M/S Austvard
Updated Dec. 23-2012

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

Crew List


Source: Historical Department, MAN B&W Diesel, Copenhagen - (see their museum website, external link).
They also sent me another picture, as well as this one.

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

Final Fate - 1941:

Austvard departed Lourenço Marques for Immingham with a cargo of iron ore on Dec. 21 (Dec. 20?)-1940, stopping at Capetown for bunkers on the 25th, continuing the following day. She arrived Freetown on Jan. 8-1941, then left in convoy SL 62 on the 10th (together with the Norwegian Borgland and Tyr? - the latter ship is not included in A. Hague's listing for this convoy; see link in Voyage Record above. According to her record for this period, she did leave Freetown on Jan. 10, but put back 2 days later).

Two weeks into the voyage heavy weather was encountered and by the 28th she was alone, though managed to catch up in view of 7 of the ships in the course of that afternoon, but by the next day she saw only a tanker far off on her starboard side.

In the morning of January 30 she was bombed by German aircraft and sunk 130 miles west of Galway Island (Ireland), shortly before reaching her destination. She was hit by 5 bombs, 3 in the waterline on the port side and 2 on the boat deck. 2 of the lifeboats were destroyed in the attack and a 3rd was damaged during launching. Machine gun fire destroyed the radio station, but it appears the radio operator had time to send out a distress call because 40 minutes later the escort vessel Anthony* was ordered out to assist an unknown ship in that position, but Austvard was gone.

* It looks like the "unknown ship" was not Austvard, nor was it Anthony that went out to assist her. This posting to my Ship Forum (by Mark McShane), says the following:
"On the information page for the ship (meaning my page about Austvard) it states that the RN destroyer HMS Anthony was dispatched on the 30th to the assistance of the Austvard after a radio distress message had been received from an unknown vessel. From the information I have gathered it appears there may have been a mix up here. HMS Anthony had picked up survivors from the attacks on Convoy SC 19, she arrived back in Greenonck 1623 hrs on 30/01/41. She would not have been able to be in a position to search for / assist Austvard. The radio message received from the unknown ship was actually on the 31st and not the 30th. This ship was the Rowanbank who had been attacked by an FW 200. The RN ship sent to search 40 minutes after the message was transmitted was HMS Anemore, who had just joined SL 62, Austvard's convoy." See also the analysis of attacks on Convoy SC 19, in which Anthony is mentioned. Note that Rowanbank had also been in SL 62 - again, ref. links in the Voyage Record above.

The damaged lifeboat with 16 men got clear of the ship before she sank about 10 minutes after the first bomb had hit, but 12 were pulled under; only 6 came back up and were able to get on a raft. The people in the lifeboat found another raft, enabling them to repair the boat so that it could hold 8 men. The others distributed themselves on the 2 rafts and headed for Ireland in tow of the lifeboat, but in the bad weather it was very slow going, so the next day it was decided that the boat with 8 survivors commanded by 1st Mate Knut Dykesten should go on ahead to get help as quickly as possible, because many of the men were injured. The lifeboat with 6 survivors (Boatswain Karl G. Holbein and Oiler Jens Brandvold had died en route) landed at Clogher, Ballyferriter, County Kervy on Febr. 4. All 6 were taken to a hospital in Dingle, where Mechanic Alfred Andersen died the next day.

The 2 rafts and their occupants were never found. 23 had died in all, among them the captain, 3 British, 1 Finnish, 1 Estonian, the rest were Norwegian. Only 5 survived.

Crew List:

Survivors
1st Mate Knut Dykesten	Carpenter Einar Gran Olsen	Able Seaman? Erik Reinholt Dahl (Swedish)	Able Seaman? Armand Andreassen	3rd Engineer? Ola Nordal
Went down with ship (all Norwegian):
† Chief Engineer Fritz Andersen	† Electrician Reinholt Albinius Thoresen	† Steward Oskar Knudsen	† Able Seaman Odd Bart Nilsen	† Oiler Arthur Gabrielsen
Disappeared with raft (Norwegian, unless otherwise noted):
† Captain Arne Kjos	† 2nd Mate Anker E. Edlund	† 3rd Mate Ole Åndahl	† Able Seaman Arthur Hansen	† Ordinary Seaman Andreas Christiansen	† Ordinary Seaman Hans Nilsen
† Ordinary Seaman Erich Petersen (Estonian)	† Ordinary Seaman James Kervin* (British)	† 2nd engineer Haakon Arnold Pettersen	† Mechanic Erling Skaug	† Mechanic Lauri Saippanen (Finnish)	† Oiler Harald Morken Flatø*
† Cook Edvard Millet	† Mess Boy Frank Harris* (British)	† Mess Boy Laurence A'Hearne* (British)	*Again, see this Guestbook message from his nephew. See also this message
Died in lifeboat:
		† Boatswain Karl Gustav Holbein (Febr. 2-1941)	† Oiler Jens Brandvold (Febr. 3)
Died in Dingle hospital:
		† Mechanic Alfred Andersen (Febr. 5)

Related external link:
Stavern Memorial commemorations - 18 Norwegians are commemorated at this Memorial for Seamen in Stavern, Norway (the names in this list differ slightly from mine above).

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

The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, "Sjøforklaringer fra 2. verdenskrig", Norwegian Maritime Museum, Volume I, and misc - ref My sources.