D/S Vestfold
Panamanian Flag

To Vestfold on the "Ships starting with V" page.

A picture is available at the last external link at the end of this page.

Misc. War Voyages:

Vestfold is listed among the ships in the Halifax-U.K. Convoy HX 38 in Apr./May-1940, bound for Mersey with whale oil, station 34. The following month she joined Convoy OB 159, leaving Liverpool on June 1-1940. Her destination is given as Aruba, and she had station 42 of the convoy. Crux is also included, with destination Cardiff. The external websites that I've linked to at the end of this page have more on the OB convoys.

In the summer of 1942 she's listed in Convoy SL 112, which left Freetown on June 4-1942 and arrived Liverpool on the 23rd. Vestfold was on a voyage from Freetown to Belfast with a cargo of fuel and diesel oil, station 63. The Norwegian Bralanta, Glittre, Herbrand, Norsktank and Atlantic also took part. Please refer to the first external link below for more on this convoy. In Aug. that same year we find her in station 53 of the westbound North Atlantic Convoy ON 123. She subsequently went back to England the following month with Convoy HX 208, then in Nov. she sailed in Convoy HX 215 from New York to the U.K., returning to New York in ballast on Dec. 11 with the westbound Convoy ON 153, in which Bello was sunk, among others.

Final Fate - 1943:

Convoy ON 153 had arrived New York on Dec. 31-1942. She must have proceeded to Halifax, because she shows up in the Halifax portion of Convoy HX 222 which sailed from Halifax on Jan. 8-1943. Torpedoed and sunk on Jan. 17 by U-268 (Heydemann). She had a cargo of 17 386 tons oil and the Lend-Lease LCT-2239, LCT-2267 and LCT 2344 as deck cargo, also carrying passengers. The 3 landing craft were also lost. Roger W. Jordan and Jürgen Rohwer both give the position as 61 25N 26 12W, with Jordan adding that 19 died, 56 survived (agreeing with Lloyd's numbers). There seems to be some disagreement with regard to these numbers in that "Convoy Rescue Ships" by Arnold Hague states that the rescue ship Rathlin picked up 68 survivors. Hague offers the possible explanation that 12 gunners may not have been recorded by Lloyd's. The rescue operation was made very difficult by the fact that the engines were still running when the crew abandoned Vestfold in the lifeboats, resulting in several near collisions while the rescue vessel tried to approach the boats, because Vestfold was cruising in circles. Norwegian ships in this convoy were Glittre, Thorhild, Molda, Lynghaug, Nueva Granada and Tai Shan.

External links related to the text on this page:
SL Convoys - The site also has a section for the OB convoys, OS-OS/KMS convoys, and Russian convoys, and a very useful Multi-Convoy Web Search feature - here's the main page.

See also this
list of OA and OB convoys 1940

4 Norwegians who died - Able Seamen Arne Casper Hellberg and Torger Rudolf Torgersen, Stoker Hans Kristian Larsen, and Mate Thormod Olsen are commemorated at this Memorial for Seamen in Stavern, Norway.

U-268

Other ships owned by Johan Rasmussen & Co. - Here is the main page. There are also pictures of Vestfold.

Back to Vestfold on the "Ships starting with V" page.

Other ships by this name: Norway had lost a Vestfold to WW I, built Sandefjord 1907, 1883 gt for P. Johannesen, Tønsberg, w/various later owners. Sunk by a German U-boat in 1917. Also, Det Helgelandske Dampskibsselskab, Sandnessjøen had a small Vestfold in 1879, later renamed Bodø for Bodø Dampbaadlag (1892), lost Apr. 11-1906 after having run aground off Kalvik, voyage Bodø-Kalvik. This ship had been built in Scotland in 1861 for unknown owner, 124 gt. Additionally, another Vestfold was built for Johan Rasmussen & Co. in 1950, and another in 1956 as well as in 1967 (all listed at the above website).

The text on this page was compiled with the help of: Misc. sources as named within the above text.