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D/S Karlander To Karlander on the "Ships starting with K" page. Manager: H. Th. Wilkens & Co. A/S, Fredrikstad Built in Oslo in 1914. Previous names: Frolund until 1914, Visna until 1929. Captain: Gerhard Reichelt. He later became captain of Annavore, and died when that ship was sunk in Dec.-1941. (Captain Reichelt's son Erik was among those involved in the tragic loss of Brattholm I - follow link for details. He also had another son, Borti, who was involved in illegal activities in Norway and was shot by the Germans in Oct.-1944). Related item on this website:
Karlander, bound for Sharpness with lumber, is listed among the ships in the slow Sydney (C.B.)-U.K. Convoy SC 7 in which the Norwegian Snefjeld was sunk in Oct.-1940. Towards the end of that year she was scheduled for Convoy OB 263, leaving Liverpool on Dec. 23, but did not sail (destination Halifax) - the first external website that I've linked to below has the names of other ships in this convoy, some of which were Norwegian. In March/Apr.-1941 we find her with a cargo of pit props in station 32 of Convoy SC 27, which left Halifax on March 30 (she had cancelled from an earlier convoy the previous month, namely SC 22, and had returned to port when in Convoy SC 23). Related external links:
Convoy SC 27 had arrived Liverpool on Apr. 18 - Karlander's destination is given as Hull. She later left Hull Roads in ballast in convoy on May 4-1941 with a crew of 24 and 2 British soldiers on board, and was bound for Curacao via Oban. Arrived Oban on May 8, where the British soldiers were replaced by 2 new ones (I'm not entirely sure whether they were gunners or just passengers, but she did have 2 Lewis guns and 2 Hutt guns which were fired by the British soldiers during the attack on the 14th, so they may have been gunners?). Departure Oban took place on May 12, Convoy OB 321. On May 14, when in 55 36N 13 24W, an aircraft was seen coming towards the convoy from the port side, flying very low, and as it was about 100 meters from Karlander it started to drop bombs, 1 of which fell close by on her port side, causing a heavy leak in the engine room. Within 20 minutes the water had risen, and she was listing heavily to port, so the captain ordered the crew to the lifeboats. Shortly afterwards they were picked up by the rescue vessel Zaafaran (the rescue ship had also been attacked and bombed, but avoided damage). 3 hours later the corvette HMS Campanula announced she had shelled and sunk Karlander at 10:20 am GMT. The survivors were landed in Gourock on May 20 and travelled to Glasgow that same day. Hearings were held there on May 27-1941 with the captain, the 1st mate, the 1st and 2nd engineers and Able Seaman Salvesen (helmsman at the time) appearing.
OB 321 had departed Liverpool on May 11, 24 ships. 2 Focke Wulf aircraft had attacked the convoy. Crew List - No Casualties:
Related external link: Back to Karlander on the "Ships starting with K" page. The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, "The Allied Convoy System", Arnold Hague, "Sjøforklaringer fra 2. verdenskrig", Volume I (Norwegian Maritime Museum), and misc. as named in the text - (ref. My sources).
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