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D/S Havørn To Havørn on the "Ships starting with H" page. Manager: J. Odland & Søn A/S, Haugesund The tonnages given above are from misc. sources; she may have been rebuilt after delivery(?), at which time her tonnage is given as below: Delivered from Laxevaag Maskin- & Jernskibsbyggeri, Bergen in Apr.-1902 as Ørn to P. Hamre e.a., Bergen, 1478 gt, 920 net, 2380 tdwt, 257.6' x 36.3' x 17', triple exp. 146 nhp (Laxevaag). When purchased in 1919 by A/S Ulrikka (Chr. Mathiesen), Mølstervåg/Haugesund she had the name Ørn II of Tønsberg, renamed Ulrikka II. From 1927 registered for Chr. Mathiesen & Sønners Rederi A/S. Sold in 1929 to Jacob Odland & Søn A/S, renamed Havørn (D/S A/S Havørn). Captains: Karl Helmer Henriksen from Dec.-1941 until Febr.-1942 (M/S Vinni's Story). Later captain was Engel Hansen Holme.
Havørn is mentioned in connection with Convoy HN 10B from Norway to the U.K. in Febr.-1940, bound for Liverpool with pulp. In March we find her in Convoy ON 21 to Norway - follow links for more convoy info; several Norwegian ships took part. She msut have gotten out of Norway somehow, because she was later in allied service; in general tramping services between Canada and U.S.A. In Oct.-1940 she's listed among the ships in the slow Sydney (C.B.)-U.K. Convoy SC 7, in which the Norwegian Snefjeld was sunk. Havørn had a cargo of pit props for Mersey. In Febr.-1941 we find her, with a cargo of lumber for Great Yarmouth, in the slow Halifax-U.K. Convoy SC 23, but is said to have returned to port. In May that year she was scheduled for Convoy SC 31, but did not sail.
According to "Nortraships flåte" Havørn reported 2 torpedoes having been fired at her on Jan. 19-1942 but she was not hit. This was during Operation Paukenschlag, and Havørn was off Cape Race at the time, having sailed from St. John's on Jan. 18. After the attack she headed at full speed for Argentia with arrival the next day. I posted a query on Uboat.net's forum about this in hopes of finding out which boat this might have been, and this is what Rainer Kolbicz says in his reply: "U-84 (Uphoff) reported an unsuccessful attack at an unknown steamer of approximately 2500 GRT in grid BB6739 (46°17N/55°03W) on 19 January 1942. The U-boat fired a spread of two torpedoes at 14.21 hours and heard one hit on the ship, but it did not detonate and the other missed. At 14.31 hours, a third torpedo was fired which was a surface runner and missed the ship". I've received a journal excerpt about this incident from Karl H. Henriksen, Norway, the grandson of Havørn's captain at the time, Karl Helmer Henriksen. Unfortunately, it's in Norwegian, and I had hoped to be able to post a translated summary of it here, but have now decided to post it "as is" for those of you who do read Norwegian - hopefully I'll get time to translate it at a later time - it's dated Febr. 12-1942 and can be found on Page 2
Havørn departed Montreal for St. John's (to join a convoy) with about 1832 tons general cargo (345 tons on deck) on July 17-1942. While in Montreal she had been in dry dock for misc. repairs. On July 18 she anchored up off Quebec where the pilot disembarked, and Havørn awaited further orders until she at 18:35 continued her voyage with a new pilot on board (J. E. Langlois). They ran into thick fog shortly after midnight on the 19th, and at about 02:10 she was rammed on her port side forward of the engine room by the British ship Radhurst, just off Prairie Light in St. Lawrence. The water gushed into the engine room and bunkers, the engine stopped and the lights went out. She listed more and more to starboard, and fearing she would sink any minute, and that the boilers might explode the captain found it best to order all men to the lifeboats and head for shore, which wasn't far away. Havørn had sunk (47 23 09N 70 27 07W) by the time they reached land in the 2 boats, 1 landed about 02:40 and the captain's boat about 03:00. "Informal" hearings were held in Montreal on July 28-1942 with the captain (who at that time was Engel Hansen Holme), the 2nd mate, the carpenter (helmsman) and the donkeyman being questioned by the Norwegian Vice Consul. It looks like there was a possibility of a court case regarding this collision. As was common in cases like these each captain blamed the other for the incident. It appears Radhurst's captain had claimed the ship was stationary at the time, while Captain Hansen Holme says that if this had been the case they could easily have avoided her, and claims that the other ship had a good speed, which he feels was confirmed by the force with which she struck Havørn's bow.
Back to Havørn on the "Ships starting with H" page. Other ships by this name: Norway had previously also had a whale catcher by the name Havørn, built 1910. Renamed Veslemarit in 1922, converted to tug in 1940. There had also been a whale catcher named Havørn II, built 1912 (ex Linga II, ex Juarez). The fishing vessel, M/B Havørn (SF 40 SV) escaped from Måløy to Lerwick on May 8-1940 with 20 people on board, 11 of whom were British, 2 Jews from Austria and 7 Norwegians. P. Meyer, Oslo managed a ship named Havørn from 1949, at which time the ship was delivered from Sweden, 4944 gt. Sold and renamed Lundefjell for Olsen & Ugelstad, Oslo in 1964. Sold to Haugesund in Febr.-1970 and renamed Pax (Arne Østensjø A/S). Lost following a fire on board on Febr. 19-1974, when in Shanghai. Broken up. Another Havørn was delivered to A/S Havfugl (A/S Havtor), Oslo in Jan.-1977, built in Kiel, 23 463 gt. Had various owners until 1995, when she was sold to Monrovia and renamed Aristotelis, sold again in 1997 and renamed Babylon. Broken up 2001. The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, "Våre gamle skip", Leif M. Bjørkelund & E. H. Kongshavn, "Sjøforklaringer fra 2. verdenskrig", Volume I (Norwegian Maritime Museum), and misc. (ref. My sources).
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