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D/S Diana To Diana on the "Ships starting with D" page. Manager: Det Bergenske Dampskibsselskab, Bergen Delivered in March-1904 from Bergens Mek. Værksted, Bergen (125) as cargo vessel Diana to Det Bergenske Dampskibsselskab, Bergen. Steel hull. Used in the company's cargo lines. As per the summer of 1939 she was in the Kirkenes-Bergen-Hamburg cargo line which the owners ran weekly together with Nordenfjeldske D/S with a total of 5 ships (alternating with 2 and 3 vessels in the line). BDS used Lynx, Leo, Neptun and Diana. Captain: Finn Krogvig. Her voyages are listed on this original document from the National Archives of Norway.
Diana, general cargo for London, is listed in Convoy HN 15 from Norway to the U.K. in Febr.-1940. In the middle of March we find her in the U.K.-Norway Convoy ON 19, and towards the end of that month, she joined Convoy HN 21, bound for Newcastle with general cargo. She subsequently joined Convoy ON 25 in order to return to Norway. She was among the ships that turned around, as the German invasion was underway upon reaching Norwegian waters - follow links for more info on this; several Norwegian ships took part in all these convoys. She had arrived Le Havre during the chaotic days there at the beginning of June-1940. Later managed to get to England, carrying part of the crew from Ellavore, which had been hit by a bomb on June 10. Others optained passage with Lotos.
On Sept. 26-1940 Diana left Milford Haven alone for Plymouth with a cargo of coal and disappeared with her 17 crew, among them 2 British and 1 Swedish seaman. On Oct. 7 and 8 debris and a lifebelt marked "BDS Diana Bergen" was found, then on the 17th a lifeboat marked "Diana Bergen" was found on the cliffs between Llansallos Bay and Pencarrow Head. The assumption is that she must have struck a mine, as there are no German records indicating she was sunk, and the weather is also an unlikely cause. This happened around the time the Germans had started to place a new type of mines in British waters; acoustic mines that detonated from the sound impulses from the propellers of passing ships. Crew List - No survivors:
Related external link: Back to Diana on the "Ships starting with D" page. Other ships by this name: There was also a Dutch Diana, a small coaster of 313 gt, which struck a mine and sank with the loss of 5 crew in the Bristol Channel on Jan. 18-1941 (voyage from Newport to Watchet). A Swedish steamer by this name was bombed and sunk by British aircraft on March 5-1944, north of Borkum, Germany, while an Italian steamship named Diana (the former Greek Maid of Samos, seized by the Italians) was torpedoed and sunk by a British submarine off Imperia on Apr. 12-1944. Norway had also had a seal catcher by this name as far back as 1871, 220 gt. Sold to Scotland in 1891. (Derived from misc. sources, incl."Dictionary of Disasters at Sea during the Age of Steam - including sailing ships and ships of war lost in Action 1824-1962" by Charles Hocking and "Damp - Dampskipets æra i Vestfold", Per Jonassen & Bernt Eggen). Additionally, "The Comprehensive Guide to Shipwrecks of the East Coast 1918 to 2003" by Ron Young mentions a Norwegian steam collier named Diana, 1119 gt, built in Bergen in 1899 for William Hansen & Co., Bergen. Torpedoed and sunk by the German UB 108 on June 7-1918, when on a voyage in convoy Newcastle-Cherbourg with coal, crew of 19. She had been requisitioned by the Admiralty and was sailing under the English flag at the time. The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, "Sjøforklaringer fra 2. verdenskrig", Volume I (Norwegian Maritime Museum). Technical details and pre war info were received from T. Eriksen, Norway (his sources: Articles about BDS in "Skipet" 1-2.88, Dag Bakka Jr., and "Norges eldste Linjerederi, BDS 1851-1951", Wilhelm Keilhau). For more book details, please refer to My Sources page.
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