M/S Sama

To Sama on the "Ships starting with S" page.

Crew & Passenger List

Lillesand Sjømannsforening has a picture of Sama

Misc. War Details & Convoy Voyages:

Sama is listed in Convoy OB 153, departing Liverpool on May 22-1940 (this convoy joined up with Convoy OA 153 on May 25, to form the Gibraltar Convoy OG 31*, which arrived there on May 30). Her destination is given as Dakar, and she had station 93. The Norwegian Katy is also listed. Sama returned to the U.K. the following month with Convoy SL 37, which left Freetown on June 25-1940 and arrived Liverpool on July 12. She had station 45, and was bound for Milford. At the end of Oct. that year she appears in station 14 of Convoy OB 237, which left Liverpool on Oct. 31-1940, dispersed on Nov. 2. Her destination on that occasion is given as Jamaica. The first external website that I've linked to at the end of this page has more on these OB convoys and SL convoys.

* The OG convoys will also be added to my own website in due course; in the meantime, see the section listing ships in all OG convoys. As can be seen, Sama appears in Convoy OG 31 in May-1940.

Sama was on a voyage alone from from Liverpool to St. John's when she on March 28-1941 encountered the British troopship M/S Staffordshire in a critical situation after having been damaged in an attack by German aircraft from I/KG 40 that same day (position 59 30N 10 18W). Sama took on board 234 survivors as well as 4 dead and returned immediately to Stornoway, arriving the next day. Lillesand Sjømannsforening has a detailed description of this incident by Karsten Karlsen, who was 1st mate on board at the time (text in Norwegian); it can be found by going to the 2nd external link provided at the end of this page.

At the end of Apr.-1941 she sailed in the Halifax-U.K. Convoy HX 122, bound for Loch Ewe with a cargo of bacon. In June that same year we find her in Convoy HX 132, bound for Liverpool with general cargo and refrigerated goods, joining the convoy from Sydney, C.B. At the end of Aug.-1941 she joined the westbound North Atlantic Convoy ON 10, leaving Liverpool on Aug. 27. Her destination is given as Montreal, station 53. A number of other Norwegian ships also sailed in these convoys, as will be seen by following the links.

Sama returned to the U.K. the following month with Convoy HX 151, along with the Norwegian Dagrun (station 54), San Andres (105), Meline (43), Morgenen (93), Belinda, Thorshøvdi (53), Sophocles (left the convoy and sailed independently), Tigre (44), Hardanger (94), Leiv Eiriksson (24), and Laurits Swenson (it says Swenson only, but I assume it should be Laurits Swenson). This convoy left Halifax on Sept. 22-1941 and arrived Liverpool on Oct. 7. At the beginning of Nov. that year she's listed in station 14 of the westbound Convoy ON 32, again bound for Montreal, then went back to the U.K. with Convoy HX 162 later that month, together with the Norwegian Astrell, Brant County, Katy, Bello, Skandinavia, Beth and Høegh Scout. Norvinn (Panamanian flag, Norw. managers and therefore listed on this site) was also scheduled to be in this convoy but did not sail. Sama, bound for St. John's with general cargo, subsequently joined the westbound Convoy ON 50 at the end of Dec.-1941 - please scroll down to ON 50 on this page.

In Jan.-1942 Sama shows up in Convoy HX 171, again in the company of several other Norwegian ships.

More details on all the other Norwegian ships mentioned here can be found with the help of the alphabet index at the end of this page.

Final Fate - 1942:

Convoy HX 171, mentioned above, had arrived Liverpool on Febr. 1-1942. Sama departed Belfast on Febr. 15-1942 with a cargo of 1040 tons of china clay for St. John's, N.B, her voyage having originated in Cardiff. She joined Convoy ON 67, which had left Liverpool on Febr. 14 (will be added to my Convoys section as soon as I can, in the meantime, please see the section listing ships in all ON convoys). In addition to her crew she had 8 passengers on board. The weather was stormy all along, and her starboard lifeboat was damaged by the heavy seas, but was pulled on board and temporarily repaired by the carpenter.

In the early morning hours of Febr. 22 a powerful explosion occurred in the stern section of the ship; she had been torpedoed by U-155 (Piening), position 49 30N 38 30W, and started to sink very quickly. The engine stopped and the lights went out, which meant that the alarms were rendered inoperable, but those who heard the explosion and came on deck quickly launched the port lifeboat. However, they couldn't get away before the ship sank because the davits got caught in it, causing it to capsize so those who were in it had to throw themselves into the water. Others, who had been seen on deck, went under with the suction. Several had to jump overboard from the stern part, as they could not get amidships owing to the fact that the after deck was already under water. It was assumed that many crew members had gotten trapped in their cabins and passageways when the bulkheads collapsed (this according to the 3rd engineer, who was in the mess room when the explosion occurred - the bulkheads there also collapsed).

After the ship had sunk, both rafts, the ship's dinghies and the port lifeboat floated up, and the 24 who were in the water clung to these until 20 of them were rescued a couple of hours later by the escorting American destroyer USS Nicholson (DD 442)*. The captain, the 3rd mate and the carpenter had been among those on one of the rafts which had capsized several times, and they were not seen again, while 1 was crushed to death between the raft and the side of the destroyer. Due to the darkness it was impossible to tell who he was. By 07:15 the last survivor from Sama had been picked up (this was about 5 hours after the attack - the 1st mate's report gives the time of attack as 02:25). By then it was daylight, but nothing but debris from Sama could be seen. The survivors were landed in Halifax on March 1.

M/T Eidanger has more details on the battle and other ships lost, see also M/T Finnanger.

* "Nortraships flåte", which gives the time for the attack as 04:30 GMT, claims the British rescue vessel Toward also picked up survivors from Sama, but according to "Convoy Rescue Ships", Arnold Hague, they were picked up by the American destroyer only. At that time, Toward was busy rescuing the men from the British tanker Adellen which was torpedoed at the same time as the Sama.

Crew & Passenger List:
1st Mate Karsten Karlsen, who lost his brother, the steward, in this attack, later joined Titanian.

Survivors
1st Mate Karsten Karlsen	2nd Mate Jørgen Ebbesen	Radio Opeartor Tor Pettersen	Able Seaman John Berntsen	Able Seaman Ingvald Holten	Able Seaman Johan Johansen
Able Seaman Oddmund Skarland	Able Seaman Arne Fagermo	3rd Engineer Sverre Moe	Mechanic Gunnar Bråstad	Cook Reidar Linnemann	Galley Boy Thorleif Olsen
Galley Boy Olav Martin Olsen	Saloon Boy Edvin Olsen	Passenger (Distillery Company) F. W. Clark	Passenger (Lt. R.N.V.R.) E. L. Chamberlin	Passenger (Lt. R.N.V.R.) T. S. Forbos (Forbes?)	Passenger (Lt. R.N.V.R.) E. G. Selby
Passenger (Qtr. Master R.N.A.F) O. Arensen	Passenger (Qtr. Master R.N.A.F) T. Hansen
Casualties
† Captain Ingolf Just	† 3rd Mate Reidar Halvorsren	† Carpenter Olaf Hansen	† Able Seaman Johan Rype	† 1st Engineer Herbert Ottersen	† 2nd Engineer Ingolv Eldøy
† Assistant Anders Berge *	† Refrig. Engineer Hans A. Hansen	† Electrician Leif Andersen	† Mechanic Ragnvald Olsen	† Mechanic Martinus Dahl	† Mechanic Karsten Waag
† Mechanic Svein Sætre	† Mechanic Rolf Svenkerud	† Mechanic Odd Strøm	† Steward Knut Steen Karlsen	† Gunner Ragnar Antonsen	Passenger (R.N.V.R) H. A. Haddock *
Passenger (Qtr. Master R.N.A.F) A. Hansen

Related external links:
SL Convoys - There's also a section on the OS and OS/KMS convoys, OB convoys and the Russian convoys. This is a great resource, and well worth a visit.

Lillesand Sjømannsforening - Sama's rescue of survivors from Staffordshire as told by the 1st mate. Text is in Norwegian.

Stavern Memorial commemorations - Norwegians only.

ON 67 is discussed in detail at the end of
Chapter 3 of the the book "Joining the war at Sea" which is on the Internet (go to "Table of Contents").
Convoy ON(S) 67 (the correct term is ON 67, ONS convoys did not start until March-1943).
U-155 | Adolf Cornelius Piening

Back to Sama on the "Ships starting with S" page.

The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, "The allied Convoy System", Arnold Hague, "Sjøforklaringer fra 2. verdenskrig", Norwegian Maritime Museum, Volume II, and misc. as named within text (ref. My sources).