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D/S Vigsnes To Vigsnes on the "Ships starting with V" page. Owner: A/S Kristian Jebsens Rederi Built by Bergens mek. Verksted, Bergen in 1930. Captain: Haakon Tronstad.
At the beginning of Sept.-1940 she was in the slow Sydney (C.B.)-U.K. Convoy SC 3, which left on Sept. 2. Vigsnes had a cargo of lumber for Belfast and Grimsby. "Nortraships flåte" states that when the escort HMS Dundee and the British Empire Volunteer were torpedoed and sunk on Sept. 15, Vigsnes and the Norwegian Granfoss stopped and picked up 6 and 20 respectively from Dundee, then a little later Granfoss rescued 27 from D/S Empire Volunteer. However, it was not Granfoss that picked up the Empire Volunteer survivors, but Granli - please see Granli - Page 2 for a report on this incident, in which Fido is also said to have picked up survivors from both ships. Note that Convoy SC 3 had a large number of Norwegian ships, among them D/S Lotos which was unable to keep up and was sunk - follow the link for details. In Nov.-1940 Vigsnes was in Convoy Convoy OB 244 together with 11 other Norwegian vessels. Her destination was Sydney, C. B. Early the following year, on Jan. 12-1941, she can be found in Convoy SC 19 from Halifax, bound for Great Yarmouth with a cargo of lumber in station 74. In Apr.-1941 she was scheduled for the slow Halifax-U.K. Convoy SC 29, but instead joined Convoy SC 30, cargo of mechanical pulp for Rochester. Vigsnes was later placed in service between Tyne and London, carrying coal. On charter to The Ministry of War Transport from 1943 to 1945. The first external website that I've linked to at the end of this page has her in station 55 of Convoy OS 50 / KMS 17 in June-1943, voyaging from Oban to Gibraltar with coal. Follow the link for more convoy details - see also my own page for the Gibraltar portion, KMS 17; as can be seen, several Norwegian ships are listed. Early in Dec. we find her mentioned, without voyage information, in Convoy MKS 33 - scroll down to the second table on that page. The external website mentioned above also has her as scheduled for Convoy SL 163 / MKS 54 in July-1944, but she did not sail. (SL 163 from Freetown joined up with the MKS portion from Gibraltar, and Vigsnes was scheduled to join with the latter, which will also be added to my own Convoys section). Vigsnes is said to have rescued a pilot in 1943 (no further details).
Torpedoed and sunk on Jan. 23-1945 by U-1172 (Kuhlmann), position 53 32N 04 19W, after having left Convoy MH 1 that day. She was off Anglesey at 16:50 when the torpedo hit in the port foreship, and with steam, water and smoke filling the engine room it was impossible to stop the engine. Vigsnes listed to the port side and started to sink, while the starboard boat was successfully launched with 17 men, 2 jumped overboard and 6 kept to the raft and motor lifeboat aft. She sank within 10-15 minutes. The lifeboat picked up the rest of the survivors and all 25 reached Anglesey at 22:30 that same night. Vigsnes had a cargo of 2000 tons coal from Cardiff for Mersey.
As is the case with D/S Galatea, there is some doubt as to whether U-1172 or U-1051 sank this vessel. Both submarines were known to be operating in the Irish Sea at the same time, and both were lost there within a day of each other, but no signals concerning this sinking were transmitted from either.
Related external links: Operations information for U-1172 S/S Vigsnes - Technical data and funnel (Darren Dypevåg). Back to Vigsnes on the "Ships starting with V" page. Another ship named Vigsnes was delivered for A/S Kristian Jebsens Rederi, Bergen in Dec.-1947, 1931 gt, built in Sunderland. Sold in 1965 to A/S Liv (Arne Østensjø d. y.), Haugesund, incl. a 2 years time charter. Returned 1967 and renamed Pax (Haugesund). Sold in Dec.-1969 to Cyprus and renamed Carpo. Sold in Febr.-1972 to Passage West, Ireland for breaking up. The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, "Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two", Jürgen Rohwer, and "The Allied Convoy System", Arnold Hague, "Sjøforklaringer fra 2. verdenskrig", Volume II (Norwegian Maritime Museum), - (ref. My sources).
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