M/T Aristophanes
Updated July 11-2008

To Aristophanes on the "Ships starting with A" page.


Source: Bjørn Milde's postcard collection.

Misc. War Details:

This ship was built for Aristoteles S. Onassis. Sold to Norway while she was being built, or rather "transferred" to Norway. According to Book 1 (Atle Thowsen) of "Handelsflåten i krig" Onassis, together with the Swedish Gustav Sandström and Gunnar Carlsson (well known shipowner) had established the company A/S Onassis Gothenburg Ltd. In June-1938 their new ship M/T Ariston was finished and went on her maiden voyage, doing extremely well in the year to come. Aristophanes was almost ready when the war broke out in Sept.-1939, and with it Sweden prohibited the export of, among other things, ships, including foreign owned ships built at Swedish shipyards. It so happened that Onassis was at the time engaged to the daughter of shipowner Ingvald Bryde. She established a contact between her fiancé and Anders Jahre, Sandefjord in the late fall of 1939 with the result that Jahre Skibs A/S created the company Jaris (combination of Jahre and Onassis) which took over the ship. In Jan.-1940 Aristophanes was placed under the Norwegian flag, a "pro forma" arrangement as Onassis was still the true owner.

A French visitor to my website has told me that Aristophanes was stopped for examination in the Caribbean sea (23 58N 39 15W) by the French cruiser Jeanne d'Arc on Apr. 16-1940 (shortly after the German invasion of Norway). Ordered to Fort de France (French West Indies). Released Apr. 23 provided complying with orders from London-based operating office. These details fit in with what can be found on Page 1 below, which says she was en route from Gibraltar to Leghorn for Curacao at the time, having departed Gibraltar on Apr. 10-1940, adding she arrived Fort de France on Apr. 21, leaving again on the 24th.

When Nortraship was established, the arrangement with Onassis proved to be quite a problem, as he wasn't about to give up his ship without getting something in return. He played his hand to the last card and Nortraship ended up losing a lot of money on the deal. Here's what happened:

Aristophanes was requisitioned while at Martinique in the spring of 1940. On Aug. 3-1940 Onassis had her "arrested" in Rio de Janeiro, requesting (or rather, demanding) to take over the ship or have his US $ 800,000 bond payed. The former was impossible for Nortraship to fulfill; her formal owner, Anders Jahre was in Norway, and Nortraship had only requisitioned the "right to use" the ship. Following negotiations with Onassis, Nortraship not only payed his bond, but also 6% interest from Dec. 27-1939, plus the expenses Onassis had incurred for lawyers, in U.S.A. as well as in Argentina. Additionally, Onassis got to keep the profit from the voyage Aristophanes was about to make for Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Co., while he for the next 5 voyages would get a refund of US $ 1 per ton oil transported. The deal was signed on Aug. 15-1940.

Voyage Record From May-1940 to Oct.-1945:

(Received from Don Kindell - His source: The late Arnold Hague's database).

Compare Arnold Hague's records with these original images from the Norwegian National Archives:
(unfortunately, some of the scans have information missing in the margin)
Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4

	Departure	From	To	Arrival	Convoy	Remarks
Some earlier voyages are listed on Page 1 above. The archive documents also have some other voyages that are not included in A. Hague's records.
1940	May 13	Trinidad	Curacao	May 15	Independent	–
	May 19	Curacao	Buenos Aires	June 10	Independent	–
	June 16	Buenos Aires	Curacao	July 1	Independent	–
	July 4	Curacao	Montevideo	July 23	Independent	–
	July 24	Montevideo	Buenos Aires	July 24	Independent	–
	July 29	Buenos Aires	Rio	Aug. 2	Independent	–
	Aug. 14	Rio	Curacao	Aug. 25	Independent	–
	Aug. 27	Curacao	Buenos Aires Roads	Sept. 14	Independent	–
	Sept. 20	La Plata	Curacao	Oct. 4	Independent	–
	Oct. 5	Curacao	Buenos Aires	Oct. 22	Independent	–
	Oct. 26	Buenos Aires	Curacao	Nov. 10	Independent	–
	Nov. 13	Curacao	Buenos Aires	Nov. 30	Independent	–
	Dec. 6	Buenos Aires	Curacao	Dec. 20	Independent	–
	Dec. 23	Curacao	Buenos Aires	Jan. 10-1941	Independent	–
1941	Jan. 13	Buenos Aires	Curacao	Jan. 28	Independent	–
	Jan. 29	Curacao	Curacao	Jan. 31	Independent	–
	Febr. 5	Curacao	Buenos Aires	Febr. 22	Independent	–
	March 9	Buenos Aires	Curacao	March 23	Independent	–
	March 26	Curacao	Buenos Aires	Apr. 15	Independent	–
	Apr. 18	Buenos Aires	Rio	Apr. 22	Independent	–
	Apr. 27	Rio	Curacao	May 7	Independent	–
	May 11	Curacao	New York City	May 17	Independent	–
	May 21	New York City	Aruba	May 26	Independent	–
	May 27	Aruba	New York City	June 4	Independent	–
	June 6	New York City	Curacao	June 12	Independent	–
	June 14	Curacao	New York City	June 20	Independent	–
	July 7	New York City	Curacao	July 13	Independent	–
	July 14	Curacao	New York City	July 21	Independent	–
	Sept. 2	New York City	Halifax	Sept. 5	Independent	–
	Sept. 10	Halifax	Liverpool	Sept. 25	HX 149	–
	Oct. 8	Liverpool	–	–	ON 24	Bound for New York City Dispersed in 58N 28W, Oct. 15 Convoy will be added. See ships in ON convoys
	Oct. 15	Dispersed from ON 24	New York City	Oct. 23	Independent	–
	Nov. 7	New York City	Aruba	Nov. 12	Independent	–
	Nov. 14	Aruba	Halifax	Nov. 22	Independent	–
	Nov. 24	Halifax	New York City	Nov. 26	Independent	–
	Nov. 29	New York City	Aruba	Dec. 5	Independent	–
	Dec. 6	Aruba	Halifax	Dec. 14	Independent	–
	Dec. 17	Halfiax	New York City	Dec. 19	Independent	–
1942	Jan. 18	New York City	Aruba	Jan. 24	Independent	–
	Jan. 25	Aruba	Halifax	Febr. 3	Independent	–
	Febr. 15	Halifax	Curacao	Febr. 22	Independent	–
	Febr. 28	Curacao	Aruba	Febr. 28	Independent	–
	March 1	Aruba	New York City	March 8	Independent	–
	March 8	New York City	Hampton Roads	–	Independent	–
	Apr. 3	Hampton Roads	Aruba	Apr. 13	Independent	–
	Apr. 26	Aruba	Cristobal	Apr. 28	Independent	–
	Apr. 29	Balboa	Talara	May 2	Independent	–
	May 4	Talara	Auckland	May 31	Independent	–
	June 1	Auckland	Nelson	June 3	Independent	–
	June 5	Nelson	Lyttleton	June 6	Independent	–
	June 16	Lyttleton	Los Angeles	July 7	Independent	–
	July 19	Los Angeles	Suva	Aug. 7	Independent	–
	Aug. 13	Suva	Sydney, N.S.W.	Aug. 19	Independent	–
	Sept. 8	Sydney, N.S.W.	Los Angeles	Sept. 30	Independent	–
	Oct. 7	Los Angeles	Lyttleton	Oct. 30	Independent	–
	Nov. 2	Lyttleton	Dunedin	Nov. 3	Independent	–
	Nov. 6	Dunedin	Los Angeles	Nov. 26	Independent	–
1943	Jan. 1	Los Angeles	Sydney, N.S.W.	Jan. 24	Independent	–
	Jan. 29	Sydney, N.S.W.	Brisbane	Febr. 1	Independent	–
	Febr. 3	Brisbane	Los Angeles	Febr. 25	Independent	–
	March 7	Los Angeles	Brisbane	March 30	Independent	–
	Apr. 3	Brisbane	Townsville	Apr. 6	BT 50	See BT 50 (external link)
	Apr. 8	Townsville	Cairns	Apr. 8	Independent	–
	Apr. 11	Cairns	Los Angeles	May 3	Independent	–
	May 11	Los Angeles	Melbourne	June 9	Independent	–
	June 17	Melbourne	Los Angeles	July 14	Independent	–
	July 30	Los Angeles	Auckland	Aug. 20	Independent	–
	Aug. 27	Auckland	Talara	Sept. 16	Independent	–
	Sept. 19	Talara	Valparaiso	Sept. 26	Independent	–
	Sept. 30	Valparaiso	San Antonio, Chile	Sept. 30	Independent	–
	Oct. 2	San Antonio, Chile	Talara	Oct. 7	Independent	–
	Oct. 10	Talara	Wellington	–	Independent	–
	Nov. 6	Wellington	Nelson	Nov. 6	Independent	–
	Nov. 9	Nelson	Los Angeles	Nov. 29	Independent	–
	Dec. 22	Los Angeles	Sydney, N.S.W.	Jan. 16-1944	Independent	–
1944	Jan. 20	Sydney, N.S.W.	Townsville	Jan. 24	Independent	–
	Jan. 31	Townsville	Los Angeles	Febr. 24	Independent	–
	Febr. 28	El Segundo	San Francisco	Febr. 29	Independent	–
	Apr. 10	San Francisco	Sydney, N.S.W.	May 5	Independent	–
	May 9	Sydney, N.S.W.	Townsville	May 12	Independent	–
	May 16	Townsville	Gladstone	–	Independent	–
	May 17	Gladstone	Talara	June 10	Independent	–
	June 15	Talara	Sydney, N.S.W.	July 10	Independent	–
	July 12	Sydney, N.S.W.	Brisbane	July 14	Independent	–
	July 20	Brisbane	Los Angeles	Aug. 10	Independent	–
	Aug. 19	Los Angeles	Langemak Bay	Sept. 12	Independent	–
	Sept. 12	Langemak Bay	Hollandia	–	Independent	–
	Sept. 24	Hollandia	Langemak Bay	Sept. 25	Independent	–
	Sept. 28	Langemak Bay	Talara	Oct. 24	Independent	–
	Oct. 27	Talara	Wellington	Nov. 20	Independent	–
	Nov. 23	Wellington	Lyttleton	–	Independent	–
	Nov. 26	Lyttleton	Wellington	Nov. 27	Independent	–
	Dec. 10	Wellington	Talara	Dec. 29	Independent	–
	Dec. 31	Talara	Sydney, N.S.W.	Jan. 25-1945	Independent	–
1945	Jan. 26	Sydney, N.S.W.	Brisbane	Jan. 28	Independent	–
	Febr. 3	Brisbane	Talara	Febr. 28	Independent	–
	March 3	Talara	Valparaiso	March 9	Independent	–
	March. 12	Valparaiso	San Antonio, Chile	–	Independent	–
	March 15	San Antonio, Chile	Talara	March 20	Independent	–
	March 22	Talara	Wellington	Apr. 14	Independent	–
	Apr. 20	Wellington	Talara	May 12	Independent	–
	May 14	Talara	Callao	May 18	Independent	Notional sailing date
	June 1	Callao	Talara	June 2	Independent	–
	June 3	Talara	Valparaiso	June 12	Independent	Notional sailing date
	June 14	Valparaiso	Balboa	June 25	Independent	–
	June 26	Cristobal	Curacao	June 29	Independent	–
	July 1	Curacao	Cristobal	July 5	Independent	–
	July 6	Balboa	Sydney, N.S.W.	Aug. 4	Independent	–
	Aug. 7	Sydney, N.S.W.	Brisbane	Aug. 9	Independent	–
	Aug. 22	Brisbane	Gladstone	Aug. 24	Independent	–
	Aug. 24	Gladstone	Balboa	Sept. 20	Independent	–
	Sept. 24	Cristobal	Curacao	Sept. 26	Independent	–
	Oct. 7	Curacao	Southend	Oct. 22	Independent	–
	Oct. 29	Southend	Amsterdam	Oct. 30	Independent	–
Further voyages, up to and including Apr.-1946, are listed on Page 4.

Notes:

As can be seen from the above, Aristophanes hardly ever sailed in convoys. When in the Halifax-U.K. Convoy HX 149 in Sept.-1941 she had station 43 of the convoy, in which the following Norwegian ships are also listed: Daghild (station 63), Brasil (83), Thorsholm (33), Innerøy (35), Thorshov (64), Somerville (66?), Glittre (24), Lise (44), Harpefjell (86), Norvik (Panamanian flag, Norwegian managers and therefore included on this website, in station 84, behind Brasil), Brant County (87), and Kollbjørg (73). Follow the convoy link for more info. Going to the section naming ships sailing in ON convoys, we see that some of these ships, including Aristophanes, returned across the Atlantic the following month with the westbound Convoy ON 24, which left Liverpool on Oct. 8 and dispersed on the 15th. Her destination is given as New York, station 53. According to the Voyage Record she arrived her destination on Oct. 23.

For more information on the other Norwegian ships mentioned here, please go to the alphabet index at the end of this page.

POST WAR:

As per info found at the external site below (no name change):

1948: Skibs A/S Jaris (Anders Jahre & Co. A/S) Sandefjord
1952: Soc.Maritime Miraflores Ltd., Puerto Cortes, Honduras
1958: Soc.Maritime Miraflores Ltd., Monrovia
1963: Soc.Maritime Miraflores Ltd., Piræus
4/1968: Sold to Spain for breaking up, arriving Castellon on Apr. 13.

Related external links:
Lillesand Sjømannsforening's website (Lillesand Seamen's Association) has another picture of this ship, along with pictures of several other Norwegian ships. The site also has her post war details, on this page.

This page also has a picture. The site also has pictures and information on several other Jahre ships; here's a list, and here's the main page. Text is in Norwegian.

Back to Aristophanes on the "Ships starting with A" page.