M/S Marie Bakke

To Marie Bakke on the "Ships starting with M" page.


Received from a visitor to my site (original source unknown).

From Bjørn Milde's postcard collection.

Related item on this website:
There's a very nice message with regard to this ship in my Guestbook (visiting Canada towards the end of the war for a major refit).

Misc. War Voyages:

According to "Nortraships flåte" this ship had an unnerving experience in a convoy on Jan. 9-1942 when a heavy storm was encountered near Greenland. The sea washed over Marie Bakke at one point, taking with it all the lifeboats, the dinghy and 5 aircraft which had been tied to the deck. The lumber cargo shifted, resulting in such a heavy list that only one of the engines could be used. While working to right the ship, the men thought they saw 2 U-boats, one of them shining a bright light on them, the other firing a torpedo. They were able to avoid it and arrived Halifax on Jan. 20. J. R. Hegland, the author of this book, hastens to add that this report is rather doubtful, because the number of U-boats in the convoy route was at that time very low. Furthermore, I can found no report of an unsuccessful attack by U-boat in Rohwer's book for the date in question, but the info otherwise fits in with the fact that Marie Bakke is listed, with a general cargo for Liverpool, in the slow Sydney (C.B.)-U.K. Convoy SC 63 early in Jan.-1942, and is said to have returned to port.

A couple of months later she can be found among the ships in Convoy HX 179, which departed Halifax on March 9-1942.

In Nov.-1942 she was chased by a Japanese submarine tender in the Indian Ocean while on a voyage from New York to Suez, but escaped. (Two armed merchant cruisers operated in the southern Indian Ocean at this time, Hokoku Maru and Aikoku Maru, as well as 5-6 submarines). The Japanese vessel gave up the chase after about an hour and a half without having fired, and the captain of Marie Bakke believed that the reason they were let go so easily was the fact that his ship had the company's two red rings painted on the black funnel, possibly leading the Japanese into thinking that she was a Russian ship.

She's listed as being in the slow Halifax-U.K. Convoy SC 126 in Apr.-1943, returning across the ocean with the westbound Convoy ONS 7 early in May, along with several other Norwegian ships. The following month we find her in station 105 of the slow Convoy SC 135, leaving Halifax on June 27.

According to the 2nd external website that I've linked to below, Marie Bakke sailed in Convoy SL 172/MKS 63 in Oct.-1944. The SL portion of this convoy left Freetown on Sept. 28, then joined up with the MKS section from Gibraltar on Oct. 9-1944, the combined convoy arriving Liverpool on the 16th. Voyage information is given as Rio de Janeiro/Bahia (Sept. 13)-Falmouth, station 34. She had a general cargo consisting of rice, cased meats, cotton, coffee, pinewood, piassava and sundries.

POST WAR

Went to D/S A/S Varøy (Vibran Shipping-Knut Knutsen), Haugesund in March-1956, in general tramping and seasonal lumber trade. Sold in Nov.-1961 to Matsukura Shoten K.K., Hirao for breaking up, after having been laid up at Bøvågen since Jan-1958. Work commenced on Aug. 27-1962.

Related external links:
The Ondina Battle - (Hokoku Maru and Aikoku Maru - by Jan Visser).

SL/MKS Convoys - As can be seen, Marie Bakke is listed in SL 172/MKS 63 (the site also has a section on the OS and OS/KMS Convoys, going in the other direction).

SL, HG, MKS and MKF Convoys - In chronlogical order, starting with 1939.

Back to Marie Bakke on the "Ships starting with M" page.

The company later had another ship by the this name, delivered in Oct.-1978, 16 438 gt. Sold to Denmark in Oct.-1982, renamed Frijesenborg. Sold to Valparaiso in Sept.-1987 and renamed Lircay.

The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, "Våre motorskip" by Leif M. Bjørkelund and E. H. Kongshavn, and misc. (ref. My sources).