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M/S Batavia To Batavia on the "Ships starting with B" page. Manager: Fred. Olsen & Co., Oslo Built at Odense, Denmark in 1922. Captain: Trygve Nielsen
For information on Batavia's war voyages from Apr.-1940, please see this original document received from the National Archives of Norway. Compare the above record to the fact that A. Hague has included her in the following convoys (all these links are external, except the link to ON 20, which goes to my own Convoys section): Convoy FS 110 - From Tyne March 2-1940, to Southend March 4.
Batavia was one of the 26 Norwegian ships that were interned in West and North Africa 1940-'42. Various sources operate with various dates and facts, as follows: A French visitor to my website has told me that according to his records she sailed from Brest on June 12-1940 in Convoy 49 B under French escort (external link, the Norwegian Ask is also included, but note that Batavia is listed as Dutch), arrived Casablanca June 19. See also this posting to my Ship Forum which gives a slightly different date, saying that Batavia had arrived off Casablanca at 21:50 on June 20-1940 and was ordered by a French patrol boat to wait off this port during the night, then sailed into Casablanca harbour the next morning. She was coming from Port-Lyautey, Morocco, so may have stopped there on this voyage from Brest? (if the ship in this convoy was indeed the Norwegian Batavia). Seized in Port-Lyautey in July-1940. Under French flag (requisitioned) at Port-Lyautey in 1941 as Ste Madeleine. Remained inactive in Port-Lyautey 1941-42. Going back to the archive document, we find that she had left Rouen on June 6-1940 on a voyage Rouen-Algiers, passed Ushant June 8. No arrival port or date is given for this time period, but the document adds that she was in port in Casablanca on Sept. 7 that year, and at Port Lyautey on March 10-1941. "Nortraships flåte" says she was interned on June 28-1940. Guri Hjeltnes, "Sjømann - Lang vakt" says she was interned in Port Lyautey in Sept.-1940, requisitioned July 23-1941, the crew was sent to a camp (some camps are listed on this page, but I don't know where Batavia's crew members were held). In June-1941, 13 men from various interned ships had attempted to escape in a lifeboat from M/S Batavia. According to "Sjøfolk i krig" by Leif M. Bjørkelund they were 1st Mate W. Andresen, 2nd Mate Helge Gundersen and 5 crew (from Batavia?), along with 1st Mate Tønseth and the 4th engineer from M/S Gran, 1st Mate Møller from Birgit (Danish), 1st Mate Michelsen from Storaa*, Steward A. Jørgensen from Hilde (Danish) and 2nd Mate Ingolf Sexe from M/S Nyhorn. But they didn't get very far before they were caught and thrown in jail for 15 days. The 2nd mate from Nyhorn was later involved in building a boat in the hold of Nyhorn, the first of 3 boats built in that ship and used in successful escapes. See Nyhorn for more details.
Partial Crew List:
If required, I can look them up in Kristian Ottosens "Nordmenn i fangenskap" (Norwegians in imprisonment). I can be contacted via the address provided at the end of this page.
Batavia was sunk by the French in river Sebou in Morocco on Nov. 9-1942 to prevent the allied ships from penetrating. ("Skip og menn", B. Dannevig says this happened on Nov. 8). An attempt was later made to raise her, but this was given up on May 28-1943. Captain Nilsen left on May 30. Back to Batavia on the "Ships starting with B" page. As already indicated, there was also a Dutch Batavia (1279 gt), which was intercepted and sunk by a Japanese cruiser when on a voyage Calcutta-Karachi on Apr. 6-1942, 14 miles east of Calingapatam. (According to a visitor to my site she was sunk by the Japanese cruiser Yura and the destroyer Yugiri). The text on this page was compiled with the help of: Misc. sources as named within the text above - (ref. My sources).
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