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M/T Fjord To Fjord on the "Ships starting with F" page. Owner: A/S D/S Fjeld Built by Tyne Iron Shipbuilding Co. Ltd., Willington Quay-on-Tyne in1914. Previous name: Orla until 1937 (A/S D/S Eir - O.Grolle Olsen & L.Hysing Olsen, Bergen). Captain: Halfdan Tønder Fjord was the victim of a German air attack on July 17-1940, about 13 n. miles off Dartmouth, but was not hit. At the end of Nov.-1940 she's listed in the slow Sydney (C.B.)-U.K. Convoy SC 14, pit props for Barry. In Apr.-1941 we find her in the the slow Halifax-U.K. Convoy SC 29, cargo of sulphur, station 95. In Aug. that year she was one of 14 Norwegian ships in the westbound North Atlantic Convoy ON 4. Her destination is given as Halifax, and she had station 22 of the convoy. According to the first external website that I've linked to at the end of this text, Fjord joined Convoy OS 9 on Oct. 13-1941. She was in station 22 on a voyage from Milford to Lisbon with coal. This convoy included 13 vessels that were destined for Gibraltar, Fjord being one of them. Other Norwegian ships in this convoy were Annavore, Fagersten, and Varanger. Follow the link for more convoy information. Annavore and Fagersten later joined Convoy HG 76 in order to return to the U.K. (Annavore was sunk) and it looks like Fjord had also originally been scheduled for this convoy, which was held back and did not leave Gibraltar until Dec. 14-1941. Fjord, however, was torpedoed before she reached Gibraltar.
Torpedoed off Estepona Point, Spain by U-557 (Paulshen) on Dec. 2-1941, when on a voyage from Aguilas, Spain for Barrow via Gibraltar with a cargo of 5900 tons iron ore, having departed Spain the day before. She was hit amidships on the starboard side, probably in the boiler room, and went down so quickly that the crew had to jump overboard. 22 managed to find 2 rafts, while 14 lost their lives, some in the explosion, others when the ship went down. The survivors landed about 9 kilometers southeast of Estepona, then travelled to Estepona the next day. From there they were sent to Algeciras where they were questioned by Spanish Naval officers, before they were sent to Sevilla on a tug. The allied consulates got busy investigating the case, as it was obvious the U-boat had been within the Spanish (neutral) territorial waters at the time. The only surviving navigator was 2nd Mate Borgar Knutsen, who reported to the Norwegian consul in Sevilla that he was certain the torpedo had come from the side of the ship that was facing the shore and that Fjord went down about 2 1/2 miles off Estepona. Fjord had a British radio operator, who claimed they were so close to land that it would have been possible to swim the distance. They were later sent to Gibraltar in order to continue to England. The maritime hearings were held in London on Febr. 4-1942 with the 2nd mate, the carpenter and the boatswain appearing. Crew List:
Related external links: The Norwegians - At first sight, 16 Norwegians appear to be listed here, but upon checking further I find that some of them belong to other ships (3 were from Lysefjord, 1 from Korsfjord, 1 from Tanafjord) so be aware of this problem with the search results on this website; In this case of course, it has to do with the "fjord" name in all 3 ships. Back to Fjord on the "Ships starting with F" page. The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, "Sjøforklaringer fra 2. verdenskrig", Volume I (Norwegian Maritime Museum) and misc. - ref. My sources.
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