Site Map | Search Warsailors.com | Merchant Fleet Main Page | Warsailors.com Home |
|
M/S Duala To Duala on the "Ships starting with D" page. Manager: Chr. Gundersen & Co., Oslo Built in Gothenburg 1938. Captain: Ole Thommesen See also this Guestbook message, as well as this posting to one of my Forums. 1st engineer on this ship from Jan. until July-1943 was Adolf K. Lines. He had previously been on board Langanger until she was requisitioned and later served on Gabon (1944).
According to the first external website that I've linked to at the end of this text, Duala was in Convoy OA 55 in Dec.-1939. This convoy departed Southend on Dec. 18, and joined up with OB 55 on Dec. 20, becoming OG 11, which arrived Gibraltar on Dec. 26. Follow the link for the names of other ships in this convoy. Duala was one of 26 Norwegian ships interned in West and North Africa - See this page for a list of all 26. "Nortraships flåte" says he was interned in Dakar on June 24-1940, later requisitioned and renamed St. Sabine. Returned to Nortraship on March 3-1943 as Duala (following the Allied invasion). A French visitor to my website has given me the following: Sailed from Casablanca on May 31-1940 in convoy 1-K* under French escort. At Brest early June-1940. Sailed from Brest on June 13-1940 in convoy 50-BF under French escort. At Casablanca on June 19. Seized in Dakar in July-1940. Under French flag at Dakar 1941 as Ste Sabine.
According to Guri Hjeltnes ("Handelsflåten i krig") she had 28 Norwegian crew, 1 of whom went home while 20 managed to escape; I have the names of 7 of them (from "Krigsseileren", Issue No. 4, 1984, which has an article about a reunion of the 7, 43 years after the event). They were Deckboys Sverre Solberg and Otto Kristian Jørgensen*, (both 16 years old at the time), Cook Ingvald Heimgård, Ordinary Seamen Anker Thorbjørnsen and Leif Kristiansen, Engineer Assistant Lars Gjelstad, and Messboy Harry Hansen.
Duala was a fruit carrier, but like so many of the other fruit carriers she transported meat during the war, as well as fish. In July-1943 she's listed among the ships in Convoy HX 247, which had originated in New York on July 7, but Duala joined from Halifax on July 11. Her cargo is given as general and meat, destination Cardiff. She also sailed in Convoy HX 254 in Aug./Sept.-1943, general cargo and mail, destination Bristol, station 116, and in HX 268 in Nov.-1943 (the latter convoy is not available to me). In Jan.-1944 she's listed in Convoy HX 275, bound for Liverpool with meats and general, having joined the convoy from Halifax. In March that same year we find her in Convoy HX 282, again joining from Halifax and bound for Bristol with meat. From some point in 1944 she was in service from San Francisco for the troops in Honolulu for a year, returning to San Francisco every 3 weeks. The men on Duala were in the lucky position to have the company of several women working on board as messgirls (American). Duala's captain was Ole Thommesen according to a personal story sent to me. While on charter to the American Navy she made many voyages to the Pacific, also to Pearl Harbor. She also followed the invasion forces to Saipan, Guam and Tinian. Christian S. Christensen, the radio operator on board who has told this story, says that Duala was in the harbour of Tinian when the aircraft which dropped the first atom bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6-1945 took off from the island. "We knew nothing about this historic event until the plane returned, and then we understood something out of the ordinary had happened". The harbour area was strictly guarded the whole time and the use of radio was prohibited. Related external links: Back to Duala on the "Ships starting with D" page.
|
