Warsailors Forums

The details given of the Norwegian motor vessel Silva in the Ships Index here are very sketchy and I can't find a copy of the 1939 Norges Skibsliste on line. (Perhaps something this site might consider putting up?)

Can anyone tell me the Silva's tonnage and dimensions?

She was apparently used by the British Army's Royal Army Service Corps to supply the pioneers and engineers building Vagar airfield in the Faroe Islands in 1942. All I know about her is that her cargo capacity was about 100 tons.

Many thanks for any assistance.

Sid

This seems like the Norwegian whaler SILVA, built 1910 Leith
127grt 47nrt, 94.8 x 19.1 x 11.0 ft
and owned at the time by Bergen owners (B 21 B looks like a Bergen fishing boat number). More details:
http://www.clydeships.co.uk/view.php?ref=51384

Here's a painting of her made in the 1950s by Ted Drover, Newfoundland:
https://journals.lib.unb.ca/journalimag ... 5_fig6.jpg

Hi davidships,

I think there were two vessels named Silva.

I suspect the one you have found a painting of is this one (from some old notes of mine):

"The Polar Whaling Company’s four whale catchers Shiba (189t), Signa (189t), Spina (189t) and Silva (221t) were requisitioned on 19 February 1940. After landing their specialist whaling gear and being overhauled by the Railway’s dockyard, they were sailed by Newfoundland delivery crews to the UK, where they formed 30th Minesweeping Flotilla."

In Siri Holm's Ships section he has the following for what appears to be the other Silva you found details of :

"Left Brandal on May 10-1940 with her complement of 14, arriving the Faroe Islands on the 12th.
The following were on board:
Skipper Bertel Christian Landmark, Arnvid Bigseth, Knut Brandal, Inge Brekke, Johan Engstrøm, Johan Jakob Ginholt, Leif Grønnevet, Karl Karlsen, Ingebrikt Kårbø, Erik Nordmann, Sigurd Olsen, Thor Magnus Rosenvinge Nilsen, Edvin Roar Rogne, Peter Wilberg."

I think this is the one I am looking for. Many thanks.

This may also clear up what Siri Holm goes on to say:

"I've received this document from the National Archives of Norway, showing the voyages of a ship by this name, but I'm not entirely sure it's the Silva discussed here, as the document shows the ship in question in St. John's, N.F. on May 14-1940, just 2 days after Silva is said to have arrived the Faroe Islands following her escape from Norway (nor do I know whether she would have travelled that far)."

Thanks again,

Sid.

Sid, I just wanted to let you know that I’m a “she”, just a little old housewife with a somewhat unusual hobby. My website came about way back in the ‘90’s because my daughter wanted to know what her grandfather (my father) did during the war. I felt I owed it to my children to find out. It was my son who later encouraged me to put the information I had found on a website. It then grew from there, because I started receiving questions from people who were looking for information about other ships (not just my father’s), and I decided to start researching them all - that’s before I knew how many there were, which was a bit of a shock, but I stuck with it. The section about the small boats that escaped from Norway came about later as a “bonus section”, during a time when there was a lull in the information I could dig up about the free fleet and the home fleet; you could say I just needed something useful to fill my days, while my kids were at college. I know absolutely nothing about ships, I just transcribed what I could find in various books, and what I received from extremely kind people around the world. I am now 74 years old and consider myself retired.

I think that Sid has put his finger on it - and agree that the painting is probably the same one as in the National archives note.

The issue of FF Bladid contains some back history of the Silva in Torshavn during the war on pages 9 and 10.

https://olijacobsen.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/318.pdf

Although everyone here speak fluent Faronesian and a translation is superfluous, the text notes that it was bombed in the Klaksvikfjord in 1942, and a dud bomb hit directly on the engine room and was jammed there, until a British UXO expert calmly climbed across it and disabled it as it was an everyday event.
An image of Silva on the bedding gives the Registry Number as B-250 (probably?) Could this be B-21-B ? Extremely hard to read.

When comparing that image to one of her being broken up at the brothers Anda in 1991, I think there's a chance this could be the same vessel, in which case it's identical to the one David referred to. She was substantially lengthened and refitted in 1951, but the deck housing seems to be the same.
An image of her afloat shortly before being broken is featured in Skipet No. 4-1994 (page 24), although it doesn't give us any evidence either way.

https://larship.no/wp-content/uploads/2 ... 4_1995.pdf

Hi Siri,

Sorry to mistake your gender!

I would like to say how much I appreciate the service you offer here and on the old Warsailors site. I have used both for a good 10 years and with extremely good results from your members. I tend to ask some fairly obscure questions here and a high percentage of the time get a result. There is no substitute for the expertise on your site.

Thank you.