Dear all, chers amis de France,

I will in the next weeks come up with a few questions regarding Norwegian whalers sold to French Navy during WW I and their civilian life in France after, which in some cases reached WW II or after.

I have done a lot of research on the navy service and the history of these (mostly) sales from neutral Norway to a belligerant country; questions here are more on the afterlife from 1920.

To start with I have taken the two vessels

PILOTE ESCOFFIER ex SERPENT ex G.D.I, 1911 Smith's Dock, 112gt
PILOTE NIVIERE ex SCARABEE ex CARMEN, 1910 Akers, 106gt

SERPENT and SCARABEE saw service for French Navy in Greece (Corfou). Both ships have then been auctioned in autumn 1919 to the Syndicat des pilotes de Marseille and have been converted for their civilian duty (I have never seen pictures to know how much they lost their old whaler appearance).

This activities as pilote ships finished in the second half of the thirties:

PILOTE ESCOFFIER became JEAN D'AGREVE in 1935 and was converted to a ferry for service between Toulon and Hyeres, Porquerolles and Port-Cros; owner was Benoit Ferro, Toulon.

JEAN D'AGREVE was requisitioned 08.09.1939 by French Navy (AD 222, 43. section de drageurs (minesweepers), Marseille, handed back 8.1940.

I have not heard of any later war service for KM??

1947 renamed LOUP for Entreprise Ossude, Toulon and broken up 1953. Annuaire de la Marine Marchande 1952 shows the ship with "port d'attache/d'armement" Oran, so the ship might also have been demolished then in Algeria.

PILOTE NIVIERE was sold in 1938 (?) to Adrien Hassoun, Marseille and soon later to Leon Chagnaud & fils, Marseille. Around that time it was converted to a tug.

The vessel seems to have been brought across the Mediterranean some time later (where was PILOTE NIVIERE during WW II?? Any war service??).

In the Annuaire de la Marine Marchande 1952 PILOTE NIVIERE is shown for Soc. Algerienne des Entreprises Leon Chagnaud & fils with port d'attache Oran/port d'armement Mers-el-Kebir.

Can anyone explain what this means? Which is the homeport written on the ship? (btw: Bureau Veritas 1955 shows homeport Marseille, but this may be just a confusion with the main office of Mr. Chagnaud)

PILOTE NIVIERE is shown from 1959 then for Groupement des Entreprises de Travaux Maritimes en Afrique du Nord, Oran (still in LR 1982/83), although it may be doubtful whether it still was existing. Final fate not known.

Any information on the civilian career in France and Algeria of these two ships would be greatly appreciated, also if someone should have any photographs!!

More to follow - there are quite a number of interesting careers within those former whalers!

Thanks in advance, Axel