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D/T Litiopa To Litiopa on the "Ships starting with L" page. Manager: Martin Mosvold, Farsund Built by Bartram & Sons Ld., Sunderland (238) in 1917 as Oleary, then Dockleaf for Royal Navy until 1919, from 1919 till 1920, The Shipping Controller (Lane & Macondrew Ld., Mgrs.), London - same name. Owned by Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Co. Ld., London from 1920 till 1922, no name change. Renamed Litiopa in 1922, same owners. Sold in 1929 to A/S Mosvolds Rederi, Kristiansand, no name change. From 1931, A/S Mosvolds Rederi II (Martin Mosvold, Mgr.), Kristiansand, same name. From 1933 A/S Mosvolds Rederi II (Martin Mosvold), Farsund. Purchased by Hamburger Mineralöl - Import Ernst Jung in May-1939, intended delivered in Houston, U.S.A. on Sept. 3 that year, but because of the outbreak of war this did not come to pass. Captain: Trygve Olsen. In Admiralty service from 1940 (Royal Fleet Auxiliary). One of the oldest tankers in Nortraship's Fleet, and in such a condition that she under normal circumstances probably would have been taken out of the fleet.
Litiopa is listed among the ships in the Bermuda portion of Convoy HX 45 in May/June-1940, having been cancelled from the previous convoys, HX 42, HX 43 and HX 44. She subsequently joined Convoy OB 174 towards the end of June, bound for New York. In Dec. that same year she was scheduled for Convoy HX 93 but instead joined Convoy HX 96 - follow the links for more details on these convoys (several Norwegian ships took part). In Jan.-1941 she's listed in Convoy OB 273 - the external site that I've linked to below has more on the OB convoys mentioned here. Related external link:
Litiopa (on charter to Anglo-Saxon Co.) had departed Lagos, Nigeria on Oct. 16-1943 bound for Freetown in ballast escorted by the armed trawler Orfasy. On Oct. 21-1943 the sounds of depth charges from Orfasy was heard twice, then a heavy explosion nearby shook Litiopa. Suddenly, at around 03:30 on Oct. 22, 06 18N 11 55W, she found herself the victim of intense shelling from the port side, and at about the same time she was also attacked from the starboard side. At the time of attack she was sailing at a speed of 7.5 knots on course 307° true, in rainy weather with a calm sea, wind southwest force 2. The visibility was poor as it was very dark with no moon or stars. There were 3 lookouts; 1 on the starboard bridge and1 by the gun aft, while the 2nd mate was on the port side of the bridge. The first shell had struck the aft gun platform, damaging her gun. One of her machine guns and a lifeboat were also damged in the attack, with the shelling from both sides continuing for a considerable time. Her engine was stopped and her crew ordered to be ready by the lifeboats. About 15 minutes later she was again fired upon from the starboard side and this time 4 lifeboats were launched, as the ship was on fire and listing to starboard. All 35 survived these attacks, though from the lifeboats they thought they saw 3* U-boats taking part in the shelling, which lasted until 05:00 that morning. The lifeboats were separated in the dark, but at daylight the motorboat with 12 men and the starboard amidships boat with 9 men met up again. After having plugged up the bullet holes in the motorboat, the other boat was taken in tow and they returned to their ship which was still floating, but badly damaged and on fire, listing heavily to starboard with her stern deep in the water. Ammunition started to explode and she eventually capsized and sank at 12:45. The lifeboats then headed for land, 1 of them arriving Robertsport, Liberia that same day, 2 boats arrived on the 23rd while the 4th was towed in by a corvette later that day. Stoker Smith, the 1st mate and the saloon boy were injured, but not seriously. On the 24th they were all taken to Freetown by the corvette with arrival the following day. They later got passage (via Gibraltar to where?) on the British passenger ship Orbita (used as troopship - Captain E. H. Large). 2 of Litiopa's crew members died on board this ship, both of heart failure. They had been treated in the ship's hospital, but 1st Engineer Stausland died on Nov 10, and Cook Haagensen died on Nov. 15; both were buried at sea. The inquiry was held in Liverpool on Nov. 29-1943 with the captain, the 2nd mate, the 3rd engineer (since Jan.-1943), Able Seaman Backman, Able Seaman/Gunner Homanberg, Able Seaman/Gunner Hansen, and the boatswain appearing. The 2nd mate, who was the officer on watch when the attack took place, stated that the cook had stopped eating after departure Freetown.
The majority of my account above was taken from misc. Norwegian records. Another report from British archives gives some slightly different details, saying for instance that the "captain had ordered engines to be stopped, but apparently engine room did not receive order for during the attack and after the launching of boats tanker continued to cruise in a circle at a slow speed. At dawn when survivors were in the boats, the ship could be seen to be slightly down by the stern with a 15° list to starboard; smoke and flames were issuing from the engine room. When boats met about 3 miles on port quarter of ship, a discussion went on about going back on board but nothing resulted. No distress signal sent, captain apparently believed that escort would send one." This report says the ship had been abandoned at 03:10 GMT, the captain's boat being the last to leave at 04:00, then adds, "The HMS Snowdrop, dispatched from Freetown to rescue survivors, succeeded in saving the entire crew of 35, either by picking them up at sea or at Robertsport, where some survivors had landed, either directly from their boats or by rescue plane (Pan-American amphibious plane took 8(?) survivors from one boat while at sea and landed them at Robertsport). All survivors, except one, were landed at Freetown at 12:00 GMT, 25 October.......When last seen, 3 subs were surfaced, proceeding in line in an unknown direction." The date of her eventual sinking is given as Oct. 23(?) at 12:50 GMT, and the report also gives some details on the explosions heard prior to the attack on Litiopa, as follows (note dates given - I believe they must be wrong): "At 23:00 GMT, 22 October, an explosion was heard by the crew described as sounding like a depth charge which seemed to be very close. Nothing more was heard until 00:30 GMT, 23 October, when 3 explosions in quick succession were heard. These explosions were not so loud as the first one, but also were similar to depth charge explosions. At about 01:00 GMT one extremely heavy explosion was heard which caused the Litiopa to vibrate and shake considerably. None of the explosions were visible. Inasmuch as the escorting vessel, HMS Orfasy, has never been heard from since the date of sinking, nor have any survivors or wreckage therefrom been found, it is possible that the last explosion may have been the one that disintegrated the escorting vessel." Crew List:
Related external links: My query w/responses- The site also has a page with the Operations information of U-68. Trawlers lost during WW II - List of British trawlers lost in WW II - from Forbes Wilson's website about his grandfather, "The Royal Naval Reserve Record of John Wilson". Back to Litiopa on the "Ships starting with L" page. The text on this page was compiled with the help of: A document received from Theodor Dorgeist, Germany, "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, "Sjøforklaringer fra 2. verdenskrig", Norwegian Maritime Museum, Volume I, and misc. (ref. My sources). Some details have also been added from a summary of survivors' statements, dated Nov. 22-1943, received from Tony Cooper, England (from British archives).
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