Hello Brian,

thanks for your quick answer, now we have something to be going on with!
And I think I can add some info to the vessels you named.
Furthermore, your information helped to discover a few more whalers which I think went possibly to Italy during the first world war.

The BURRASCA ex SORRELL was indeed buildt in 1912, as you correctly wrote, but I never heard anything to suggest that she was named SORRELL JACOBSEN. The same goes for her sistership LIONELL. As to my sources, there was no „JACOBSEN“ in their names.

Both ships were catching whales in Australian waters for the Norwegian company A/S Australia (Chr. Monsen, Mgrs.), registered in Tönsberg. The third catcher of this fleet, the CAMPBELL, was lost after grounding 13.6.1914 on Point Neplan en route from Melbourne to Albany. The company A/S Australia was dissolved in 1914. When exactly were the boats transferred to MMI?

The CICLONE, ex ALPHA or ALFA was buldt in 1881, and sold to MMI in 1916 (catching in French-Congo before, probably taken over by MMI there)


Although not mentioned in your list, her sistership BETA was also taken over by the Italian Navy, along with the DIMON, who worked for the same company (A/S Alfa & Beta). Do you have anything concerning BETA & DIMON?
More info on BETA is here: [thordahl.lardex.net]

I do not know anything on MAROSO / BAHIA DOS TIGRES, though I suspect that this vessel also operated in African waters (the name suggests this somehow…).

TEMPESTA was correctly spelled FISKEREN and operated for A/S Laurvigs Intresseentskap for Hvalfangst, Larvik (Chr. Nielsen & Co, Mgrs). She was 79,5 feet long and had a breadth of 17,1 feet. Tonnage was 93 GT according to my sources. Her area of operation was the norwegian coast and the whales were processed at a landstation at a place called Svartnes. The company was dissolved in 1904, and FISKEREN, together with NIMROD (1884) sold to A/S Fiskeren (later A/S Nimrod) and also ended up in French Congo 1913/14.

In the fleet of A/S Fiskeren were also the FREY (1882) and the FIN (1881), which also were active in French Congo.
For all three, NIMROD, FREY & FIN, I have no fate, so I assume they were also taken over by MMI. Can you find information to confirm that?

As to SCIRROCCO, ex NANSEN, she was buildt in 1887 and operated arround Iceland. I have no further info on her.

And finally, I couldn’t find a whaler named SJÖBJÖRN until now. The only alternative I can think of is thje whaler BJÖRN of 1893, which also was active in the South African whaling ground, but according to what little info I have she was back in Norway with her old owners in the 20s, so maybe sold back after the war.

Additionally, there is a number of boats which were sold abroad in 1916, which hints naval use. These were

BET, ex IMANUEL of 1882
LINGA, ex INGEBJORG (1893)
EAGLE (1921, 179 GT, owned by Chr. Nielsen & Co.)

I have also heard of a whaler named INGOLFR (1892, owned by Hans Ellefsen), which was sold to MMI in 1916 as LIBECCIO and reported listed still in the Italian Registry in 1956 as ASSUNTA MADRE, ex DELILA. Refer to this posting: [warsailors.com]

Do they appear in any of your Naval documents? I do not know what happened to BET, LINGA & EAGLE after 1916, and as far as I know, they were not in the French Navy, so I assume they went to Italy.

It would be great if you can find further information regarding any of these whalers. Are there any sources about their post war- fates, renamings or when they were scrapped?

Kind regards,

Max