M/S Sophocles

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


I've been told this ship was renamed Skauvann ca. Febr.-1946, and this is a picture of her when under that name.
From Sverre Johansen's postcard collection.

Related item on this website:
My Norwegian Guestbook has a message from the daughter of someone who served on Sophocles, Kristian H. Buen. He also served on Elsa. If anyone knew him, I can provide her E-mail address via my contact address given at the bottom of this page.

Misc. War Voyages – 1940-1945:

Sophocles, with steel, lumber and general for Liverpool, was scheduled for Convoy HX 64 as well as for HX 65 in Aug.-1940, but did not sail. She sailed in Convoy HX 75 in Sept. that year, and in HX 91 in Nov./Dec., bound for Newcastle with general cargo, joining the convoy from Sydney, C.B. - other Norwegian ships also took part in these convoys, as can be seen by following the links.

In Sept.-1941 she was in Convoy HX 151. She left port at 12:41 according to a convoy list that has been sent to me, and was initially given station 103, but she must have had some kind of a problem because she left the convoy at 14:50, anchored south of St. George's, then later sailed on independently. It appears the British Clan Mactavish then moved into station 103. Other Norwegian ships in this convoy were Sama (in station 85), San Andres (105), Meline (43), Morgenen (93), Belinda, Dagrun (54), Thorshøvdi (53), Tigre (44), Hardanger (94), Leiv Eiriksson (24), and Laurits Swenson (it says Swenson, but I assume it should be Laurits Swenson), all listed on this website. This convoy left Halifax on Sept. 22 and arrived Liverpool on Oct. 7. Later that month we find her in station 35 of the westbound Convoy ON 30, which left Liverpool on Oct. 26-1941. Sophocles was bound for Montreal on that occasion.

At the end of May-1942 she can be found in Convoy HX 192 from Halifax to the U.K., then in July that year she made a voyage to Capetown in Convoy OS 33 (station 44). Please go to the external link below for a lot more information on the passage of this convoy. Mike Holdoway, the webmaster of the site, has told me she sailed from Milford Haven on July 1 to join the convoy with a cargo of military stores. Other Norwegian ships in this convoy were Jenny, Maloja and Ingria.

According to a personal story written by an able seaman who joined this ship in Bombay in Apr.-1944 she had at that time been in Bombay for a couple of years waiting for replacement parts so that she could be repaired (not sure why she needed repairs). She could then finally head back to sea with first stop Aden, then around South Africa to Brazil, going by Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande du Sul and Santos. She left Santos on Aug. 23, arriving London at the end of Sept.-1944 with a cargo of canned goods, linters, rice, coffee, salted hides, pine, cotton, leather, cotton waste, hair, and 3 passengers, Convoy SL 170 / MKS 61. The SL portion of this convoy had left Freetown on Sept. 8-1944, then joined up with the MKS portion from Gibraltar on Sept. 18, the combined convoy arriving Liverpool on Sept. 26. Belnor, Novasli and Somerville also took part in this convoy, Belnor having joined from Gibraltar with the MKS portion, while the others had started out from Freetown. More convoy information is available at the external link at the end of this text. MKS 61 will also be added to my own site; in the meantime, see this section listing ships in all MKS convoys.

Towards the end of the following month she's listed in the westbound North Atlantic Convoy ON 261, with destination New York, returning to the U.K. in Nov.-1944 with Convoy HX 322, general cargo for London. She headed back across the ocean the following month with the westbound Convoy ON 274*.

At the end of Jan.-1945 we find her in the New York-U.K. Convoy HX 335, bound for Liverpool with general and explosives, returning at the end of Febr. with the westbound Convoy ON 287* . In March/Apr.-1945 she served as Commodore Vessel for Convoy HX 347, which left New York on March 29 and arrived Liverpool on Apr. 14 (Commodore R.G. Bruusgaard, Royal Norwegian Navy). This convoy is not available to me, but can be found at the external site that I've linked to below. At the end of Apr. she joined the westbound Convoy ON 299*.

* These convoys will be added to individual pages in my Convoys section in due course, along with further details on each - in the meantime, they can be found on this page listing ships in ON convoys.

Related external link:
OS & KMS Convoys - There's a lot of information on Convoy OS 33 in particular. The site also has a section about the SL convoys, among others, as well as info on Convoy HX 347, in which Sophocles sailed, as mentioned.

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

The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "The World's Merchant Fleets 1939", R. W. Jordan, the Norwegian magazine "Krigsseileren", and misc. sources as named on each convoy page - (ref. My sources).