D/S Rym - Norwegian Merchant Fleet 1939-1945

Manager: Johs. Larsen, Bergen
Tonnage: 1369 gt, 790 net, 2140 tdwt.
Call Sign: LESY

Built by NV Scheepsbouwwerf De Noord, Alblasserdam in 1919. Previous names: Mont Rose, then Mosel.

Captain: Conrad Rustad

Some War Voyages:

Rym is listed in Convoy HN 8 from Norway to the U.K. in Jan.-1940.

In March that same year she's listed among the ships in Convoy OB 109, departing Liverpool on March 13-1940. Her voyage information is given as Swansea - Massachusetts, cargo of coal. However, she may not have sailed, because she also shows up a few days later, with the same voyage information, in Convoy OB 111, which left Liverpool on March 16. Emma Bakke and Leiesten are also included in the latter. Note that Rym had also previously been cancelled from Convoy OB 107 on March 11. The external websites that I've linked to below has more on the OB convoys.

Rym, which had arrived Halifax from Boston on Apr. 21-1940, is listed in station 62 of Convoy HX 41 on May 8-1940, cargo of lumber for Montrose, but was unable to maintain speed and left the convoy 2 days after departure - follow the link for convoy details.

At the beginning of Sept.-1940 we find her in the slow Sydney (C.B.)-U.K. Convoy SC 3, from which the Norwegian Lotos was sunk, among others. Rym had a cargo of lumber for Methil on that occasion. Note that this convoy had a large number of Norwegian ships. At the end of Nov. that year she was scheduled for Convoy SC 14, but instead joined the next Convoy, SC 15, pit props for Sunderland.

It looks like she must have headed straight back across the ocean, because at the end of Jan.-1941 she shows up in the slow Halifax-U.K. Convoy SC 21, again with pit props for Sunderland. In May that year she was scheduled for Convoy SC 31, but did not sail.

Related external links:
OB convoys - OB 107, OB 109 and OB 111 are included.

Final Fate - 1941:

Rym was 1 of 14 Norwegian ships in the westbound North Atlantic Convoy ON 4 in Aug.-1941, bound for Halifax, station 56. In Oct. she joined Convoy SC 48 which departed Sydney, C.B. for the U.K. on Oct. 5-1941. Rym had a cargo of 570 standards of timber for Londonderry. On Oct. 16 at about 21:00 a ship ahead of her was sunk, namely W. C. Teagle, which sailed in the 10th column of the convoy. Shortly afterwards the crew on Rym saw the lights from the survivors of this tanker and immediately altered course in order to pick them up, being as she was the last ship in the column and no escort vessel was in sight (the escorts had drawn further astern of the convoy that afternoon). At the same time the Norwegian Erviken had also decided to pick up survivors from the British tanker, and Rym had to alter course to avoid a collision with the Norwegian ship. Rym had turned around to steer towards another light from a lifeboat or a raft, when they heard another explosion and saw that D/S Erviken had been torpedoed (my text for Erviken has more details on this. M/T Barfonn and D/S Ila were also sunk).

Rym proceeded at full speed to catch up with the convoy again, then caught sight of one of the escort vessels which at that time appeared to be 3-4 n. miles astern of the convoy. At about 22:00 they saw the convoy ahead of them, and around 10 minutes later Rym was herself torpedoed. The torpedo, which had come from U-558 (Krech) struck on the starboard side forward, between hatch No. 1 and 2 ("Nortraships flåte" says between 2 and 3). The forward part of the ship went over to port (another report says starboard) and looked as if it was torn away from the rest of the hull, only kept together by the cargo. The cargo on the foredeck had been partly thrown overboard, and discharge derricks were swung out towards port and splintered. The bridge had also received heavy damages, and the starboard lifeboat had been destroyed and the davits bent. She listed heavily to starboard, with the water steadily rising so that the stokehold and engine room were gradually filled, as were the cabins on the starboard side, and the cargo on the after deck was gradually washed overboard.

17 men were ordered to the port lifeboat while the captain, a stoker, an able seaman and the 1st engineer stayed on board to see if the ship could be saved. The corvette HMS Veronica (D. F. White, RNR) came to assist an hour after midnight (Oct. 17), picked up the 17 in the lifeboat and stayed nearby, ready to pick up the 4 left on the wreck if necessary. In the morning it became clear she could not be saved so at 09:00 the remaining 4 men went on board Veronica, which headed back to the convoy. Rym's captain had been told by the commanding officer that a destroyer would be ordered to sink Rym, and "Nortraships flåte" states she was later shelled and sunk by an escort, but I don't know the identity of this ship. However, one of Erviken's survivors, who had been rescued by an unnamed corvette says this corvette cruised around the area until daylight, but no more survivors (of Erviken) were found, only a Norwegian ship floating on its cargo of lumber. The ship referred to here is probably D/S Rym, and he says the ship was sunk by the corvette before course was set for Londonderry, "packed" with survivors, adding they were landed on "Sunday night", which may have been Oct. 19. This leads me to believe that the corvette may have been HMS Veronica (a report by Rym's captain states Rym's survivors were landed by Veronica at Londonderry on Sunday, Oct. 19). So perhaps Veronica eventually shelled and sank Rym? (I'm only speculating here).

As mentioned, Rym's survivors were landed at Londonderry on Oct. 19, then sent to Glasgow the next day. The maritime hearings were held on Oct. 29-1941 with the captain, the 1st mate and the 1st engineer appearing. At the time of the attack, Able Seaman Sætre was at the helm, Ordinary Seaman Korr was on lookout duty, and the 1st mate was on duty on the bridge, while the chief engineer was on watch in the engine room. The captain was also on the bridge.

Position given by Rohwer is 57 01N 24 20W at 02:14 on Oct. 17, German time, but he has no mention of Rym eventually being sunk by an escort. Time given for W. C. Teagle is 01:31, Oct. 17. "Sjøforklaringer fra 2. verdenskrig" gives the sinking position as 65 10N 24 30W for Rym.

Other merchant ships lost in addition to the Norwegian ones were the Panamanian Bold Venture (cargo of cotton, steel and copper - 17 died), the Greek Evros (7000 tons iron ore - 30 died), the British Empire Heron (7673 tons sulphur - 42 died), Silvercedar (7300 tons steel and general - 20 died). W. C. Teagle, with a cargo of 15 000 tons fuel oil lost 48 men. The remainder of the convoy arrived Liverpool on Oct. 22. In addition to my own pages about this convoy, the misc. external websites that I've linked to below have a lot more details on the battle.

Crew List - No Casualties:
*Thomas Shaw is also listed among the crew of Hallfried, and later served on several other Norwegian ships - follow the link to Hallfried for a picture and more information on him.
If anyone remembers him, please contact me at the address provided below. See also this message in my Guestbook.

Related external links:
HMS Broadwater - A thoroughly researched website about the history and fate of this ship, one of the escorts of the convoy. Unfortunately, the site can no longer be reached as linked, but I'm leaving it up for now, in case I can find it again. The link used to go directly to the first page of the section describing the battle of SC 48. The subsequent pages went on to list the ships lost, their destination and cargoes, as well as the names of all the escort vessels and the attacking U-boats. It also had a description of the events surrounding the loss of the ship (2 survivors from Erviken had been rescued by Broadwater and were lost when she was torpedoed, though the Norwegian ship was referred to as Ericson). The website included a report on the rescue of survivors, along with several other interesting reports, and a list of names of those who died.

Convoy SC 48 - 15 - 17 Oct 1941
U-558 | Günther Krech

Operations information for U-558 - As this page shows, this U-boat sank several Norwegian ships.

U.S.S. Kearny - Interesting account of the attack on the Kearny, torpedoed by U-568 when on escort duties in Convoy SC 48, Oct. 17-1941.

The Kearney and Convoy SC 48 - The ships involved on all sides (from Encyclopedia of WW II Naval Battles).

Details on SC 48 escorts can also be found towards the end of
Chapter 3 of "Joining the War at Sea". Other convoys are also discussed.