D/S Leiv Eiriksson
Updated Dec. 15-2011

To Leiv Eiriksson on the "Ships starting with L" page.

Note that there was also a tanker by this name, which was sunk in 1942.


When Vinni, post war - received from, and painted by, Jan Goedhart, Holland
Another picture, again as Vinni, is available on this external page (click in it to make it larger).

Some Convoy Voyages:

For information on voyages made in between those discussed here, please see the documents received from the National Archives of Norway and A. Hague's Voyage Record above. Follow the convoy links provided for more details on them - other Norwegian ships also took part.

As mentioned further up on this page, Leiv Eiriksson was taken over by Nortraship in Wilmington on Jan. 29-1943. According to Page 1 of the archive documents, she left Wilmington on Febr. 1 for Hampton Roads, and from there she proceeded to Casablanca on Febr. 18. Convoy information for this, and subsequent voyages, can be found in the Voyage Record.

She made a voyage from Bone to Oran at the beginning of June that year, and A. Hague suggests she may have joined Convoy MKS 14 for this voyage - see ships in all MKS convoys (MKS 14 will later be added to an individual page in my Convoys section). From Oran, she proceeded to the U.S. on June 7 and arrived New York June 27 (convoy info in table above). It looks like she lost a crew member on this voyage. Motorman Edvin Halvorsen is commemorated at the Stavern Memorial - ref. link at the end of this page. According to "Våre falne", which names Norwegian WW II casualties, he died in an accident on June 26-1943.

The following month she's listed as sailing in Convoy HX 248 from New York, bound for Avonmouth with general cargo, arriving July 31. The Commodore's report is also available for this convoy. She subsequently returned across the Atlantic with Convoy ON 197*, originating in Liverpool on Aug. 14, arriving New York on the 28th.

She now made another voyage to North Africa and back, and according to Arnold Hague, she rounded off that year by sailing to the U.K. in Convoy HX 271*, which left New York on Dec. 15-1943 and arrived Liverpool on the 29th; Leiv Eiriksson stopped at Clyde that day (Page 1).

Early in 1944 we find her in the westbound Convoy ON 220*, which originated in Liverpool on Jan. 15 and arrived New York Febr. 4, and she was scheduled to return in Convoy HX 280 on Febr. 20, but did not sail. She joined the next convoy on Febr. 27, HX 281, but put into Halifax with hull defects, eventually getting away with Convoy HX 284 from there on March 23, carrying a general cargo and 2 tugs. The Norwegian Abraham Lincoln served as Commodore Vessel. Leiv Eiriksson went in the other direction again with Convoy ON 234*, originating in Liverpool on Apr. 26, arriving New York May 12. She did not leave New York again until June 19, when she can be found in Convoy HX 296 from New York, general cargo for Liverpool, Milford Haven and Falmouth (see Page 1 and Voyage Record), later returning with Convoy ON 246*, which originated in Liverpool on July 25 and arrived New York Aug. 9 (Commodore in Brimanger). On Aug. 25, she's listed in Convoy HX 305 from New York (again with Abraham Lincoln as Commodore Vessel), and in Nov.-1944 she joined Convoy ON 265*, which left Southend on Nov. 8 and arrived New York on the 23rd.

Having spent a month in New York, she proceeded to Aden, Colombo, Calcutta, etc.; her subsequent voyages are shown on Page 2. (It'll also be noticed that she spent quite a long time at St. Nazaire at the end of 1945, and also in New Orleans at the beginning of 1946).

From Page 3 we learn that she went home to Norway in the summer of 1946.

* The ON convoys, which had several Norwegian ships, will be added to individual pages in my Convoys section in due course, along with further details on each. In the meantime, the ships sailing in them (and escorts) are named in the section listing ships in all ON convoys. The entire HX series will also be updated and completed (including the already existing ones), but for now, see ships in all HX convoys for the names of other ships in Convoy HX 271.

POST WAR:

Sold in Oct.-1946 to the Norwegian Government for Skibs-A/S Eidsiva (Sverre Ditlev-Simonsen & Co., Oslo), renamed Vinni in 1947. Sold to Italy in 1954 and renamed Probitas (Adriatico Tirreno Jonio Ligure "ATJL" di Alberto Ravano & Figli), Genoa. To Industria Armamento S.p.A., Genoa in 1965. Broken up at Vado, Italy, Apr.-1969, having arrived Vado on Sept. 13-1968.

Related external links:
Liberty Ships - Unfortunately, the list no longer appears to be included at this site (unfortunate, because I have 100's of links to it from my Convoys section). If I remember correctly, that particular section was hosted by Peter Thompson, who has now moved to a different site, but I cannot find his list of Liberty Ships. I'll leave the link up for now until I can find out whether it's still available somewhere. I did find an identical page here, but as will be seen, the alphabetical links receive an error.

Stavern Memorial Commemoration - Motorman Edvin Halvorsen is commemorated here among the casualties of the tanker Leiv Eiriksson, which was sunk in 1942. However, checking with "Våre falne", which lists Norwegian WW II casualties, I find that he died in an accident on June 26-1943. The ship is given as Leiv Eiriksson, so I believe he must have been on board the steamship by this name when the accident occurred.

Back to Leiv Eiriksson on the "Ships starting with L" page.

The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, "Liberty Ships in Peacetime, and their Contribution to World Shipping History" I. G. Steward - 1992, and misc.