D/S Sneland I - Norwegian Merchant Fleet 1939-1945

Owner: D/S A/S Vestland
Manager: Rich. Amlie & Sverre Amlie, Haugesund
Tonnage: 1791 gt, 1054 net, 2950 tdwt
Signal Letters: LCYE

Delivered in Sept.-1922 from Nüscke & Co. A/G, Stettin as Ingeborg to Reederei Stange & Dreyer GmbH, Stettin. 268' x 42.3' x 17', Triple exp. 200 nhp (Görlitzer Maschinenbau). Purchased by D/S A/S Vestland (Rich. Amlie) Haugesund in 1925 and renamed Sneland I. Managed by Rich. Amlie & Sverre Amlie, Haugesund from 1936.

Some War Voyages:

Sneland I is listed among the ships in Convoy SC 7 which lost so many ships in in Oct.-1940, including the Norwegian Snefjeld.

Towards the end of that year she was scheduled for Convoy OB 263, leaving Liverpool on Dec. 23, but did not sail - the first external website that I've linked to below has the names of the ships in this convoy, some of which were Norwegian.

At the end of Jan.-1941 she shows up in the slow Halifax-U.K. Convoy SC 21, cargo of pit props for Preston.

In Aug.-1941 she was 1 of 14 Norwegian ships in the westbound North Atlantic Convoy ON 4. Her destination is given as Sydney, Cape Breton and she had station 35 of the convoy.

At the end of May-1942 she was in Convoy SC 85. Also, she sailed in Convoy SC 95 from Halifax in Aug.-1942; - follow links for more info on these convoys.

In May-1943 she was 1 of 10 Norwegian ships in Convoy SC 132 from Halifax, and in July that year she made a voyage from Oban to Aguilas in Convoy OS 51/KMS 20 (station 14) - again, see the external link below. She returned to the U.K. the following month with Convoy MKS 21, together with the Norwegian Norfalk. Sneland I's destination is given as Barrow-in-Furness, cargo of phosphates. In Oct.-1943 we find her, carrying iron ore for Ardrossan, in Convoy MKS 27 from Gibraltar to the U.K., together with the Norwegian Brønnøy and Toronto.

Related external links:
OB (& OA) convoys - There's also a section on the OS and OS/KMS Convoys. As can be seen, Sneland I is listed in Convoy OB 263 and OS 51/KMS 20.

OA & OB convoys

Final Fate - 1945:

The text that follows has been compiled with the help of various sources, including quite a bit of information received by E-mail from a number of visitors to my site, who have sources that I don't own myself.

Sneland I was sailing as No. 2 in the starboard column of the outward bound convoy EN 91 from Methil when she in the evening of May 7-1945 was torpedoed by U-2336 (Klusmeier had just taken over the command of this U-boat on Apr. 1) and sunk 56 09 36N 02 31 24W. This position is according to Lloyd's War Losses, Hocking simply says "about 160 miles east of the Firth of Forth" (incorrect). The convoy consisted of 5 ships escorted by the armed trawlers Angle, Wolves and Leicester City, having departed Methil shortly after 8 o'clock that night. Sneland I's voyage had started out in Blyth on May 5, and she was bound for Belfast with a cargo of about 2800 tons coal (some sources say she was headed in the other direction, from Belfast to Blyth).

The initial attack took place just before 11 o'clock when the convoy was about 1.5- 2 miles south of the Isle of May. The first victim was the ship sailing in front of Sneland I, the Canadian S/S Avondale Park which lost 2 men out of a crew of 28 and 4 gunners, namely Chief Engineer Anderson and Donkeyman William Harvey who were in the engine room. In order to get clear of the sinking vessel, Sneland I had to alter course to port, but just a few minutes later she was struck on the starboard side near No. 2 hatch (the journal excerpt gives the attack time as 22:45) and within 2 minutes she was gone. The 1st mate and the 3rd mate attempted to launch the port lifeboat but before they could get them on the water the ship capsized to starboard and the survivors ended up in the sea, clinging to a raft and debris until they were picked up by HM Trawlers Valse (T-151) and Leicester City (FY-223), later transferred to D/S Selvik and landed in Methil on May 8. Out of Sneland I's crew of 26 and 3 gunners 7 died, incl. the captain. An attempt was made to revive the 3rd engineer, but he could not be saved.

Leicester City dropped depth charges before proceeding to pick up survivors from the torpedoed ships with George Ritchie in charge of the lifeboat launched to pick up survivors from Sneland I. He had already saved several when he thought he heard a cry, which turned out to be from Sneland I's stewardess* who was trapped in the debris, and he was able to swim across and rescue her. Leicester City at this time had gone in search of the U-boat, so the rescuers and the survivors were picked up by an escorting destroyer and taken to Methil, with the boat in tow (55 were landed at Methil). That morning, before leaving the ship, the stewardess sought out George Ritchie and gave him a brooch to remember her by. The Norwegian destroyer Stord, coming in from the ocean just as the attack had happened had also immediately gone in search of the U-boat, and had dropped a series of depth charges, but U-2336 arrived Kiel unharmed on May 14.

* The details in the above paragraph were received from a visitor to my website - there is no female included in the crew list below, so I can't quite get this to fit.

An inquiry was held in London on May 15-1945 with the 1st mate, the 1st engineer, Able Seaman Hagen (lookout) and Able Seaman Tuvnes (helmsman) appearing.

These were the last ships to be sunk by U-boat before VE Day. These sinkings happened 3 days after Dönitz had given the U-boats the order to stop all enemy action and return to port. Klusmeier later claimed he didn't know anything about the order to surrender. (The attack took place after the German surrender documents had been signed, but before the time of their effect at midnight on the 7th). The general belief according to (old) Norwegian sources appears to be that Klusmeier intentionally ignored Dönitz' May 4 order; this being his first patrol as captain he wanted something to show for it. But I've been told that one of the advantages of the type of boat that U 2336 was (Type XXIII) was the ability to remain submerged for up to three days before having to surface to recharge batteries. However, while submerged, they were not able to transmit or receive radio messages, and this may be the reason why U 2336 did not know about the surrender order. It didn't become clear until Oct.-1945 that U-2336 was in fact responsible for the sinkings. Klusmeier revealed that he had been in the vicinity of the Isle of May between 20:00 on the 7th and 06:00 on the 8th and that he circled the Isle of May afther the attack. His approach appears to have gone undetected by the indicator loops, which were controlled from Canty Bay, North Berwick (loops to the south) and the Fixed Defence Station on the Isle of May (loops to the north). The records for Canty Bay had been destroyed by then, but those for the Isle of May revealed that U-2336 had indeed been detected passing eastwards over No.4 Loop at 04:52 on the 8th and No.13 Loop at 05:16 that day, but her passage had been ignored, or had gone unnoticed because of the news that the war was over.

On May 28-1945 the British Admiralty and United States Navy jointly announced that as from 0001 GMT on May 29 the convoys would no longer exist. At night merchant ships were to have their navigation lights on at full strength, and no longer needed to be blacked out. What a glorious and moving sight that must have been on that first night with all the brightly lit ships on the ocean!

NOTE: I've been told that EN 79 sailed on March 1-1941 and that there were 597 EN convoys altogether, so it has been suggested that the designation EN 91 for the convoy in which Sneland I was sunk several years later may be an error; and should perhaps be EN 591? However, according to Arnold Hague's "Allied Convoy System" there were 2 series of EN convoys (Methil to Oban via Loch Ewe), interrupted by EC convoys which travelled from Southend to Oban via Firth of Forth in 1941. Jürgen Rohwer lists convoy as unknown and position 56 10N 02 31W for Sneland I, 56 05N 02 32W for Avondale Park, listing Sneland I first.

As mentioned, the position given for Sneland I's sinking in Lloyds War Losses WW2 Vol 1 is 56 09 36N, 02 31 24W. The charted position for the wreck today is 56 09 40N, 0 30 48W. According to Lloyds the Avondale Park was sunk 1 mile southeast of May Island while en route from Hull to Belfast. The wreck was located by HMS Scott in 1959 (56 09 17N 02 30 07W). When dived in 1992, she was found to be lying with a list to starboard.