D/T Suderholm

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

Related item on this website:
Guestbook message from Abraham Luxembourg, who sailed on this ship, and who says that she was in service in the Eastern Mediterranean and Red Sea, supplying fuel oil to naval ships, battle cruisers, cruisers, etc. (If anyone wants to contact him, I can supply his address).

Some Convoy Voyages:

1940:

In March-1940 Suderholm joined the Halifax-U.K. Convoy HX 29, bound for Liverpool with general(?) cargo in station 34, but is said to have lost touch on the night after departure. In May that year she's listed as sailing in Convoy OB 142, which left Liverpool on May 4-1940 and dispersed on the 8th. She was bound for Trinidad and had station 11 of the convoy. The Norwegian Eli Knudsen is also listed. The external website that I've linked to at the end of this page has more on the OB convoys. Suderholm went back to the U.K. the following month in Convoy HX 49, in which Eli Knudsen and Randsfjord were sunk. Suderholm was bound for Falmouth with fuel oil, having joined with the Bermuda portion, and sailed in station 86, initially right next to the Dutch Moordrecht which was also sunk, though this ship had straggled by then. She subsequently shows up, with no voyage information, in Convoy OB 187, which left Liverpool on July 21, dispersed on the 25th. In Sept.-1940 she appears in the slow Sydney (C.B.)-U.K. Convoy SC 4, which had a large number of Norwegian ships.

At the beginning of Dec. that year she's listed as scheduled for Convoy OB 256, leaving Liverpool on Dec. 8-1940, but she did not sail, and shows up again, with destination Curacao, in the next convoy, OB 257, which left on Dec. 10 - again, see the external link below for more info. Note that another section of that site has not included her in OB 257, but instead has her in OB 258, leaving Liverpool on Dec. 12, dispersed Dec. 15.

1941:

She returned to the U.K. in Jan.-1941 with the Bermuda-U.K. Convoy BHX 104, bound for London with diesel oil (scroll down to the second table on the page for HX 104). In March she shows up in the Liverpool-Gibraltar Convoy OG 57*, departing Liverpool on March 27-1941, arriving Gibraltar Apr. 11 - Suderholm, however, was bound for Aruba on that occasion. She was scheduled for the Halifax-U.K. Convoy HX 125 at the beginning of May that year, but did not sail, and was also cancelled from HX 126, which lost so many ships (including John P. Pedersen), but eventually got away with the slow Convoy SC 33 at the beginning of June, destination Manchester. The following month she's listed as bound for New York in Convoy OB 343, leaving Liverpool on July 6, dispersed July 21. The external site below now has her returning to the U.K. with Convoy SC 40, departing Sydney, C.B. on Aug. 10-1941, arriving Liverpool on the 29th. This convoy is not available on my own site, but follow the link provided for the names of other ships, many of which were Norwegian (Brisk, Henrik Ibsen, Ingerfire, Nesttun, Novasli, Selvik, Spurt). Early in Oct.-1941 she's listed as bound for New York in the westbound North Atlantic Convoy ON 23 (departure Liverpool Oct. 4, arrival Halifax Oct. 19). This convoy is available and will be added to an individual page in my Convoys section in due course, with additional information on it - in the meantime, please see the section listing ships in all ON convoys.

Rescued some Greek seamen in the Atlantic in 1941 (name of their ship and exact date not known).

According to an article in the very last issue of "Krigsseileren" (2000) Suderholm, on a voyage alone from Aruba to Cape Town, barely missed an encounter with the German raider Atlantis. Suderholm had to alter course in order to avoid running into the lifeboats from Atlantis being towed by a U-126 after having been sunk by Devonshire on Nov. 22-1941 while replenishing the U-boat. (See the newspaper articles at the end of this page, as well as the external links provided there).

There's now a big gap in my voyage information for this ship - a few of these gaps can be filled by following the instructions at the external link provided below.

1943-1944:

Mike Holdoway, England has told me she sailed in Convoy PB 51 to Bombay - left Bandar Abbas on Aug. 7-1943 and arrived Bombay on the 13th. This convoy has now been included on his website, and I've linked directly to it below. In fact, the site also has her in several Bombay to Bandar Abbas and return convoys in 1943, and as will be seen she also made voyages to Calcutta, Colombo, Aden, Alexandria etc.

In June-1944 she's listed as bound from Port Said to Palermo in Convoy MKS 54*, which departed Port Said on June 28. The following month she shows up in Convoy MKS 57* (departure Port Said July 28), voyage Port Said to Bizerta, and in Aug. we find her listed as bound for Algiers in Convoy MKS 60* (left Port Said Aug. 27). In Sept.-1944 she made a voyage from Algiers to Port Said with Convoy KMS 62*, which left Gibraltar on Sept. 12 and arrived Port Said on the 22nd.

* All the MKS and KMS convoys are available and will be added to individual pages in my Convoys section in due course, with further information on each - in the meantime, the ships sailing in them are named in the section listing ships in all MKS convoys, and ships in all KMS convoys. All the OG convoys will also be added - for now, they can be found on the page naming ships in all OG convoys (as mentioned further up on this page, Suderholm is included in OG 57).

POST WAR:

Suderholm was in the Suderøy expedition during the 1945/'46 and 1946/'47 seasons, then the company's tanker Anna Knudsen took over. Sold in July-1947 to S.A. Hellenic Transpetrol, Piræus and renamed Rodos. Broken up in Holland in 1953.

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

The text on this page was compiled with the help of: Misc. sources. Pre war details (and some of the post war facts) received from T. Eriksen, Norway - His sources: Article about Hvalfanger-AS Suderøy by Dag Bakka Jr. in "Skipet" 1.89, "Knut Knutsen O.A.S., -Høvdingen av Haugesund", Tor Inge Vormedal 2002, and "Hvalfangsten, -Eventyret tar slutt", Dag Bakka Jr. 1992.