Site Map | Search Warsailors.com | Merchant Fleet Main Page | Warsailors.com Home |
|
M/T Ohio Updated Aug. 31-2010 To Ohio on the "Ships starting with O" page.
A Post War photo is available at the bottom of this page. Manager: Leif Høegh & Co. A/S, Oslo Delivered in Jan.-1939 from Deutsche Werft AG, Finkenwärder, Hamburg as Le Havre to Maritime Trading Ltd., Panama (Leif Høegh & Co. A/S, Oslo, manager). Leif Høegh's fleet list gives 11 032 gt, 6614 net, 16 050 tdwt, 508' 1" length x 69' 3" beam, 7-cylinder two stroke cycle double acting oil engine by Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg AG, Augsburg, 4500 bhp, 14 knots. Renamed Ohio that same year under T/C to Texas Co. Captain: S. Beckman
From Gordon Thompson, a visitor to my website who served on Ohio, I've received the following (he in turn got it from Leif Høegh & Co.):
"Leif Høegh had a number of private family-controlled companies, Arcadia from 1932 and Arizona from 1939, as well as Leif Høegh & Co. Borre A/S formed during the war. The latter company acted as agents to Kerr Steamship's tankers, Ohio and Alfred Clegg which were managed by Høegh. In the late 1940's, Arcadia purchased the control of two shipping companies registered in Bergen, A/D Bisca and A/S Binta, formerly managed by Per Gjerding". Dimensions given in this document are 533.3 length oa x 69.2 beam x 36.5 draft. Gordon also has a message in my guestbook, and would be interested in getting in touch with some of his shipmates from Ohio. See also this posting to one of my forums. The Høegh Ray referred to in this message was the company's first ship by that name, built in 1937, sold to France the following year and renamed Bourgogne. Note that there are several postings re Ohio on that same forum - use the search feature there, with keyword Ohio to find them all.
(Received from Don Kindell - His source: The late Arnold Hague's database). Follow the convoy links provided for more information on each. Errors may exist, and the record appears to be incomplete.
According to this message* on my Ship Forum, Ohio was one of the ships involved in the search for survivors from HMAS Sydney in Nov.-1941, and later arrived Fremantle on Dec. 5. I knew the Norwegian Hermion, Herstein and Pan Europe were involved, but did not know about Nordnes and Ohio also taking part (and I'm not entirely convinced this was the Panamanian Ohio). The forum posting is referring to the information found on this external page - scroll down to "Merchant Vessel Movement Cards....."
Gordon Thompson (ref. notes further up on this page), who joined the ship in Bombay in Sept.-1942, says they went from there to Bahrein Island and was the first tanker to load gasoline from the new submarine pipeline. They subsequently sailed to Melbourne, then to Portland (west of Melbourne), and in Dec. that year they laid up in the ship yard at San Pedro, California until March of 1943 for repairs of a burnt out cylinder. He remembers 3 more voyages to Australia from California before he paid off. There was a Norwegian Captain Einar Krogseth of a ship named Ohio who was taken prisoner by the Japanese on Dec. 12-1942. He died in Shanghai on May 8-1943 - I'm not sure if this is the same ship, but then which one could it be? There was also a cook, Fredrik A. Grunde Simonsen, prisoner from Nov. 19-1941 until the end of the war (Java), whose ship is listed as Ohio. Please go to the very end of my page Merchant Marine Prisoners of War, under the heading "Norwegians who served on foregin ships" for more details. Captain Krogseth's wife and young son were also interned in Shanghai until the end of the war. I have received an E-mail from his granddaughter who would very much appreciate more details, so if anyone can provide more information, please contact me via the address provided at the bottom of this page. Gordon Thompson has told me that he remembers the captain's last name as Beckman. In fact, he believes that it was Captain Beckman who took her out of the shipyard in Hamburg in 1939. Gordon says that when he joined her in Bombay she had been shuttling between Surabaya, Batavia, Kalamantan, in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) and he remembers there was a lot of crew who paid off in those ports just before the Japanese invaded, and many were interned. He has also told me that he has received an E-mail from a Norwegian man whose uncle was carpenter on the Ohio. He was interned in Indonesia, repatriated from Colombo, Ceylon on the S/S Dorchester to the UK. It's possible Captain Krogseth had served on Ohio at one time or another, or the ship's name may simply be an error(?). In fact, his granddaughter has since told me that she has come across a document, written by S. (Sigurd?) Hopstock in Shanghai in 1938 which shows her grandfather worked for the Chinese Customs Service (as did his brother), but whether he was still there at the time of arrest, I don't know, and why the ship Ohio is mentioned in connection with him remains a mystery. Greg Leck, who is writing a book about the internment camps in Shanghai and has a database of over 10,000 Allied civilians who were held there, including many Norwegians, has told me that the Chinese Maritime Customs was in charge of the Customs duties for China for over 100 years, until 1949. It was run by Europeans and there were many Norwegians in the service. For more information, see this external website Chinese Maritime Customs Project.
Acquired by Høegh Borre A/S, Oslo in Apr.-1947 from Kerr Steamship and renamed Høegh Ray (the older tankers were disposed of, no longer meeting the required standards due to slow speed and inferior pumping capacity). Transferred to Skibs-AS Arcadia in 1952. In March-1953 she was sold to Hvalfangerselskapet Blaahval A/S (Magnus Konow A/S), renamed Vera. Sold in Dec.-1953 to Skips-A/S Agnes, Mandal (Einar Saanum), renamed Ronaville. Sold in Aug.-1963 to Thomas Arbulo, San Felicisimos, Bilbao for scrapping, arriving Bilbao Aug. 17-1963.
Related external links: Back to Ohio on the "Ships starting with O" page. The text on this page was compiled with the help of: Leif Høegh & Co. fleet list, and misc. (ref. My sources).
|
