M/T Basilea - Norwegian Merchant Fleet 1939-1945

M/T Basilea
Updated March 14-2011

To Basilea on the "Ships starting with B" page.

From Markus Berger, who has also told me that the name Basilea was derived from the city Basel. The Tschudi family was originally from Switzerland and most of the company's ships were named for Swiss cities, until the loss of Silvaplana.
Markus has a website about Swiss Ships (external link), which includes information on 2 other ships named Basilea.

Source: Bjørn Milde's postcard collection.

The Australian War Memorial also has a picture of this ship, from Nov.-1940 (external links).

Manager: Tschudi & Eitzen, Oslo
Tonnage: 9612 gt

Built in Malmö (Kockums), Sweden in 1936.
According to this external page, she was delivered in July-1936 as Basilea to Skibs A/S Navalis (Camillo Eitzen & Co), Oslo. Tschudi & Eitzen, Oslo became managers in Jan.-1937 (same owners).

Captain (1944): Otto E. Johansen - died July-1944, see external link at the end of this page.

Related items on this website:
Guestbook message re Geoff Mead, who served on this ship.
Geoff Mead's story - Describes some voyages and life on board. He also names several crew members and mentions a Captain Madsen (prior to Captain Johansen).

Her voyages are listed on these original images from the Norwegian National Archives:
Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4

Please compare the above voyages with Arnold Hague's Voyage Record below.

Voyage Record
From Dec.-1941 to Dec.-1945:

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

Errors may exist, and several voyages are missing.

	Departure	From	To	Arrival	Convoy	Remarks
1941	Dec. 22	Singapore	Singapore	Dec. 25	Independent	Earlier voyages: Page 1 & Page 2 A. Hague says: After grounding
	Dec. 27	Singapore	Auckland	Jan. 18-1942	Independent	–
1942	Jan. 22	Auckland	Napier	Jan. 24	Independent	–
	Jan. 27	Napier	Auckland	Jan. 29	Independent	–
*	Febr. 3	Towsnville	Cairns	Febr. 4	Independent	–
	* Please note that the above voyage is out of place - it belongs under 1943 and has been inserted there.
	Febr. 10	Auckland	Wellington	Febr. 12	Independent	–
	Febr. 13	Wellington	Los Angeles	March 9	Independent	–
	March 28	Los Angeles	San Francisco	March 30	Independent	–
	March 31	San Francisco	Auckland	Apr. 30	Independent	–
	May 1	Auckland	Wellington	May 4	Independent	–
	May 8	Wellington	Lyttleton	May 8	Independent	–
	May 14	Lyttleton	Los Angeles	June 8	Independent	–
	July 2	Los Angeles	San Francisco	July 3	Independent	–
	July 5	San Francisco	Sydney, N.S.W.	July 31	Independent	–
	Aug. 2	Sydney, N.S.W.	Newcastle, N.S.W.	Aug. 3	Independent	–
	Aug. 11	Newcastle, N.S.W.	Talara	Sept. 6	Independent	–
	Sept. 10	Talara	Callao	Sept. 12	Independent	Notional sailing date
	Sept. 17	Callao	Talara	Sept. 19	Independent	–
	Sept. 21	Talara	Wellington	Oct. 18	Independent	–
	Oct. 23	Wellington	Lyttleton	Oct. 23	Independent	–
	Oct. 28	Lyttleton	Los Angeles	Nov. 21	Independent	–
	Dec. 26	Los Angeles	Brisbane	Jan. 20-1943	Independent	–
1943	Jan. 27	Brisbane	Townsville	Jan. 30	BT 37	Convoy available at BT 37 (external link)
*	Febr. 3	Townsville	Cairns	Febr. 4	Independent	–
	* This voyage has been taken from 1942 entries above - see also Page 3.
	Febr. 8	Cairns	Los Angeles	March 5	Independent	–
	March 22	Los Angeles	Brisbane	Apr. 14	Independent	–
	Apr. 16	Brisbane	Townsville	Apr. 19	BT 52	Convoy available at BT 52 (external link)
	Apr. 22	Townsville	Cairns	Apr. 22	Independent	–
	Apr. 27	Cairns	Los Angeles	May 23	Independent	–
	May 29	Los Angeles	Portland, Oregon	June 1	Independent	–
	June 4	Portland, Oregon	San Francisco	June 6	Independent	–
	July 6	San Francisco	San Francisco	July 9	Independent	Put back, engine defects
	July 17	San Francisco	Sydney, N.S.W.	Aug. 12	Independent	–
	Aug. 14	Sydney, N.S.W.	Port Kembla	Aug. 15	Independent	–
	Aug. 17	Port Kembla	Los Angeles	Sept. 9	Independent	–
	Sept. 20	Los Angeles	Melbourne	Oct. 15	Independent	–
	Oct. 19	Melbourne	Sydney, N.S.W.	Oct. 21	Independent	–
	Oct. 27	Sydney, N.S.W.	Talara	Nov. 20	Independent	–
	Nov. 24	Talara	Lyttleton	Dec. 18	Independent	–
	Dec. 25	Lyttleton	San Francisco	Jan. 16-1944	Independent	See Geoff Mead's story
1944	March 1	San Francisco	Sydney, N.S.W.	March 25	Independent	–
	March 28	Sydney, N.S.W.	Brisbane	March 29	Independent	–
	Apr. 5	Brisbane	Talara	Apr. 29	Independent	–
	May 1	Talara	Brisbane	May 28	Independent	–
	June 1	Brisbane	Townsville	June 3	Independent	–
	June 6	Townsville	Cairns	June 6	Independent	–
	June 9	Cairns	Gladstone	June 11	Independent	–
	June 11	Gladstone	Talara	July 7	Independent	–
	July 13	Talara	Talara	July 14	Independent	Put back, master dead
	July 16	Talara	Sydney, N.S.W.	Aug. 14	Independent	–
	Aug. 17	Sydney, N.S.W.	Newcastle, N.S.W.	Aug. 17	Independent	–
	Oct. 5	Newcastle, N.S.W.	Khor Kwai	–	Independent	–
	Oct. 31	Khor Kwai	Abadan	Nov. 2	Independent	–
	Nov. 4	Abadan	Brisbane	Dec. 5	Independent	–
	Dec. 9	Brisbane	Gladstone	Dec. 11	Independent	–
	Dec. 12	Gladstone	Townsville	Dec. 13	Independent	–
	Dec. 14	Townsville	Newcastle, N.S.W.	Dec. 18	Independent	–
	Dec. 31	Newcastle, N.S.W.	Abadan	Jan. 27-1945	Independent	See also Page 4
1945	Jan. 30	Abadan	Brisbane	March 3	Independent	–
	March 11	Brisbane	Abadan	Apr. 8	Independent	Again, see Page 4
	Apr. 11	Abadan	Fremantle	May 2	Independent	–
	May 5	Fremantle	Hobart	May 12	Independent	–
	May 13	Hobart	Melbourne	May 15	Independent	–
	June 25	Melbourne	Newcastle, N.S.W.	June 27	Independent	–
	June 29	Newcastle, N.S.W.	Manus	July 7	Independent	–
	July 11	Manus	Subic Bay	July 20	Independent	–
	July 21	Subic Bay	Manila	July 22	Independent	–
	July 23	Manila	Subic Bay	July 23	Independent	–
	Oct. 25	Subic Bay	Manila	–	Independent	–
	Dec. 5	Manila	Subic Bay	–	Independent	–
	Dec. 9	Subic Bay	Manila	Dec. 9	Independent	–
	Dec. 12	Manila	Singapore	Dec. 18	Independent	Further voyages, Page 4

Notes:

My Guestbook has a message re Geoff Mead, who served on Basilea. He joined her just before Christmas of 1943. For information on some of Basilea's 1944 voyages, please read his story in my "Warsailor Stories" section (some of the info in his story does not match up with the above record). He also names other crew members and says Basilea had an American messgirl.

Also, under the heading "A Family at War" on this page, I've included the personal story of someone whose brother was on board Basilea at some point in the war (there's also a link to the original, Norwegian version of the story). While there are no details on this ship, it's an interesting story about 5 brothers and a sister who served outside of Norway during the war; the brothers on 17 different ships altogether. Another sister was involved in "illegal" activities in Norway, as was the father.

It'll be noticed, when going to the various archive documents, that Basilea occasionally had long stays in port - the reason for some of these is explained in Geoff Mead's story above.

POST WAR:

Renamed Myken in 1952 for Simonsen & Astrup, Oslo. Converted in 1955 to ore carrier. Sold in 1962 to Spanish shipbreakers.

Related external link:
Stavern Memorial commemoration - Cause is not given, but according to "Våre falne" (a series of 4 books naming Norwegians who died during the war), Captain Otto Eugen Johansen, who is commemorated at this Memorial for Seamen in Stavern, Norway, died on July 15-1944 and is buried at Talara, Peru. This is also mentioned in Geoff Mead's story, though month is given as June.