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D/S Bonde To Bonde on the "Ships starting with B" page.
Owner: D/S A/S Henriksen & Kierulf Built by Porsgrund mek. Verksted, Porsgrunn in 1936. Captains: Christian A. Hansen, (?) Skoli, and at time of loss, Finn Abrahamsen (from Jan. 13-1943). Related items on this website:
(Received from Don Kindell - His source: The late Arnold Hague's database). Follow the convoy links provided for more information on each - the links in the "Convoy" column go to convoys on my own website. Also, going to this external page and clicking on "Ship Search", using "Bonde" as keyword, will bring up direct links to every convoy mentioned in this record. Please be aware that some of them may be incomplete - compare A. Hague's numbers to TDS numbers (TDS = number of ships according to Trade Division Signal). Errors may exist, and some voyages are missing. Compare Arnold Hague's records with these original images from the Norwegian National Archives:
Bonde is listed as sailing in Convoy HN 17 from Norway to the U.K. in March-1940, bound for Tyne with wood - several Norwegian ships took part, follow the link for more details. A little over 3 months later, she shows up in Convoy OA 172, leaving Southend on June 21-1940, dispersed 4 days later. Bonde's destination is given as Belfast, cargo of coal, station 64. This convoy was composed of 2 parts, OA 172(1) and OA 172(2), Bonde being in Part 1, as were the Norwegian Trolla and Vestland, while the Norwegian Evviva was in Part 2. There's a note in connection with this convoy (Part 1) stating that Bonde and Trolla were left behind as they could not maintain 5 knots in the fresh wind and sea. At the end of the following month we find Bonde listed, with Galatea, Hjalmar Wessel, Jernland, Kul, Siak, Solferino and Tai Ping Yang, in Convoy OA 190, bound for Sydney, C.B in ballast, station 62. This convoy dispersed on July 29, Bonde arriving her destination independently on Aug. 12. (See the external link provided within the above table for more on these OA convoys). She returned to the U.K. at the end of Sept.-1940 in the slow Sydney (C.B.)-U.K. Convoy SC 6, cargo of pit props for Immingham. In Nov. that year she was one of several Norwegian ships going in the other direction with Convoy OB 244. Her destination was again Sydney, C. B., where she arrived independently on Dec. 6, the convoy having dispersed on Nov. 22. She was scheduled for the slow Halifax-U.K. Convoy SC 22 in Febr.-1941, but did not sail. According to Arnold Hague, she joined Convoy HX 108, but returned to port. See also Convoy HX 112. She shows up again in Convoy SC 25, which left Halifax on March 10, cargo of grain for Ipswich. In May that year she appears in the U.K.-Gibraltar Convoy OG 61, which originated in Liverpool on May 5-1941 and arrived Gibraltar on the 19th. However, her destination was Montreal, so she detached from the convoy on May 12 in order to proceed to her destination, where she arrived on May 24. This convoy will be added to my Convoys section; in the meantime, see this list of ships in all OG convoys. The Norwegian Berto, Gard, Leka, and Vestland are also listed. With a cargo of grain she subsequently headed back to the U.K. the following month in Convoy SC 34, which left Sydney, C.B. on June 10-1941, and at the end of July we find her, again with destination Montreal, in the westbound North Atlantic Convoy ON 1, leaving Liverpool on July 26-1941, again with several Norwegian ships, as will be seen by following the link. Arnold Hague now has her returning to the U.K. with Convoy SC 46, which departed Sydney, C.B, on Sept. 24-1941 and arrived Liverpool on Oct. 10. She had a cargo of grain, and sailed in station 105, having previously started out with SC 43, departing Sydney, C.B. on Sept. 5, but had returned to port on that occasion. These convoys are not available among the SC convoys included on my own site, but I've linked directly to them in the above table. As will be seen, they both had several Norwegian ships, namely Astrell, Atle Jarl, Bernhard, Bjørkhaug, Erica, Fjord, Fjordheim, Galatea, Ingerfem, Solstad, Torfinn Jarl and Vigsnes in SC 43, and Alaska, Bestik, Bruse Jarl, Fidelio, Gezina, Loke, Senta and Solsten in SC 46. According to Norwegian records, due to her difficulty in keeping up with the transatlantic convoy speeds, Bonde served for a while as "feeder" between Glasgow and London for Furness City Line from the late fall of 1941, and endured many air attacks on these voyages. She resumed her voyages across the Atlantic in the spring of 1942, and can be found among the ships in the westbound North Atlantic Convoy ON 86*, which originated in Liverpool on Apr. 14-1942 and included the Norwegian Bur, Drammensfjord, Harpefjell, Maud, Norhauk, Sneland I and Trolla, with the Norwegian corvettes Acanthus, Eglantine, Potentilla and Rose among the escorts. Bonde returned to the U.K. with Convoy SC 84, which left Halifax on May 14, again in the company of several Norwegian ships - follow link for details. In the middle of June she's listed, together with Askeladden, Ruth I and Veni, in the westbound Convoy ON 104* (convoy departed Liverpool June 16-1942), then went back to the U.K. the following month in Convoy SC 92, cargo of grain for Avonmouth. Towards the end of Aug. we find her in station 54 of the westbound Convoy ON 124, bound for Halifax, cargo of coal. Other Norwegian ships in this convoy were Astrell, Ada and Solhavn. According to Arnold Hague, she headed back to the U.K. again in Convoy SC 105, originating in New York on Oct. 11-1942 (Bonde, general cargo, joined from Sydney C.B., taking station 75). She had initially joined Convoy SC 104 (in which Fagersten and Senta and several others were sunk), but had returned to port. Again, see the links provided within the above table. Other Norwegian ships in SC 104, which was again escorted by Acanthus, Eglantine and Potentilla, as well as Montbretia, were Bernhard, Boreas, Garnes, Gudvor, Inger Lise, Ingerfem, Lido, Nea, Suderøy and Vinga, while Don, Far, Herma, Kirsten B, Norelg, Polarland, and Ramø are listed in SC 105. (Note that my page about Potentilla has an account on the battle for SC 104). Bonde's subsequent voyages are noted in the above record.
Captain at that time was Finn N. Abrahamsen. A visitor to my website has told me that Bonde was on charter to J. E. Murrell and Son at the time of loss.
Bonde was 1 of 3 Norwegian ships in Convoy ONS 5 which departed Liverpool on Apr. 21-1943. Please follow the link for much more information on this convoy (a 4th Norwegian vessel, Gudvor, joined on Apr. 26 from Iceland, along with 2 other ships). Bonde had started her voyage from Swansea on Apr. 19 (Apr. 18 according to A. Hague) and was bound for St. John's with a cargo of 1891 tons coal. I've chosen to not include details on the battle itself here, since others have already done so, far better than I ever could; see the external links at the end of this page. As can be seen from my page about ONS 5, the convoy was arranged in 12 columns with 4 ships in each, except for column 6 which had 2 and column 12 which had 3 ships. The distance between each ship in the column was set at 800 yards, with 1000 yards between each column, making the front of the convoy 5,5 miles wide and a little over 1 n. mile deep. Bonde had station No. 82 in the convoy, behind the British Penhale; later on in the voyage the American USS Sapelo was directly in front of her, Penhale having returned to port. Fana was in station 41 and Rena (Commodore ship) was in station 61. The escort group joined from Londonderry in the afternoon of Apr. 22, with the senior officer of the group being Commander Gretton on the destroyer Duncan. Other escorts were the British destroyer Vidette (joined from Iceland), the frigate Tay, the corvettes Sunflower, Loosestrife, Snowflake and Pink, and rescue vessels were the armed trawlers Northern Gem and Northern Spray. The destroyer Oribi was later ordered to leave Convoy SC 127 and go to the aid of ONS 5 when it became increasingly obvious that grave danger was imminent, and on May 2 the destroyers Offa, Impulsive, Penn and Panther were also dispatched from St. John's to the area, though Penn and Panther were forced to return to St. John's on May 4, due to the fact that it was impossible to get them replenished in the heavy weather. Duncan also had to leave for the same reason. (Uboat.net adds Impulsive and Northern Gem to this list of departing escorts, and operates with different dates than what is found in "Nortraships flåte", which I'm using for this text). By this time, Pink was far behind the convoy with 4 stragglers, one of which was the Norwegian Gudvor. D/S Bonde was the smallest ship in the convoy*, and her turn came at 19:50 GMT on May 5 when she was hit in the aft starboard side by a torpedo from U-266 (Jessen) in 53 28N 44 20W, blowing 20 ft of her stern off, the engine fell down and the engine room and fire room were immediately filled with water. (Shortly before the torpedo hit, Bonde's gunners had spotted a periscope 2 cable lengths off, and had opened fire with the Oerlikon. It looks like she was in station 84 at the time of attack). The starboard lifeboat and the port forward raft were launched with 11 men, who were rescued by HMS Tay an hour later. Captain Abrahamsen, the 1st and 2nd mates, the radio operator and 2 able seamen were allowed to row back to the ship which was still afloat with the afterpart under water, and found another survivor, the 2nd engineer, making the total number of survivors 12, while 14 were gone (ref. crew list below), assumed killed in the explosion, which according to Captain John Gates of the British Baron Graham caused her to "jump out of the water". He adds "When the smoke and spray of the explosion had cleared away, the Bonde was already standing on her end with her bow and foredeck vertically out of the water. I looked away for a few seconds and in that time the ship sank".
On May 6 another 5 frigates came to assist; Pelican, Wear, Jed, Spey and Sennen. By then the convoy had been attacked 66 times by a large number of U-boats; it had a difficult time keeping together because of the bad weather and the ships were spread out over a wide area. On May 9 the Commodore, Captain K. J. Brook on the Norwegian M/S Rena received a telegram (addressed to HMS Tay) from Winston Churchill which read, "my compliments to you and your unceasing fight against U-boats. Please pass to Commodore of convoy my admiration for the steadfastness of his ships". The survivors of Bonde were landed at St. John's, N. F. on May 8 where the maritime hearings were held on the 11th. Again, please see my page about ONS 5 for info on other ships sunk.
Related external links: The Battle for Convoy ONS 5 - A long article on this battle - a section of Ahoy - Mac's Web Log, which has a lot of interesting information. ONS 5, 28 Apr, 1943 - 6 May, 1943 DANFS - Destroyer Escorts - The Dictionary of American Naval Fighting ships. Back to Bonde on the "Ships starting with B" page. Dagfinn Henriksen and Haakon Kierulf later had another ship named Bonde, ex Liberty Ship Peter Lassen, built in San Francisco1944, 7207 gt, became Norwegian Bonde in July-1947. Ran ashore in Febr.-1949 off Ruytinge Bank, voyage New Orleans-Dunkirk. Came under Panamanian flag as Chepo in 1961 (Mariner Shipping Co., Ltd., Hong Kong, then World-Wide Shipping Ltd., Hong Kong & London in 1963), Golden Rose in 1964 (same managers). Broken up in Taiwan in 1968, having arrived Kaohsiung on Febr. 29. The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, "The Allied Convoy System", Arnold Hague, "Sjøforklaringer fra 2. verdenskrig", Volume I (Norwegian Maritime Museum) - ref My sources.
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