D/S Dea - Norwegian Merchant Fleet 1939-1945

D/S Dea
Updated July 3-2011

To Dea on the "Ships starting with D" page.

Received from Aage A. Wilhelmsen, Norway - the picture is said to have been taken in Boston in 1941, but as far as I can see, she did not visit that port that year. She did, however, make a voyage to Boston in July-1940.
Lillesand Sjømannsforening has another picture (external link - click in the photo to make it larger).

Manager: Th. Brøvig, Farsund
Tonnage: 2418 gt

Delivered in Aug.-1911 from Robert Thompson & Sons Ltd., Sunderland (269) as Sangstad to D/S A/S Sangstad (A. F. Klaveness & Co.), Christiania, 2418 gt, 1459 net, 4175 tdwt, 299.4' x 44.5' x 19.9', Tripple exp., 231 nhp. Sold in 1918 to A/S To (Thv. B. Heistein & Sønner), Kristiansand. Managed by Martin Mosvold, Kristiansand later that year, then by A. I. Langfeldt, Kristiansand from 1922. Sold in 1923 to A/S Dea (Th. Brøvig), Farsund and renamed Dea.

Captain: Frithjof Urbye, who had his wife with him.

Her voyages are listed on these original images from the Norwegian National Archives:
Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5

Misc. War Details:

Dea played an important part in the transport of ammunition between New Orleans and Balboa. Captain Urbye usually had some excuse to not stay in the convoys (claiming she was too old and slow to keep up), and instead chose his own special route, going west of Cuba, had only a short stretch of open sea across the Yucanta Straits, then continued along the coast of Honduras, staying close to land and in areas where the U-boats couldn't go in, thereby usually reaching her destination well before the convoy she was originally assigned to, which had a much longer and more dangerous route (east of Cuba via the American base Guantanamo).

In the Norwegian magazine "Krigsseileren", Issue No. 4 for 1984 there's a picture of Dea's crew, taken in Cuba early in the war. The following names are given:
Sverre Stusvik, Øyvind Midthassel, Evald Olsen, Alf Fulland, Tomas Tønnesen, Chief Engineer Eriksen, 2nd Engineer Henriksen, 3rd Engineer Fritjof Tisteland, Martin Johannessen, Ottar Kjølleberg, Tomas Omland, Erling Johansen, Arthur Homme, Petrus Dyrstad, Jørgen Midthassel, Bernhard M. Brekne, Olaf Hoveland, Johan Andreassen, Sverre Willumsen, Arne Drangsland, Agnar Andreassen, Julius Hansen, Andreas Laundal, and Captain Urbye with his wife Rakel. Out of the 25 on board, 10 had passed away by 1984 and 2 were living in the U.S.

Her 1940 voyages are shown on Page 1 of the archive documents. This document also has a few 1941 voyages, while the rest are listed on Page 2, which also has some 1942 movements.

In July-1942, Dea picked up 22 survivors from the Norwegian M/S Gundersen, which had been torpedoed by U-129 (Witt) the day before, and landed them at Progreso the next day, July 3. Dea's voyages in this period are shown on Page 3. In my Guestbook there's a message from the son of the Radio Operator at the time. This message says that 25 survivors were rescued. Radio Operator Fred S. Milthorp's story is available on this external page (Barbara & Gordon Mumford's website).

Arnold Hague has included Dea in the following convoys - all this agrees with the information found on Page 3 and Page 4 of the documents from the Norwegian archives.
She sailed from Kew West Aug. 18-1942, arrived Guantanamo Aug. 21 - Convoy WAT 15. Norwegian Nidarland, Siranger, Torfinn Jarl and Vinga are also listed.
Sailed from Guantanamo Aug. 25-1942, arrived Cristobal Aug. 29 - Convoy GP 7
Sailed from Key West Oct. 26-1942, arrived Guantanamo Oct. 29 - Convoy KG 610
Sailed from Guantanamo Oct. 31-1942, arrived Cristobal Nov. 4 - Convoy GZ 10. Also, Norwegian Fernhill, Høegh Scout, Høegh Silverdawn and Toledo.
Skipping now to March-1944, when she sailed from Pilottown March 6, arrived Key West March 9 - Convoy HK 201, with Harpefjell and Sandviken.
(All these convoy links are external).

Page 5 lists her voyages to Aug.-1945, when she got to go home to Norway (as can be seen, there's a big gap in the listing, from Nov. 6-1944, when she arrived Pensacola, to June 2-1945, when she departed New Orleans).

POST WAR:

Sold in Aug.-1950 to Pehlivanlar Cemal, Muzaffer Nectai Pehlivan Vapurculuk Isletmesi KS, Istanbul, Turkey and renamed Pehlivan. Sold in 1956 to Cemal Pehlivan Verisleri ve Muzaffer Pehlivan, Istanbul. Renamed Necati Pehlivanzade in 1957, having been sold that year to Necati Pehlivanzade, Istanbul. Ran aground near Kafken (Black Sea) on March 20-1964, voyage Zonguldak-Istanbul with coal. Refloated, towed to Istanbul and laid up. Sold for breaking up in Istanbul in 1965. (Skipet No. 2 for 1983, Dag Bakka Jr.).