D/S Enid

To Enid on the "Ships starting with E" page.


Source: Bjørn Milde's postcard collection.
Another picture - Sent to me by a website visitor (I believe he in in turn obtained it from Bachke & Co.).

Final Fate - 1940:

Enid was on her way from Steinkjær (near Trondheim), Norway to Dublin, Ireland on Jan. 17-1940 (both countries were neutral at the time) with a cargo of woodpulp, when 10 miles north of the Shetland Islands the captain saw a British ship about 2 miles abaft their course (S/S Polzella). An hour later they saw her being torpedoed and sunk and about 20 mins later they saw a U-boat about 2 miles off. Naturally, his immediate reaction was to go to her assistance, but no survivors were found. While Enid was standing by ready to lower the boats U-25 (Schütze) started shelling her and under continuous fire 2 lifeboats were launched. Enid was hit 6 times (20 shells were fired according to "Skip og menn") and set on fire. U-25 later sent a torpedo into her hitting the forepart which sank immediately while the afterpart continued to float, still ablaze.

The lifeboat containing the captain looked for the other boat with the rest of the crew but without success, the search being made difficult by the rough seas. While searching they were spotted and picked up by the Danish D/S Kina, which continued looking for the missing boat to no avail. Kina landed the captain, 2nd mate, 2nd engineer, an able seaman and the stoker at Las Palmas on Jan. 23.

A Swedish newspaper article, received from Jan-Olof Hendig, Sweden, based on a telegram from the captain to the ship owners following the sinking, states that Enid had a complement of 16, and that 7 men were picked up from the captain's lifeboat. The article adds that the men in the other lifeboat had also been picked up, by a British trawler which had been near the place of sinking. According to this external website (scroll down to Jan. 17) this was the British fishing vessel Granada, adding that the wreck of Enid was scuttled by the destroyer Firedrake.

Some of the info on this page was sent to me by a visitor to my site, his source was Admiralty records. A letter received from another visitor to my website, written by Bachke & Co., the managers of Enid, states the survivors in the lifeboats (using the plural form) were landed at Las Palmas by a ship belonging to the Danish company A. P. Møller & Co.; Kina belonged to Det Østasiatiske Compagni A/S (The East Asiatic Company). The same letter says the crew returned to Trondheim in March-1940. "Skip og menn", Birger Dannevig states that the other lifeboat reached land. Yet another website visitor has informed me that the book "Off Scotland", a private publication which lists virtually all wrecks around the Scottish coast, says Enid was torpedoed by U 25 when 6-7 miles north of Muckle Flugga, (Shetlands) one hour after Polzella, position 60 57 42 00 52 38 on Jan. 18-1940.

Related external links:
U-25 | Viktor Schütze

Back to Enid on the "Ships starting with E" page.

Other ships named Enid: Enid III was delivered in Dec. 1972, built Gdansk, 1999 gt. Panamanian Rommy in 1977, Eggli 1983, Sommy 1983, Romeo 1987, Steinfalk 1988 - back to Norway in Nov.-1989 and renamed Anglo for K/S A/S Arunto, Storesund Rederi, Haugesund. Condemned in 1998 following a collision in Antwerp. Another Enid was built in 1941, listed in the Homefleet section, Ships starting with E. (This info from Bachke & Co. fleet list, Finn R. Hansen).