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M/S Fernhill To Fernhill on the "Ships starting with F" page. (Uboat.net has another picture of this ship - external link) Manager: Fearnley & Eger, Oslo Built by Kockums Mekaniska Verksteds A/B, Malmö, Sweden in 1926. Captain: K. J. Neuberth Wie Her voyages are listed on these original images from the Norwegian National Archives:
Fernhill is listed in the Gibraltar-U.K. Convoy HGF 32 in May/June-1940. She was bound for Marseilles with copper, station 53, and is said to have left the convoy for her destination in the early afternoon of May 30. A French visitor to my website has told me that she on June 19 sailed from a southern French port (Marseilles? Sète?) in convoy 7-P under French escort. At Oran on June 22(?). This conflicts slightly with what is found under Bosphorus, which according to a personal story says that a Fearnley & Eger ship was allowed to leave the convoy and proceed to Gibraltar. In fact, she's listed in Convoy HG Z, which left Gibraltar on June 24-1940. Her destination is given as Liverpool, cargo of copra. (It looks like she barely missed being interned in North Africa like so many other Norwegian ships at the fall of France). Towards the end of Nov.-1941 she was scheduled for the slow Sydney (C.B.)-U.K. Convoy SC 56, but instead joined the next convoy, SC 57, general cargo for Hull. The first external website that I've linked to at the end of this page has Fernhill in Convoy SL 129 which departed Freetown on May 11-1943, joined up with Convoy MKS 13 from Gibraltar on May 24, the combined convoy arriving Liverpool on June 1. She had a general cargo as well as explosives, voyaging from Port Said to Mersey. The Norwegian Belnor, Heimvard and Vest are also listed. Follow the link for more convoy details.
Fernhill left Liverpool in the morning of July 18-1943 for Montevideo and Buenos Aires with general cargo incl. explosives, then joined convoy OS 52/KMS 21 on the 19th. This convoy was attacked by 12 German aircraft 200 n. miles off Lisbon on July 27 and 2 ships were lost, namely the British Halizones (no casualties) and El Argentino (4 died), but Fernhill escaped harm. The Norwegian Borgholm, Hallfried, Jenny and Spurt were also in this convoy. Outside Bathurst the convoy was split up on July 28, and Fernhill was later ordered to continue west on her own at 19:00 GMT on Aug. 4. At 02:30 GMT the following day she received orders from the Admiralty to alter her originally planned route, and these orders were immediately followed. On Aug. 6 at 21:10 GMT the 1st mate, who was on the bridge spotted a U-boat close to her port bow and she nearly collided with U-757 (Deetz) which then submerged 10-15 meters in front of her, but later reappeared on the starboard quarter. An "enemy report" was sent out and repeated several times, giving the position as 07 15N 19 46W. At the time Able Seaman Swan was on lookout duty on the bridge, Ordinary Seaman Jones was at the helm, there was a gunner in the port pillbox on the bridge, another in the starboard pillbox amidships and a third on the gun platform on the poop. All guns were now manned, and through continuous course alterations Fernhill attempted to keep the U-boat behind her, and also fired at it with her 4" gun at 22:05 GMT when the distance between them was about 300 yards, but missed, though at that point the U-boat submerged. Another enemy report was subsequently sent out, giving position 07 07N 19 48W, acknowledged by Freetown Radio. At 22:30 a coded telegram was received, saying "Catalina aircraft will be in your vicinity AM tomorrow Saturday". After having chased Fernhill for over 3 hours the U-boat fired a torpedo which hit her in the engine room, port side at 00:40 GMT Aug. 7, resulting in a tremendous explosion. The motor lifeboat and the port boat were completely destroyed with parts of them flung high into the air. She listed to port and sank in the course of 5 minutes, position 06 58N 19 15W (depth: 2600 fathoms). The starboard lifeboats were launched but the explosions had messed up the tackles and several of those who were in them fell into the water when the boats were lowered (they were later picked up). The majority of the crew had to jump overboard from the after deck as the ship sank and 15 of them managed to get onto rafts floating nearby. These had been launched by Able Seaman Egge who was later credited with saving the 15 lives. About 5 minutes after the ship had gone down they saw a U-boat circling in among the debris for a few minutes, then about 20 minutes later they again saw a U-boat (they believed it to be a different one), which later disappeared in the same direction as the first one. In the course of a couple of hours 39 men had been assembled in 2 lifeboats (1 of which was damaged and leaking) and 3 rafts. 5 were found to be missing, though Gunner Henrietts (Harrlits?) believed that a crew member had been picked up from the water by the U-boat - this was, in fact, 3rd engineer Nils Bremer Johannesen; I have no further details on what later happened to him. 3 of the missing men were believed to have been killed in the engine room when the torpedo struck there, while Gunner E. C. Smith had been on deck, but was not seen after the ship had gone down. The 3rd engineer had also been seen on deck. At 08:25 GMT a Catalina aircraft came over the lifeboats and dropped several packages containing food, water, clothes, cigarettes, radio etc., and signalled that help was on its way. At about 10 in the morning of Aug. 8 another Catalina came over and dropped more food and water, then at 14:15 the American M/T Idaho picked them all up, position 07 13N 19 59W. The boats were also taken on board, but the rafts were set adrift. Idaho arrived Freetown in the morning of Aug. 10, where the officers were given rooms at Grand Hotel (British Sailors' Society) while the others were accommodated at The British Seamen's Mission (The Grammar School). The maritime hearings were held in Liverpool on Sept. 28-1943 with the captain, the 1st and 2nd mates, the boatswain, Able Seaman Swan, and Mechanic A. H. Karlsen appearing. Crew List:
External websites related to the text on this page: Stavern Memorial commemorations - Assistant Jan Alexis Molotov is also commemorated at this memorial in Stavern, Norway - in other words, the engine room assistant has been given a Norwegian nationality. Back to Fernhill on the "Ships starting with F" page. 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) and misc. other for cross checking details - ref. My sources.
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