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M/T Høegh Giant To Høegh Giant on the "Ships starting with H" page. Owner: Skibsaktieselsk. Abaco, Aruba, Astrea & Noruega. Completed in Febr.-1937 by Deutsche Werft A.G., Hamburg. Captain: Finn Ager Madsen. Related items on this website: Høegh Giant arrived Brisbane in convoy from the Thursday Islands, together with other Norwegian tankers on Apr. 19-1940, in other words, 10 days after the German invasion of Norway. Please see Havbør for an explanation.
Høegh Giant was in Convoy HX 152 in Sept./Oct.-1941 (in station 92) along with the Norwegian Drammensfjord (106), Beth (44), Evita (93), Trondheim (95), Salamis (84), and Storanger (83), all listed on this website. The convoy left Halifax on Sept. 28 and arrived Liverpool on Oct. 14. A couple of weeks later she returned to the U.S. with the westbound Convoy ON 30, bound for New York, station 44, and in Dec. she went back to England with Convoy HX 163 (departed Halifax on Dec. 3-1941) together with the Norwegian Andrea Brøvig, Haakon Hauan, Ringstad, Harpefjell, Ørnefjell, Ranja, Pan Aruba, and Thorshøvdi. In Febr.-1942 we find Høegh Giant in Convoy HX 174, together with the Norwegian James Hawson, Athos, Fernwood, Vanja, Thorsholm, Beth and Anderson, as well as the Panamanian Norvinn - all listed on this website. More information on all the other Norwegian ships mentioned here can be found with the help of the alphabet index at the end of this page.
There seems to be some disagreement with regard to the events surrounding the sinking of this ship, and for info I've added all the details I can find from my misc. sources. According to the Norwegian book "Nortraships flåte" Høegh Giant was on a voyage in ballast from Freetown* to Trinidad and was in position 07 17N 43 06W at 06:45 on June 3-1942 when she was hit by a torpedo below the after deck, port side (U-126, Bauer - 3 torpedoes were fired in this attack). She stayed afloat, but engines had to be stopped for about half an hour, until she at 07:30 continued at 10 knots with the gun crew on their posts. Suddenly the U-boat was spotted a couple of hundred meters behind them on the starboard side. The gunners immediately fired, then saw 3-4 columns of water around the boat which quickly submerged. The fourth shot landed where the boat had gone under, leading them to think it had been sunk. Nothing further happened until 21:00 that same date when the U-boat again attacked, this time with 2 torpedoes which struck on the starboard side, just forward of amidships (3 torpedoes may in fact have been fired in this attack as well).
The captain and 3 men launched the gig, while the rest of the crew went in 2 lifeboats. The U-boat came up and called twice over to the gig, but when the captain didn't understand what was being said, 3 bursts of machine gun fire were sent above the lifeboat, injuring the captain in the arm. Høegh Giant, which was still afloat, was then shelled, but this source does not specify whether the ship actually sank at that time. The two lifeboats with 35 survivors landed at Devil's Island at 15:00 LAT on June 13, where they were placed under guard and disarmed of a 30 caliber machine gun and 2 pistols they had with them. They were kindly treated by those who were interned there, but after 6 days they were given the choice of staying there as internees until the end of the war or leave, whereupon they quickly chose the latter, and after the boats had been re-stocked they were allowed to leave. One of the boats was picked up by the Canadian Keymont at 15:00 GCT on June 20, about 25 miles north of Paramaribo Lightship, and the other by the Dutch Princess Juliana at the same time and date. They arrived Paramaribo that same day; from there they were sent to Trinidad on board the Norwegian D/S Lindvangen. The gig had landed in Trinidad on June 18 (or 21st?). Some of the above appears to have been taken from a report which was presented at the maritime hearings in New York on Aug. 7-1942, signed by Captain Madsen, Ordinary Seamen Bent Eilersen, who had been at the helm when the torpedoes hit, Able Seaman Alf Fjermestad, on lookout duty, and 3rd Mate Erik Mehus on duty on the bridge. This report says they had departed Freetown in convoy at 06:00 on May 27, and that the convoy was dispersed at 20:00 on the 28th whereupon Høegh Giant continued as per sailing orders from Navy Control, Freetown. The captain states that 15 radio signals in 3 periods had been sent out after the ship had been hit the first time, adding that she received damages between No. 6 and 8 center tanks in that attack, and developed a heavy list. This report also states that the explosion from the 2 torpedoes in the 2nd attack was so powerful that the starboard bridge wing was torn off, and the motor lifeboat was smashed. While the U-boat was shelling the ship, the gig was separated from the other 2 boats, and when they were not seen at daylight, the gig set a course for Trinidad. The Naval Observer at Paramaribo later expressed the opinion that the ship had been abandoned prematurely, as she was compartmented and very hard to sink, as evidenced by the fact that she was still afloat after 3 torpedo hits and 50 rounds of shell fire. Had the gun crew remained on board "they might have forced the sub to abandon its prey". The observer pointed out that an experienced Navy gun crew might have been able to hit the sub when it surfaced during the first attack which was made in daylight.
U-126 was later sunk by aircraft in the Bay of Biscay in July-1943. –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Again, just for info, a separate report, based on interviews with survivors, dated July 11-1942 and signed by U.S.N.R. Ensign E. D. Henderson, states: –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– At the end of July Høegh Giant's survivors were on board the American passenger ship Robert E. Lee. She was on a voyage from Port of Spain to Tampa, Florida, but could not secure a pilot and was directed to New Orleans with the PC-566 as escort. She had 268 passengers (mostly survivors of other sinkings), 130 crew members and 6 Naval Armed Guard. On July 30-1942, she was torpedoed by U-166 (Kuhlmann) in 28 40N 88 42W and sank after 15 minutes. 10 crew members and 15 passengers died. Other Norwegians on board were survivors from Andrea Brøvig. All the Norwegians survived and contributed to the rescue of about 185 of Robert E. Lee's passengers. (U-166 was sunk by PC-566 that same day). According to "A Careless Word, A Needless sinking" by Arthur R. Moore, Robert E. Lee was in Convoy TAW 7 at the time (external link - as will be seen, this convoy is said to have arrived Key West already on July 28, 2 days before Robert E. Lee was sunk). This book says she had a complement of 131, 6 Naval Armed Guard and 270 passengers. The ship was abandoned in 6 lifeboats and 16 rafts. PC-566, SC-519 and the tug Underwriter picked up survivors, who were landed at Venice, Louisiana, then transported by bus to New Orleans. According to this posting on my Ship Forum Robert E. Lee had arrived at Antigua 12-07-1942, left Antigua 13-07-1942, arrived St Lucia 13-07-1942. Left St Lucia 14-07-1942, arrived Trinidad 15-07-1942. Left Trinidad 21-07-1942 (this fits with the departure date of Convoy TAW 7), arrived off Tampa 29-07-1942. No pilot was available so proceeded to New Orleans escorted by PC-566. In other words, it looks like she was no longer in the convoy when she was sunk (this message is part of a thread that starts here). Crew List - All survived:
External websites related to the text on this page: U-126 | Ernst Bauer - Note that Uboat.net also has a section for Allied ships hit by U-boats, and by entering a ship's name in the search field, more information is available (including Robert E. Lee). Operations Information for U-126 - As can be seen, this U-boat was also responsible for the sinking of several other Norwegian ships, all of which are listed on my website. PC-566 - On the website The story of U-166 which includes several underwater pictures of this boat. To Høegh Giant on the "Ships starting with H" page. The text on this page was compiled with the help of: Misc. sources, incl. "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, Leif Høegh & Co. fleet list, misc. reports and crew list received from Ken Dunn, "Sjøforklaringer fra 2. verdenskrig", Norwegian Maritime Museum, Volume I, "The Allied Convoy System", Arnold Hague, and misc. others (named within the text) for cross checking facts. The summary of statements by survivors from Høegh Giant was received from Tony Cooper, England.
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