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M/T Minister Wedel To Minister Wedel on the "Ships starting with M" page.
Owner: Rederi A/S Norsk Transatlantic Built in Sunderland 1930. Captain: Olaf J. Olsen in 1940, then Wilh. J. Wilhelmsen from June 15-1942 (he had also commanded this ship previously). Admiralty service from 1940 (Royal Fleet Auxiliary). Reported seeing a U-boat 4 n. miles away when in 08 52N 52 30W on Aug. 9-1942, and was subsequently followed for an hour and a half, then saw a periscope 2 cable lengths off the port quarters. Her gun was fired while course was altered; and nothing further happened. The first external website that I've linked to at the end of this text has Minister Wedel in Convoy SL 124, which left Freetown on Oct. 3-1942 and arrived Liverpool on the 22nd. She was in ballast for Clyde. The Norwegian Albert L. Ellsworth and Tarifa also took part, as did Norlys (Panamanian flag).
Captain Wilh. J. Wilhelmsen (27 years old). Torpedoed - foreship, starboard side by U-522 (Schneider) early in the morning of Jan. 9-1943 when in Convoy TM 1, 28 08N 28 20W. She had departed Port of Spain on Dec. 28 with a cargo of 9000 tons fuel oil, bound for Gibraltar for orders. All 38 survived (incl. 5 gunners) and were picked up from lifeboats by the British destroyer HMS Havelock. At daybreak the destroyer went alongside Minister Wedel, which was still afloat, and let the captain, the 1st engineer, the assistant, 2 mechanics and a W/T operator go back on board to inspect the damage and see if she could be saved, but nothing could be done at that time and she was abandoned again. Two days later the captain and 1st engineer returned on a corvette, and by that time Minister Wedel was gone, sunk by a torpedo from U-522. The Captain and 1st engineer were landed in Gibraltar on Jan. 20. The inquiry was held there on Jan. 21-1943 with the 2 officers appearing. The others had been transferred to a British transport and proceeded to the U.K. The Norwegian tanker Albert L. Ellsworth was also sunk in this convoy, as were the British Oltenia II (commodore ship), Empire Lytton, British Vigilance and British Dominon, and the Panamanian tanker Norvik (Norwegian captain, and majority Norwegian crew). Convoy TM 1 had left Port of Spain with 9 tankers, escorted by the destroyer and 3 British corvettes. By Jan. 10 only two ships were left; the Norwegian tanker Vanja and the British tanker Cliona. The escort was reinforced with another destroyer and 2 corvettes, and both remaining ships arrived Gibraltar on Jan. 14. TM 1 was the first direct convoy from Port of Spain. The tanker convoys started to go straight from Trinidad, without first going to Halifax at this time, thereby saving valuable time when bringing much needed supplies to the Allies in North Africa.
Crew List - No casualties:
Related external links: 1 who died on board - Greaser Arne Sigvald Johansen is said to have died in an accident while at sea on Sept. 27-1940 (ship's name is spelt wrong). TM-1, 3-12 Jan 1943 The Australian War Memorial has a picture of this ship. It can be found by running a search through their collection search page. Back to Minister Wedel on the "Ships starting with M" 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 II, "Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two", Jürgen Rohwer, and misc. (ref. My sources).
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