M/T Koll - Norwegian Merchant Fleet 1939-1945

Final Fate - 1942:

Torpedoed in the port side aft, possibly in No 9 or 10 tank by U-571 (Möhlmann) east of Cape Hatteras on April 6-1942, when en route from Galveston to Halifax to join a convoy, having left Galveston on March 29 with 96067 barrels of high grade diesel oil distributed in 22 tanks. (Note that she's listed as scheduled for the slow Convoy SC 79, which left Halifax on Apr. 11). The engine room was immediately an inferno of flames. 2 men were killed; 1st Engineer Guldbrandsen in his cabin and Mechanic (Motorman) Kjøne in the engine room, while Electrician Bergum, who was also in the engine room received some burns. 2nd Engineer Holt, who was in his cabin got his hands badly burnt. The aft port lifeboat was destroyed, the remaining 3 lifeboats were launched, with the captain and 11 men in the motorboat (some picked up from the water), the 1st mate and 7(?) men in No. 2 boat, and the 2nd mate in No. 4 boat with 9 men. The boats rowed away from the ship which had started to sink by the stern and was standing straight up and down.

The U-boat came alongside to ask the usual questions about nationality, cargo, destination etc., handed the men in one of the boats some tinned crackers ("Nortraships flåte" says "threw a box of crackers" into the boat), whereupon Koll was shelled. She exploded and sank, resulting in burning gasoline spreading across the water with a tremendous development of smoke and heat. One of the men, a British gunner who was on a raft, took his clothes off when the flames approached and managed to swim away, and when the flames died out after about half an hour, one of the lifeboats was able to come close enough to pick him up.

Finding no more survivors, the motorboat (captain's) subsequently took the other 2 boats in tow, heading in a west/northwesterly direction towards land for 2 days, but when the weather worsened the motorboat lost the other 2 boats. The motorboat was spotted by the Portugese D/S Cunene on Apr. 11, and this ship searched for a while for the others but to no avail. The survivors in the captain's boat were landed in Lisbon on the 25th. Maritime hearings were held there on May 7-1942 with the captain, the radio operator, the pump man and the electrician appearing. Some of them believed that they had seen 2 U-boats side by side about 350 meters away, and that they had been torpedoed twice.

Misc. bits of info from various sources (some conflicting):
Rohwer gives the position 34 39N 68 25W, "Nortraships flåte" gives 35 01N 68 48W, while "The World's Merchant Fleets" gives 35N 68 24W, and says 3 died, 33 survived. Charles Hocking ("Dictionary of Disasters at Sea during the Age of Steam - including sailing ships and ships of war lost in Action 1824-1962") says she was on a voyage from Baytown to Halifax with 13000 tons of gas oil, and gives the position of her demise as 400 miles northwest of the Bermudas.

A sinking report, based on subsequent interviews with survivors, states she was on course 39°, speed 10 knots, not zig-zagging at any time, 3 lookouts; 1 on each wing of bridge and 1 of gun crew aft. The weather was fine, no sea, daylight with excellent visibility, no ships in sight. Time for attack is given as 10:30 EWT. This report says she was torpedoed twice, the explosion of the first torpedo at the engine room having carried away the main steam lines. Struck almost simultaneously by a second torpedo, estimated to be at the pump room. Sharp list to port developed, sank by stern with bow above water. Both torpedoes had started fires which were extinguished as ship sank by the stern in 2-3 minutes with bow pointing directly up. Final sinking accomplished by shell fire at 10:45 EWT. 4 or 5 shots were fired into the port side from 300-400 yards range. The sub circled and fired 4 or 5 more into the starboard side after which the bow disappeared. First shells were explosive and second group were incendiaries. The submarine did not surafce until 5 minutes after torpedoing, no defensive fire possible as gun mount was so damaged by torpedo explosion that the gun was unusable. The report adds that the survivors were distributed in the 3 lifeboats with 10 men in each, the boats becoming separated after two days. One of these boats contacted a lifeboat with survivors from Kollskegg (another ship from the same company - follow link for info on her loss). These survivors were rescued by Portugese Bobito (this should be Lobito) on Apr. 16 and landed at Lewes, Del. at 19:05 on Apr. 17. One crew member died of exposure. 9 survivors from another boat were rescued by the Swiss St. Cergue at 04:30 on Apr. 15 in 34 39N 68 25W, and landed in New York on Apr. 17. (Some of this appears to be a little mixed up - see my own text).

Description of attacker is given as follows in this report: "Identified as of Italian Argonanta class (correct is: Argonaut class), 150-200 feet long, light grey and paint appeared fresh or new. One 3" or 4" gun forward of conning tower about 10' overall, one 15 foot small yardarm with cable running fore and aft, speed 12-15 knots. A shield having a red background with vertical stripes surmounted by a fluted crest painted red and white. It appeared to be an Italian Coat of Arms. Crew of sub said to be very young, captain about 30 years of age. Opinion differed regarding nationality of crew, officers were German, some said crew was French, others said Italian".

Note that
U-boat Archive (external link) has quite a bit of details involving Norwegian ships, including Koll - click on "Browse the Archives", then on the page that comes up, enter your keyword in the search field at the bottom of the page and hit "find" (keeping it on "Site search"). Koll will be in Eastern Sea Frontier, enemy action diary for Apr.-1942, and it's necessary to scroll down, or use "find" in your browser - Koll is mentioned more than once on that page. Position given for St. Cergue's rescue of the men in the 2nd mate's boat is given as 34 39N 68 25W at 07:25 on Apr. 15. Koll is mentioned again under Apr. 17, saying that 10 survivors were landed at New York by the by St. Cergue, 9 more and 1 dead person landed at Lewes, Delaware by Lobito, adding "survivors landed here are hospitalized at Norwegian Hospital in Brooklyn" and "The survivors landed in New York contacted a seaworthy lifeboat with 6 occupants in good condition from the Norwegian Kollskegg April 7 at about 1100 L.A.T.". At the time it was believed Koll had been torpedoed by an Italian sub of the Argonaut class. She's mentioned again under Apr. 20, at which time, according to this, 14 were still unaccounted for.

2nd Mate, Karsten Idzal's Story:

Lise Lindbæk conducted an interview with some of the survivors from Koll while some of them shared a room at The Norwegian Hospital in Brooklyn following their ordeal. She included their story in her book "Tusen norske skip", a summary follows:

The torpedo hit aft on the port side at 10:30 in the morning (this happened to be Easter Monday). When the U-boat came up to ask the name of their ship they actually thought the U-boat was Italian. Idzal describes the shelling, saying tank No. 1 was hit, and a violent explosion followed, whereupon Koll sank around 11 -11:15. They proceeded to search for 3 missing men, and found a Canadian in the water, but the 25 year old mechanic Johannes Kjøne from Kristiansund and the 45 year old 1st Engineer Einar Gulbrandsen from Arendal were never found. The Canadian had intitially been on a raft, but when it drifted straight into the flames he had to jump off. The 2 boats were towed all night by the captain's boat but due to a strong wind the next day, the boats were let go and they lost sight of the motorboat after 3 hours. A lifeboat from Kollskegg was sighted that day, but because of the heavy seas and the strong wind and rain they couldn't get close enough to carry on a proper conversation with those who were in it, and they soon lost sight of them.

The following day Koll's 2 boats were separated. The weather was bad, the sea washed in over them from all directions, so they constantly had to bail and it was biting cold. On the 11th they noticed they were in the Gulf Stream again and decided to head south to get into warmer temperatures, and though they had a terrible storm that night they were able to keep the boat free of water. On Apr. 14 the weather improved and they could set sail, after having shed their oilskins and dried their clothes in the sun. Most of them had badly inflamed feet. They washed them with seawater and rubbed oil into them, but they ached terribly. The next day at 4 in the morning a light was spotted in the horizon so they sent up rockets, and to their great relief they had been seen. It turned out to be the Swiss ship St. Cergue, which came directly towards them and took them on board. All 8 in the hospital spoke of the Swiss ship with great enthusiasm. For one thing, being on a fully illuminated ship in war time was a pleasant experience in itself, and they received the best of care on board, before being landed in New York on Apr. 17.

Lise Lindbæk lists the names of the 8 in the hospital in Brooklyn. In addition to the 2nd mate they were:

Mechanic Joaquin Anido (Spanish), Repairman Per Ellefsen, Able Seaman Henrik Palm (Swedish), Oiler Johan Pedersen, 3rd Engineer Magnus Olsen, Able Seaman Andreas Olsen and Oiler Martin Øvretvedt (who had escaped from Norway 6 months before). The Swedish Able Seaman Willy Larson and a British gunner, John Coyle did not need hospital treatment. While this interview was taking place, they still didn't know the fate of their shipmates in the other 2 boats, but Lise Lindbæk says that half an hour later, they received the happy news from Nortraship that the 1st mate and the others in his boat had also reached land. A week later she visited the hospital again to speak with 1st Mate Arne Tvedt. The steward in Arne Tvedt's boat, Sigurd Askeland from Bergen had died on Apr. 14. After 10 days in the lifeboat they had been picked up by a Portugese cargo vessel en route to the U.S.A. Koll's 2nd Engineer had been badly burnt during the torpedoing and had suffered greatly in the boat, but received the best of care on the Portugese ship. They had been landed in Delaware, where the injured man was taken to a hospital and recovered nicely ("Nortraships flåte" says 9 men were landed in Philadelphia).

While visiting that day she learned that Captain Einar Knudsen and the rest of his men had also been rescued.