M/S Ingria

To Ingria on the "Ships starting with I" page.

Crew List

Ingria was scheduled for Convoy HX 138 in July-1941, but did not sail - instead she joined the next convoy, HX 139, bound for Mersey with general cargo.

According to the first external website that I've linked to further down on this page, Ingria sailed in Convoy OS 4, which departed Liverpool on Aug. 23-1941. She was on a voyage to Freetown and Capetown at the time. This was the convoy in which the Norwegian Segundo was sunk. In Dec. that same year Ingria can be found in station 73 of Convoy SL 95, which departed Freetown on Dec. 12 and arrived Liverpool on the 31st.

In Jan./Febr.-1942 she sailed in Convoy OS 18, on a voyage from Liverpool to Durban/Beira with general cargo as well as aircraft in station 61. In May that year she sailed in the other direction with Convoy SL 109/SLF 109, which departed Freetown on May 4-1942. Ingria was in the fast section (SLF) which detached on May 19 and arrived Liverpool on May 25, while the slower section (SL) arrived on the 28th. Her voyage information is given as Beira (March 28) - Liverpool, general cargo, station 91. Mike Holdoway, the webmaster of the SL Convoys site, has told me that the general cargo consisted of 2026 tons mimosa extract, 1505 tons copper, 976 tons chrome ore, 571 tons wool, 510 tons magnesite, 473 tons asbestos, 439 tons tea, 192 tons hides etc, 82 tons cobalt, 179 tons sundries, for a total of 6953 tons. She can also be found in Convoy OS 33 in July-1942 (station 63), voyaging from Liverpool to Capetown and Bombay. Please go to the external website mentioned for a lot more information on its passage; the site has a separate section for OS 33. Mike says Ingria was in the convoy from departure Liverpool on July 1 until dispersed to continue her voyage to Capetown and Bombay unescorted. She had a cargo of military and general stores (including explosives) and was designated as 'carrying dangerous cargo'. She was armed with 1 x 3" gun, 4 machine guns and kites. Other Norwegian ships in this convoy were Sophocles, Maloja and Jenny.

Final Fate - 1943:

Going back to my own Convoys section, we find that she was scheduled for Convoy HX 220, leaving New York on Dec. 21-1942, but did not sail - instead she joined the next convoy, HX 221, on Dec. 29, general cargo for Hull, station 23. This convoy arrived Liverpool on Jan. 14-1943; as mentioned, Ingria's destination was Hull. The following month, she embarked on a new voyage from Hull to New York in ballast in station 83 of the westbound Convoy ON 166, which had departed Liverpool on Febr. 11-1943. At about 05:15* (GMT?) on Febr. 24 she was torpedoed by U-600 (Zurmühlen), in the 5th attack on the convoy. The torpedo struck in the port side between hold No. 4 and the engine room, which immediately flooded, stopping all the machinery. By the time the ship had been abandoned in 2 lifeboats her stern was just 2' above water and she had cracked all the way across. The boats were clear of the ship when another torpedo struck about 20 minutes later, this time from U-628 (Hasenschar) and she sank 45 12N 39 17W.

The survivors from Ingria were picked up by the escorting Canadian corvette HMCS Rosthern a couple of hours later and landed in St. John's on Febr. 27. The maritime hearings were held there that same day(?) with the captain, the 1st mate, the 2nd engineer and Ordianry Seaman Remø (helmsman) appearing.

*Jürgen Rohwer gives the time as 07:54 (German time) for the first attack on Ingria, and 08:13 for the second. (He also has Thorsholm as a straggler of Convoy ON 166 when she struck a mine laid by U-118, 15 n. miles 14° Cape Espartel, but Thorsholm could not have been one of the ships in this convoy. More on this under Thorsholm).
A sinking report (signed by U.S.N.R. Lieutenant Robert G. Fulton, based on interviews with survivors of Ingria) gives the time for the first attack as 08:10 GCT, and as 08:48 GCT for the second attack, adding that the survivors were picked up by Rosthern at approximately 09:00 GCT, in other words, just 10 minutes or so following the second attack. Some additional details in this report: She was on a course 297° true, speed 9 knots, radio silent but receiving, not zig-zagging; however, several changes in the base course had been made during the night. 5 trained lookouts, equipped with binoculars, had been on watch for an hour, 3 on the bridge and 2 at the after gun. Weather was clear with broken clouds obscuring the moon which was in the third quarter. Visibility excellent, wind west/northwest force 3, with medium swells running. Splash from first explosion rose mast high. Regular radio was put out of commission, SSS and abandoning ship signals were sent on the emergency set, with no replies. Confidentials thrown overside in a weighted box. The sub was not sighted at any time, therefore, no counter offensive action was possible. Vessel was seen to sink, stern first, approximately 40 minutes after the first torpedo struck.

The following ships were sunk in ON 166:
The American Chattanooga City (no casualties), Expositor (6 died), Hastings (9 died), Jonathan Sturges (56 died), the British Empire Redshank (no casualties) Empire Trader (no casualties), Eulima (63 died), Manchester Merchant (36 died), the Rescue Vessel Stockport (63 died), the Panamanian Winkler (20 died), the Norwegian M/T Glittre, Stigstad and N. T. Nielsen-Alonso (follow links for more details). The Dutch Madoera was damaged. For more information on ON 166, follow the link provided above to my page about this convoy, as well as the external links at the end of this text. Other Norwegian ships sailing in this convoy were Molda, Skandinavia, Tai Shan, Tropic Star and Brasil.

Crew List - No Casualties:

Captain Fredrik Ditlefsen	1st Mate Fredalf Halvorsen	2nd Mate Thorleif Bryde	3rd Mate Per Finn Næsø	Radio Operator Edward Smith (British)	Carpenter Jacob Sandås
Boatswain Ole Henriksen	Able Seaman Nils Paulsen	Able Seaman Anton Vetås	Able Seaman Paul Nesøy	Able Seaman Arnt L. Jensen	Able Seaman Hans Jacob Hansen
Ordinary Seaman Frithjof Remø *	Ordinary Seaman Ambjørn Ekeland	Ordinary Seaman Arne Fredriksen	1st Engineer Peder Brandal	2nd Engineer Theodor Rath	3rd Engineer Paul Einvik
Assistant Øivin Larsen	Electrician Ingerolf Johannesen	Repairman Jørgen M. Ingebretsen	Mechanic Einar Kvalvik	Mechanic Thorbjørn Skoger	Mechanic Knut Solemsli
Mechanic August Adamson (Latvian)	Oiler Oldridge Atkinson (British)	Steward Olaf Nilsen	Cook Francisco Almeida (Portuguese)	Galley Boy Candido Fereira (Portuguese)	Mess Boy Bern C. Harrington (British)
Mess Boy Stephen Taft (British)	Mess Boy Stanely Waterland (British)	Gunner Knut Kristensen	Gunner Alf Eikeland	Gunner Yngvar Heier	Gunner Kjell Norstrand
Gunner Gunvar Johnsen

External links related to the text on this page:
SL Convoys and OS and OS/KMS - The site also has a section for the Russian convoys, and a very useful Multi-Convoy Web Search feature - here's the main page. As can be seen, Ingria is listed in Convoys OS 4, SL 95, OS 18, SL 109 and OS 33.

Hyperwar - Linked directly to Robert Cressman's book entries for 1943 - scroll down to Febr. 20, 21, 22 and 23 for details on the attack on ON 166 (I don't see Ingria mentioned at all here).

ON 166, 21 - 26 Feb 1943 - Details on the battle and a list of ships sunk. Also, by going to the section on Allied ships hit by U-boats, and typing the name of each vessel sunk in the search field, more information on their loss is available.

Operations information for U-600 | Operations information for U-628

U-600 | U-628

Canadian Flower Class Corvettes

Back to Ingria on the "Ships starting with I" page.

The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, "The Allied Convoy System", Arnold Hague, "Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two", Jürgen Rohwer, "Sjøforklaringer fra 2. verdenskrig", Volume I (Norwegian Maritime Museum), and misc. (ref. My sources). Summary of statements by survivors, in a Memorandum signed by Lieutenant Robert G. Fulton, was received from Tony Cooper, England.