D/S Erviken - Norwegian Merchant Fleet 1939-1945

D/S Erviken
Updated Sept. 4-2008

To Erviken on the "Ships starting with E" page.

Crew List

Manager: Wallem & Co. A/S Bergen
Tonnage: 6595 gt, 10 800 tdwt
Call Sign: LCIT

Built by William Doxford & Sons Ltd., Sunderland in 1921.

Captain: Paul Heesch

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

Some Convoy Voyages:

Erviken, bound for Philadelphia, is listed in Convoy OB 164 in June-1940 (left Liverpool on June 9, dispersed on the 12th - Laurits Swenson and Leiesten are also listed). She arrived Philadelphia independently on June 26; see Page 1 above. She was scheduled to return with the Halifax-U.K. Convoys HX 56, HX 57, HX 58, HX 59, and HX 60 in July-1940, but did not get away until HX 61 on July 27, bound for Swansea with a cargo of steel, arriving Aug. 12. She subsequently joined Convoy OB 206, which originated in Liverpool on Aug. 31, dispersed Sept. 5 (Einvik and Ferncastle are also listed; Erviken joined from Milford Haven) - her destination is given as Wabana, cargo of coal. According to Page 1 above, she arrived St. John's, N.F. on Sept. 10. She was scheduled for Convoy HX 81 the following month, but is crossed out on the convoy form. She had also been cancelled from HX 80, and the external site that I've linked to below also mentions her in Convoy HX 82, with a note saying "returned unable to make speed". As will be seen when following the link to my own page about this convoy, she's not mentioned there, but this fits with the information found on the archive document, which states she left Halifax on Oct. 20, but put into Sydney, C.B. on the 22nd. From there she joined the slow Sydney (C.B.)-U.K. Convoy SC 9 on Oct. 24, cargo of iron ore for Cardiff, where she arrived on Nov. 14.

The external site already mentioned has her scheduled for Convoy OB 257, leaving Liverpool on Dec. 10-1940, but she instead joined OB 259 a few days later (originated in Liverpool Dec. 14, dispersed Dec. 17), together with Belinda, Dalfonn, Helgøy, Hørda, Høyanger, Idefjord, Leiesten, Taranger and Thorshavet. Erviken was bound for Tampa via Kingston in ballast. However, another section of the same site states that she returned to port, later joining Convoy OB 261, which left Liverpool on Dec. 19 (dispersed on the 22nd). Going back to Page 1, we see that she arrived Kingston on Jan. 9-1941, Tampa on Jan. 30.

In March-1941 she was sceduled for Convoy HX 116 from Halifax, but did not sail, nor did she sail in the next convoy, HX 117, but eventually got away with HX 118 on March 31, bound for Immingham with phosphates, station 22. She arrived Immingham, via Loch Ewe and Methil Roads, on Apr. 25. In May we find her, with Kongsgaard and Thorshov, in Convoy OB 324 (originated in Liverpool May 18, dispersed May 27). Erviken arrived St. John's, N.F. on June 1, returning to the U.K. later that month in Convoy HX 133, in which Soløy and Vigrid were sunk, and Kongsgaard was torpedoed and damaged - follow the links for details. This convoy left Halifax on June 16 and arrived Liverpool on July 3. Erviken, however was bound for Newport, where she arrived on July 4, cargo of iron ore. At the end of that month she joined Convoy OS 1, which departed Liverpool on July 21-1941. She's listed as being on a voyage from Milford to Tampa, Florida in station 23 of the convoy (which was a Freetown bound convoy) - again, see the external site below for more convoy information. The Norwegian G. C. Brøvig and Jernfjeld are also listed (the latter was only bound for Glasgow). Arnold Hague has also included Anna Knudsen and Emma Bakke in OS 1. Erviken arrived Tampa on Aug. 13.

Related external links:
OB convoys - OB 257 and OB 259 are included. The site also has a section on the OS and OS/KMS Convoys, and as will be seen, Erviken is listed in Convoy OS 1. Note also that by going to this section of the same site and clicking on "Ship Search", using "Erviken" as keyword, some local U.K. convoys that are not mentioned in my own text will come up. Here are OB 164, OB 206, OB 259, OB 261, OB 324, and HX 82, all mentioned above, and here is A. Hague's list of ships in OS 1, which is a little different from what can be found in the main section of the site.

Final Fate - 1941:

Erviken was on a voyage from Tampa to Liverpool with 9300 tons phosphate, and was 1 of 4 Norwegian ships sunk in Convoy SC 48 when she was torpedoed by U-558* (Krech) in the evening of Oct. 16-1941. A cruising order and the Commodore's notes, as well as misc. reports are also available for this convoy (see also M/T Barfonn and the external links provided at the end of this page).

Erviken had stopped to rescue survivors from the British tanker W. C. Teagle when she was hit herself - in fact she almost collided with the Norwegian D/S Rym, which was out on the same errand. The torpedo struck right in front of the bridge in Hold No. 2 on the starboard side, and she sank within a minute, position 56 10N 24 30W. 1st Engineer A. Nielsen, who was on deck outside the engine room door on the port side when the torpedo hit, immediately ran to the starboard side and got into the lifeboat, but the ship sank so quickly that the seas washed him overboard. 3rd Engineer Kristian Berggren had been with him in the boat and he later saw him in the water but received no reply when calling to him (the latter was among the casualties).

The 14 survivors were picked up from rafts by two corvettes after about 4 hours.

*Rohwer lists the date as Oct. 17 at 01:49 German time (U-558) for the attack on Erviken. "Nortraships flåte" gives the time as shortly before 22:15 ship's time, and U-553 as the attacker, a claim also found on the website "Hyperwar" that I've linked to below. (This U-boat also sank D/S Ila).

The 4th engineer's account:
The 4th engineer tells his story in the book "Menn uten medaljer" (his name is not mentioned, but the 4th engineer is named in the crew list as Sigvald Stornes). He says they had arrived Norfolk, Virginia in Sept.-1941 for degaussing, then proceeded to Tampa to load a cargo of phosphate for England. They departed alone in order to join the convoy at sea. At 22:30 in the evening of Oct. 16 the alarm was sounded. The engineer was on duty, along with a donkeyman and a stoker, who all continued working until "the air almost exploded" around them when the "cigar" detonated in the ship. The other 2 had lifevests on and were immediately sent on deck, but his own vest was in his cabin, so after having turned off the steam to the engine he bolted up to get his vest but didn't make it that far before all the lights went out and the water started rushing in behind him in the passageway. He could literally "feel" how the ship broke in 2 and started to sink underneath him, but quickly found his vest and ran up on deck, where the sea was rushing in like "Niagara Falls". When he reached the boatdeck, the donkeymann was just standing there, saying "we haven't got a chance". The engineer dove overboard with his vest under his arm, and could feel the suction of the ship as she went down, but managed to get clear. He says 3 minutes had passed since the torpedo hit.

All around him people were crying for help, ships were sunk, people were killed. While trying to take stock of the situation there in the water he saw 2 little red lights in the distance and decided to swim towards them through debris and thick black oil, and before long he encountered Chief Engineer Nielsen. It appears the latter felt the red lights were too far away for them to reach, but the 4th engineer kept struggling on until he finally heard voices and found his shipmates drifting on 2 rafts. A corvette spotted them, and with the promise of returning it took off again. At 3 o'clock another English corvette appeared and picked them all up. The engineer had to be scrubbed from head to toe with kerosene before the layer of oil was finally off him. The corvette cruised around the area until daylight, but no more survivors were found, only a Norwegian ship floating on its cargo of lumber (identity not given, but this was probably D/S Rym which did indeed have a cargo of lumber). The ship was sunk by the corvette before course was set for Londonderry, "packed" with survivors. He says they were landed on "Sunday night", which may have been Oct. 19. This leads me to believe that the corvette may have been HMS Veronica, which had also picked up the crew from Rym, see the text for that ship (a report by Rym's captain states they were landed at Londonderry on Sunday, Oct. 19).

I get the impression from a report presented at the subsequent maritime hearings, written by 1st Engineer Alf Nielsen, that he and the Swedish stoker E. Hallgren and 2nd Engineer Kristian Heitmann were picked up by the corvette Abelia. Stoker Hallgren had told him that the 3rd mate and the cook had disappeared just by the side of the corvette. The commanding officer of the corvette had informed Nielsen that a further 8 men had been picked up by another corvette, but after they had been landed at Londonderry on Oct. 22 they found out that 10 had been saved. The numbers don't quite add up here because one of my sources mentions that 2 of Erviken's survivors had been picked up by the destroyer HMS Broadwater, formerly destroyer Mason (DD-191) and died when that ship was torpedoed by U-101 on Oct. 18. This claim is repeated on the website "HMS Broadwater" that I've linked to below (Erviken is erroneously named "Ericson" on the site).

The survivors continued from Londonderry to Glasgow on Oct. 24 where the maritime hearings were held (date unknown).

Crew List:

Survivors:
Carpenter Hans Sundby	Able Seaman Johannes Saaler	Able Seaman Kenneth H. Hatcher (British)	Able Seaman/Gunner Robert S. Dalstrøm*	Jr. Ordinary Seaman ? Holmkvist (Finnish)	Deck Boy Lawrence Helliker (British)
1st Engineer Alf Nielsen	2nd engineer Kristian Heitmann	4th Engineer Sigvald Stornes	Donkeyman William Starkey (British)	Stoker E. Hallgren (Swedish)	Stoker Ingvard Ellertsen
Engine Boy Albert Tompkins (British)	Galley Boy John Harrison (British)	Viva also had an Able Seaman/Gunner Robert Dalstrøm* - same person?
Those who died were:
† Captain Paul Heesch	† 1st Mate Egil Gordon Larsen	† 2nd Mate Trygve Hofstun	† 3rd Mate Olaf Brataas	† 4th Mate Ove Kristiansen	† Boatswain Anker Andersen
† Able Seaman Hjarand Ellefsen	† Able Seaman Sigurd Hansen	† Able Seaman Thorvald Meyer	† Able Seaman Anders Molandstø	† Ordinary Seaman Kåre Andersen	† Ordinary Seaman Jørgen Børresen (Danish)
† Deck Boy Angus McKinnon * (Canadian)	† 3rd Engineer Kristian Berggren	† Donkeyman Lars Berg	† Donkeyman Hjalmar Jakobsen	† Stoker Peder Isaksen	† Stoker Erling Tverdal
† Stoker Alf Hegland	† Engine Boy Guthro Simon * (Canadian)	† Steward Edvard Olsvik	† Cook Øivind Ottesen	† Mess Boy Edward Sullivan (British)	† Mess Boy Fonwick Hannam (British)

* The Canadians are included in the Canadian Merchant Navy War Dead database (enter Erviken in the field for ship and they will both show up in the search results), and A. McKinnon is also listed on the Commonwealth War Graves Comm. website. Both are external links.

External websites with information related to the text on this page:
Stavern Memorial commemorations - Only the Norwegians are commemorated at this memorial for seamen in Stavern, Norway - some of the names are spelt a little differently here.

Convoy SC 48- 15 - 17 Oct 1941

U-558 | Günther Krech

Operations information for U-558 - As this page shows, this U-boat sank several Norwegian ships.

HMS Broadwater - A thoroughly researched website about the history and fate of this ship, one of the escorts of the convoy. Unfortunately, the site can no longer be reached as linked, but I'm leaving it up for now, in case I can find it again. The link used to go directly to the first page of the section describing the battle of SC 48. The subsequent pages went on to list the ships lost, their destination and cargoes, as well as the names of all the escort vessels and the attacking U-boats. It also had a description of the events surrounding the loss of the ship (2 survivors from Erviken had been rescued by Broadwater and were lost when she was torpedoed, though the Norwegian ship was referred to as Ericson). The website included a report on the rescue of survivors, along with several other interesting reports, and a list of names of those who died.

Hyperwar - Robert Cressmans book "The Official Chronology of the U.S. Navy in World War II", linked directly to 1941. Entries for the dates Oct. 14 through 18 have details on SC 48.

The Kearney and Convoy SC 48 - The ships involved on all sides (from Encyclopedia of WW II Naval Battles).

U.S.S. Kearny - Interesting account of the attack on the Kearny, torpedoed by U-568 when on escort duties in Convoy SC 48, Oct. 17-1941.

Details on SC 48 can also be found towards the end of
Chapter 3 of "Joining the War at Sea". Other convoys are also discussed.

Back to Erviken on the "Ships starting with E" page.

Wallem & Co. also had a D/S Erviken in WW I, built 1895, 2134 gt - torpedoed and sunk by a sub in the Mediterranean on Oct. 25-1917.

The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, "Menn uten medaljer", A. H. Rasmussen, "Sjøforklaringer fra 2. verdenskrig", Volume I (Norwegian Maritime Museum), and misc. - ref. My sources.