Clemeth Dann later had another ship by this name, ex Liberty Ship Nathaniel Alexander, built 1942, 7177 gt. Became Norwegian Solfa in Aug.-1947 (H. Rich. Aass, Oslo), from 1948 managed by Einar Rasmussen & Alfred I. Thommesen, Kristiansand S. Became Norse Lady for Odd Godager in 1950, then Danio for Clemeth Dann, Oslo in 1953. Sailed as Troyan under Lebanese flag from 1962 (Wigham Richardson & Co, London). On a voyage Kosseir-Whampoa with cargo of phosphate she arrived Colombo on Aug. 1-1967, leaking and flooded with hull plating fractures. Repaired and continued voyage. Broken up in Singapore in March-1968, having arrived on Oct. 29-1967. (This info found in "Liberty Ships in Peacetime, and their Contribution to World Shipping History" I. G. Steward, 1992).

The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "Våre motorskip", Leif M. Bjørkelund & E. H. Kongshavn, "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, "Sjøfolk i krig", Leif M. Bjørkelund, - ref. My sources.