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D/S Profit To Profit on the "Ships starting with P" page. Manager: Jacob Odland S. S., Haugesund Delivered from Laxevaag Maskin- og Jernskibsbyggeri, Bergen in Febr.-1918 as Utsire to D/S A/S John K. Haaland, Haugesund. 1613 gt, 932 net, 2400 tdwt, 246.2' x 37.9' x 15.6', Triple exp. 167 nhp (Laxevaag). Purchased in Oct.-1926 by D/S A/S Produce (H. M. Wrangell & Co. A/S), Haugesund, renamed Profit. Management taken over by Jacob Odland in Jan.-1938. Captain: Martin Kolstø.
Profit was at Finneidet, Norway on May 15-1940, then proceeded to Svalbard for coal, but in the meantime Norway capitulated and the captain chose to take her to Gt. Britain on June 9, and she thereby ended up in Allied service. In Sept.-1940 we find her in the slow Sydney (C.B.)-U.K. Convoy SC 4, which had a large number of Norwegian ships. Profit was bound for Clyde and Preston with a cargo of lumber. Towards the end of Febr.-1941 she was scheduled for the slow Halifax-U.K. Convoy SC 24, but instead joined the next convoy, SC 25, cargo of lumber for London.
Left Southend for Hull in ballast on Apr. 17-1941 and struck a mine about 4 hours after departure. The explosion occurred amidships, blowing the upper bridge and port boatdeck as well as the port lifeboat away, breaking the masts where Able Seaman Olaf Olafsen and Ordinary Seaman Ivar Sevaldsen were sitting (painting - both injured, but survived). The 2nd mate and 5 men launched the starboard boat but fell in the water when it got caught. The ship stayed afloat for 2 minutes before capsizing and disappearing, pulling some men with her as she went down. 2 lifeboats and 2 British destroyers, one of them being HMS Wallace came out and rescued 5 men from the sea, as well as Halfdan L. Myrseth who had managed to get on a raft. 3 were taken to hospital. Other survivors were a Canadian ordinary seaman by the last name of Waggstaffe, Donkeyman Aksel Olsen and Stoker John Dyson. The captain, 7 other Norwegians, 3 Swedish and 1 British were either killed in the explosion, or drowned as the ship went down (51 47 27N 01 30 33E). I've received an E-mail from Michael Telford, England, who says he believes the British casualty must have been his wife's uncle, Arthur Beeney. He knows he died when Profit was lost, and since there was only 1 British casualty, we can assume this is correct. A visitor to my website has told me that "Shipwreck Index of the British Isles" says Profit was part of convoy EC 8 at the time, adding that the wreck was dispersed by explosives, Barrow Deep, Thames Estuary. Related external link: Back to Profit on the "Ships starting with P" page. The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "Våre gamle skip", Leif M. Bjørkelund & E. H. Kongshavn,"Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, "Sjøforklaringer fra 2. verdenskrig", Vol II, Norwegian Maritime Museum - (ref. My sources).
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