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D/S Gudvor To Gudvor on the "Ships starting with G" page. Owner: D/S A/S Gudvin Built by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson Ltd., Sunderland in 1928. Previous name St Therese until 1937.
Operated by WSA during the war and was still with them as of Nov.-1945. A French visitor to my website has told me that Gudvor was stopped for examination in the Caribbean sea (17 32N 64 35W) by the French cruiser Primauguet on Apr. 21-1940 (a couple of weeks after the German invasion of Norway). Ordered to Fort-de-France (French East Indies) where she arrived on Apr. 22. Released on Apr. 23 provided she complied with orders from London-based operating office. She was scheduled for the slow Sydney (C.B.)-U.K. Convoy SC 61 in Dec.-1941, but instead joined the next convoy, SC 62, general and timber for Reykjavik. In Jan.-1943 we find her in station 74 of the westbound North Atlantic Convoy ON 160. This convoy had started out in Liverpool (for New York) on Jan. 11, but it looks like Gudvor joined from Halifax on Febr. 1; follow the link for more info. A couple of months later she was fortunate to miss what has been dubbed the worst convoy battle of the war fought in the North Atlantic. This took place in March-1943 and involved the two eastbound convoys SC 122 and HX 229. Gudvor, Askepot and Polarland had started out from New York in Convoy SC 122, but only Askepot was present when the attacks started, the other 2 having lost touch with the convoy in a storm and returned to port. The battle lasted for 5 days and when it was over on March 20, 22 merchant ships had been sunk, with HX 229 being the hardest hit. Abraham Lincoln was the Commodore Vessel for HX 229 in which Elin K was sunk. Gudvor also escaped harm the following month in the battle for the westbound Convoy ONS 5, even though she was a straggler. She had joined this convoy from Iceland on Apr. 26, and arrived St. John's with 3 other stragglers on May 9, escorted by HMS Pink. Again, follow the link for more info - see also my text for D/S Bonde, which was sunk. The Norwegian M/S Rena was the Commodore ship for this convoy. In Oct.-1943 she's listed in the Halifax-U.K. Convoy SC 145, and at the beginning of Dec. that same year we find her in Convoy RU 99 from Reykjavik to the U.K. Her destination is given as Bristol, cargo of U.S. Government stores. Early in June-1944 she's listed in the New York-U.K. Convoy HX 294, having joined with the Halifax portion, general cargo for Iceland. She subsequently left Iceland with Convoy RU 126 on July 7-1944, in order to head back to Halifax (via Loch Ewe for convoy). Gudvor had a Canadian female radio operator on board in 1944. Her name was Annie Martlieu. She also shows up in the crew list for Iris in Oct.-1944. Here's a message from her son, who also posted a note in May-2002, and here's a more recent message, stating that she joined Gudvor after Iris had been sunk. My page about M/S Mosdale has the names of other female Canadian radio operators on Norwegian ships during the war. Related external links: More on this battle - Scroll down on the page (from USMM in WW II). Back to Gudvor on the "Ships starting with G" page. The text on this page was compiled with the help of: Roger W. Jordan - and misc.
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