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D/S Favorit To Favorit on the "Ships starting with F" page. Manager: Peder Smedvig, Stavanger Built by Pusey & Jones Co., Wilmington, Delaware in 1920. Previous names: Fishers Island until 1920, Ionier until 1929. Favorit was one of several Norwegian ships affected by the Spanish civil war when she was forced to go to Ceuta in June-1938. Captain: Einar Pedersen
Favorit is listed as sailing in Convoy HN 9A from Norway to the U.K. in Jan.-1940. As will be seen by clicking on the link, several Norwegian ships took part. In March that year she shows up in Convoy OB 116, departing Liverpool on the 23rd. Her destination is not given, but she had station 53 of the convoy, which is available at the external link below. The Norwegian Vav is also listed. The same site has Favorit in Convoy OA 165, which left Southend on June 10-1940 and dispersed 2 days later. Her destination is given as Miramichi on that occasion, and she was the only Norwegian ship. In July-1940 we find her in the Halifax-U.K. Convoy HX 58 (lumber for Belfast), having previously been cancelled from HX 56 and HX 57. She's crossed out on the form for HX 78 in Oct. that year, but in the middle of that month she shows up in the slow Sydney (C.B.)-U.K. Convoy SC 8, 968 standards of lumber for London. The following month (Nov.-16-1940) she was attacked and damaged by an aircraft off Lowestoft, after she had lost touch with the convoy in which she sailed; Convoy FS 335 (external link). She was unarmed at the time, but no-one was killed or injured. Related external links: See also this
Favorit departed Boston on March 22-1941 for Halifax and joined Convoy SC 27, which left on March 30 (she had originally been scheduled for the previous convoy, SC 26, from which Helle was sunk). She had a cargo of 1330 tons steel and 2010 tons scrap iron for Hull. On April 7 she had to stop due to a problem with the steering gear. By the time this had been repaired she had lost sight of the convoy and was, therefore, on her own northwest of the Hebrides when she was attacked by an aircraft at 10:40 GMT on the 16th, position 60 06N 08 32W. 2 bombs hit near No. 3 hatch, causing heavy damages and destroying the motor boat. The crew did not take to the boats right away because the aircraft also used its machine guns. Shortly afterwards it returned, dropping more bombs, 1 of which detonated in the sea on the starboard side, another on the foredeck. By then the starboard lifeboat had been manned and launched, but it was already full of water and capsized. The port boat had better luck and those who were in the water were subsequently picked up by this boat. The aircraft now returned a 3rd time, dropping 2 bombs on the after deck, and she started to sink by the stern. An attempt was made to turn the starboard boat over, but being made of teak it was quite heavy and, finding that it was too damaged to be of any use the attempt was abandoned. The port boat also had minor leaks, but the captain and 10 men set sail in a southerly direction in the hope of reaching an area with more traffic. The remaining survivors had been distributed on 2 rafts which were tied together, with 7 men on one, 11 on the other. The captain's boat was spotted by a British flying boat which threw down food and medicines to them that same afternoon. At about 23:30 that night they were rescued by the Hull trawler Commander Horton en route from Iceland with fish. The people on the trawler told them that they had been hailed by a destroyer an hour earlier and told to keep a lookout for a lifeboat. Upon being notified about the rafts the trawler's captain did not think it advisable to go back and look for them as he knew that the destroyer would be out looking for them. In fact, the 18 on the rafts had already been picked up by the destroyer Lincoln that afternoon. They were landed in Londonderry on Apr. 19 and were all sent to Glasgow, with the exception of the Swedish Stoker Andersen who was admitted to a hospital. 3rd Mate Ånensen, who had been on duty on the bridge when the attack took place, had received minor injuries, as had the British Trimmer Cooper (Ånensen had been shot in the thigh while running to one of the ship's 2 machine guns). Meanwhile, the 11 from the captain's boat arrived Scrabster in the evening of Apr. 17 and were placed in a hotel, then travelled to Glasgow the following day with arrival on the 19th. They had been told upon arrival on the 17th that the men on the rafts had also been rescued. The maritime hearings were held in Glasgow on Apr. 25-1941 with Captain Pedersen (who had been on board for 6 years), and the 1st and 3rd mates appearing. The 1st mate had been sitting in the radio station at the time of attack, and after having gone to the bridge to get the ship's position from the captain he ran back to the radio station to send an SOS, but the wireless was found to be out of order so no such signal was sent. Note that Convoy SC 27 had several Norwegian ships - follow the link provided. George Monk, a visitor to my website has told me that the following men received ungazetted awards for unknown services (his source: Seedies List of awards to the British Merchant Navy which includes awards to Allied merchant seamen): Crew List - No casualties:
Related external links: Back to Favorit on the "Ships starting with F" page. The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland Norwegian Maritime Museum, Volume I - ref. My sources.
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