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D/S Trajan To Trajan on the "Ships starting with T" page. Owner: Skibs A/S Trajan Built by Great Lakes Engineering Works, Ecorse, Michigan, USA in 1915 as Yaque for Clyde Steam Ship Co., New York (Captain A. C. Anderson). 1414-tons, 74.98 length, 11.68m beam, 4.70m draught. Single steel propeller powered by a 3-cylinder triple expansion steam engine developing 200nhp using two single ended boilers, which worked at 190 lbs pressure. Cylinder dimensions: 43.18cm, 72.39cm and 114.30cm, with a 91.44cm stroke, (17in, 28.5in. and 45in. with a 36-inch stroke). She also had 4 corrugated furnaces, with a grate surface of 1.85m and heating surface of 49.58m. Great Lakes Engineering Works built her machinery at Detroit. She had a flat keel, 4 cemented bulkheads, one steel deck and a superstructure consisting of a 19.81m bridge deck and a 7.62m forecastle. She also had water ballast with 20.12m cellular double bottom aft, under engines and boilers 10.36m forwards 15.24m giving 425 tons ballast, a fore-peak tank of 32 tons aft and a peak tank of 34 tons. Sold in 1929/30 to D/S A/S Inca, Bergen, Norway and renamed Doris, managed by E. Eriksen. Purchased by Skibs A/S Trajan (Hilmar Reksten) in 1930/31 and renamed Trajan. Captain: Asmund Evjenth Trajan is listed among the ships in Convoy HG 46 from Gibraltar to the U.K. in Oct./Nov.-1940. Her destination is given as Methil and Tyne, cargo of pit props. Follow the link for names of other ships taking part, some of which were Norwegian.
Departed Blyth with a cargo of 1744 tons coal in the evening of May 2-1941, together with D/S Sitona, and joined a convoy for London on May 3. Hit by bombs from German aircraft, in the foreship and amidships port side at 23:25 that same evening. Trajan's anti aircraft gun(s?) had been manned as soon as the aircraft was heard, but the plane could not be seen until it was right over them, and then it was too late. The port lifeboat was destroyed, and those who were on the bridge and the forward section of the ship couldn't get to the starboard lifeboat because of a broken steam pipe, resulting in hot steam gushing across midships. The men managed to get to the raft on the foredeck, but when it was discovered that the British Stoker Matthews was missing, the captain went back, found the missing man trapped in the stoker room and freed him, then got back on the raft at the last minute (he was later awarded the British "Hon Member of British Empire" for this act). Trajan sank 11 minutes after the attack. They were all picked up by a destroyer a couple of hours later (May 4 by then) and landed in Harwich that afternoon; sent to London later that day. 2nd Mate Nilsen, Able Seaman Hedmann and stoker Matthews were admitted to a hospital in Harwich. The latter had sustained some steam burns in the stoker room, while the former 2 were injured when dropping themselves down 20' from the bridge in order to get to the raft on the foredeck. The captain was also injured. The maritime inquiry was held (in London?) on May 8-1941 with the captain and Able Seaman Andersen attending. The latter was on lookout duty and also operated the machine gun on the bridge. He had helped the injured Able Seamann Hedmann to the raft, the latter being unable to walk, and also assisted a man who had fallen into No. 1 hold through a hole left by the bomb. The captain recommended that Norwegian ships be fitted with straps from the bridge, so that people in similar situations could save themselves more easily. He felt that if such straps had been available on Trajan, there would not have been any injuries. Roger W. Jordan's "The World's Merchant Fleets" gives the position of the attack as 53 10 30N 01 13E. Ron Young says she's located at a depth of 18m, 14.35-miles NNE from Blakeney Point and 11.86-miles SE from East Dudgeon bell-buoy (reference: 53 10 839N 001 11 791E) and feels she must have drifted with wind and tide before finally going down. He adds that the wreck was swept and dispersed to a depth of 15.24m in 1949 and the wreck buoy was removed. Another visitor to my site has told me that "Shipwreck Index of the British Isles" gives the location as 14.5 miles northeast by north of Blakeneny, Norfolk. Crew List - No casualties:
Back to Trajan on the "Ships starting with T" page. The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, "Sjøforklaringer fra 2. verdenskrig", Volume II, Norwegian Maritime Museum, and misc. as named within above text - (ref. My sources). Pre war details received from Ron Young, England who has written several books on shipwrecks; see this site for a list of his books, and this thread on my Maritime Books Forum.
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