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M/S L. A. Christensen To L. A. Christensen on the "Ships starting with L" page. Owner: A/S Ulabrand Built in Hamburg, Germany 1925. Captain: Arne Høst Olsen According to the first external website that I've linked to at the end of this text, L. A. Christensen was in Convoy SL 69 which left Freetown on March 23-1941 and arrived Liverpool on Apr. 18. The same site has her scheduled to sail in station 43 of Convoy OS 13 in Nov./Dec.-1941, but did not sail. Other Norwegian ships were Finnanger, Siljestad, Velox, and K. G. Meldahl. She's also listed among the ships in OS 14 with several other Norwegian ships, and is again mentioned for the next convoy, OS 15 with a notation for the latter saying she did not sail (I would think because she wasn't back from her previous voyage yet?). She can also be found among the ships in Convoy OS 16, on a voyage in station 34 from Clyde to Freetown/Takoradi/Duala with war stores - follow the link for dates and more convoy details.
L. A. Christensen departed Durban for New York in ballast on May 9-1942 (voyage from Karachi), but was later diverted to Philadelphia. Torpedoed starboard side between No. 1 and 2 holds by U-129 (Witt) at 13:50 ship's time on June 10-1942, 27 44N 63 54W, causing a tremendous explosion, blowing off the hatches and twisting the deck at No. 1 hatch. No SOS was sent out because the radio station was destroyed. The foreship started to sink immediately while listing heavily to port, and she sank vertically down in 10-15 minutes. By then all 31 had abandoned ship in 2 lifeboats and 1 motorboat. The U-boat came up and took the ship's name off the rafts which were floating amongst the debris, then gave the survivors the position, and distance from Bermuda before taking off in a southerly direction. The lifeboats set sail with a course for Bermuda. They were picked up at 08:25 the next morning, June 11, by the Norwegian D/S Bill in 28 01N 63 57W and landed at Bermuda on June 12. Hearings were held in New York on June 23-1942 with the captain, the 2nd mate, Ordinary Seaman Nossum (helmsman), Ordinary Seaman Vistung (lookout) and the 3rd engineer appearing. For info, her armament consisted of a 4" gun, 2 Hotchkiss, 4 P.A.C.'s and 1 Holman. Crew List - No Casualties:
Related external links: 1 who died on board - Ordinary Seaman Håkon Johnsen is listed as having died on Sept. 10-1940 due to illness. Back to L. A. Christensen on the "Ships starting with L" page. The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, "Sjøforklaringer fra 2. verdenskrig", Norwegian Maritime Museum, Volume I - (ref. My sources).
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