Manager: Nortraship
Tonnage: 5154 gt

Delivered in Apr.-1943 from Pennsylvania Shipyard Inc., Beaumont, Texas (268) as Cape Arago for United States War Shipping Administration. One of several ships added to Nortraship's Fleet in 1943, on bareboat charter from the War Shipping Administration. See my page "Ship Statistics and Misc." under "Gains 1943" for a list of the others. General Ruge was taken over in Beaumont, Texas on April 23.

I've been told that the captain of this ship from Apr.-1943 to Oct.-1945 was Leif Moen, who had previous survived the sinking of Kongsgaard. He had also served as captain of Garnes and Polarsol.

This ship had a female, Canadian radio operator from Febr.-1944 till Dec.-1944, namely Barbara (Briggs) Ulrichsen. She later served on D/S Vadsø from Jan. 1945 till Oct.-1946. Other female, Canadian radio operators serving on Norwegian ships are named on my page about M/S Mosdale.

Related item on this website:
Guestbook message - From a relative of Kenneth Perkins, who served as radio operator. He also served on Grena (when sunk) and Astrid.
Another Guestbook message - From the son of Captain Moen. He says there was also another female radio operator on board in 1944; her name was Elizabeth Reed, who served as 3rd radio operator, while Leif Bye was the chief radio operator at that time. The message also names Stewardess B. J. Morrison.

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

Please compare the above voyages with Arnold Hague's Voyage Record below.

Voyage Record From Apr.-1943 to Nov.-1945:

Follow the convoy links provided for more information on each.

	Departure	From	To	Arrival	Convoy	Remarks
1943	Apr. 26	Beaumont	Houston	–	Independent	Page 1 gives arrival Apr. 27
	May 5	Houston	Galveston	May 6	Independent	–
	May 6	Galveston	Cristobal	May 12	Independent	–
	May 13	Balboa	Fremantle	June 14	Independent	–
	June 24	Fremantle	Karachi	July 10	Independent	–
	July 11	Karachi	Bombay	July 13	Independent	–
	July 24	Bombay	Fremantle	Aug. 7	Independent	–
	Aug. 9	Fremantle	Balboa	Sept. 9	Independent	–
	Sept. 10	Cristobal	Key West	Sept. 14	Independent	–
	Sept. 16	Key West	Baltimore	Sept. 21	KN 265	Convoy available at KN 265 (external link)
	Oct. 3	Baltimore	New York City	Oct. 5	Independent	–
	Oct. 15	New York City	Gitmo	Oct. 21	NG 392	Convoy available at NG 392 (external link)
	Oct. 21	Gitmo	Trinidad	Oct. 27	GAT 94	Convoy available at GAT 94 (external link)
	Nov. 2	Trinidad	Rio	Nov. 21	TJ 13	Convoy available at TJ 13 (external link)
	Nov. 23	Rio	Capetown	Dec. 4	Independent	–
	Dec. 10	Capetown	Durban	Dec. 13	Independent	–
	Dec. 27	Durban	Beira	Dec. 30	Independent	–
1944	Jan. 6	Beira	Durban	Jan. 9	Independent	–
	Jan. 9	Durban	New York City	Febr. 4	Independent	–
	Febr. 13	New York City	New York City	Febr. 23	Independent	A. Hague says: Voyage data unknown (Page 1 indicates Davisville).
	Febr. 26	New York City	Gitmo	March 4	NG 419	Convoy available at NG 419 (external link)
	March 5	Gitmo	Cristobal	March 9	GZ 61	Convoy available at GZ 61 (external link)
	March 10	Balboa	Noumea	Apr. 1	Independent	–
	Apr. 13	Noumea	San Francisco	May 4	Independent	–
	May 16	San Francisco	Pearl Harbor	May 23	Independent	–
	June 5	Pearl Harbor	San Francisco	June 12	Independent	–
	June 22	San Francisco	Guadalcanal	July 11	Independent	–
	July 26	Guadalcanal	San Francisco	Aug. 15	Independent	–
	Sept. 2	San Francisco	Pearl Harbor	Sept. 8	Independent	–
	Sept. 13	Pearl Harbor	Funafuti	Sept. 20	Independent	–
	Sept. 22	Funafuti	Langemak Bay	Sept. 27	Independent	Notional departure date
	Sept. 27	Langemak Bay	Manus	Sept. 28	Independent	–
	Oct. 15	Manus	Milne Bay	Oct. 17	Independent	–
	Oct. 28	Milne Bay	Los Angeles	Nov. 26	Independent	Notional sailing date
	Dec. 1	Los Angeles	San Francisco	Dec. 2	Independent	–
	Dec. 10	San Francisco	Eniwetok	Dec. 25	Independent	–
*	Dec. 15	Guam	Eniwetok	Jan. 20	Independent	–
	* Departure date is incorrect; should be Jan. 15 and voyage belongs further down. Inserted there.
	Dec. 28	Eniwetok	Guam	Jan. 2-1945	Independent	–
1945	*Jan. 15	Guam	Eniwetok	Jan. 20	Independent	–
	*Voyage has been taken from above, and date corrected. See also Page 2
	Jan. 20	Eniwetok	Astoria	Febr. 5	Independent
	Febr. 14	Astoria	Eniwetok	March 1	Independent	–
	March 4	Eniwetok	Saipan	March 8	Independent	–
	March 17	Saipan	San Francisco	Apr. 5	Independent	–
	Apr. 8	San Francisco	Port Townsend	Apr. 11	Independent	–
	Apr. 22	Port Townsend	Espiritu Santo*	May 7	Independent	*Eniwetok See Page 2
	May 8	Espiritu Santo*	Saipan	May 12	Independent	–
	May 28	Saipan	Iwojima	–	Independent	–
	June 29	Iwojima	Port Townsend	July 19	Independent	–
	July 29	Port Townsend	San Francisco	Aug. 1	Independent	–
	Aug. 10	San Francisco	Ulithi	Aug. 29	Independent	–
	Aug. 29	Ulithi	Okinawa	Sept. 4	Independent	–
	Oct. 14	Okinawa	Pearl Harbor	Oct. 29	Independent	–
	Oct. 31	Pearl Harbor	Balboa	Nov. 16	Independent	–
	Nov. 17	Cristobal	New York City	Nov. 24	Independent	Subsequent voyages, Page 2

Some Convoy Voyages:

Following deliverey in Beaumont at the end of Apr.-1943, General Ruge made some independent voyages to Cristobal, Fremantle, Karachi and Bombay, then back to Fremantle and Cristobal. She subsequently headed to Key West, where she arrived on Sept. 14-1943, joining Convoy KN 265 two days later. This convoy arrived New York on Sept. 22, but General Ruge's destination was Baltimore, where she arrived on the 21st. The following month, she made a voyage to Trinidad, starting out with Convoy NG 392 from New York to Guantanamo, departure Oct. 15, arrival Oct. 21, continuing that same day to Trinidad in Convoy GAT 94, with arrival on the 27th. Ref. external links provided within the table above for the names of the other ships in these convoys. As will be seen, the Norwegian Balla and Elise are also listed in NG 392; and Elise also proceeded with GAT 94. At the beginning of Nov.-1943, General Ruge joined Convoy TJ 13 from Trinidad to Rio de Janeiro, with arrival the latter on Nov. 21. Fernglen is also listed.

Some independent voyages now followed; to Capetown, Durban and Beira (Dec.-1943), then back to Durban in Jan.-1944 and from there to New York, arriving on Febr. 4. Later that month we find her, together with Petter II, in Convoy NG 419, leaving New York on Febr. 26, arriving Guantanamo on March 4, continuing the next day in Convoy GZ 61, and arrived Cristobal March 9. This time the Norwegian Kirsten B was in company - again, see the external links provided above. See also Page 1.

Among other ports, General Ruge subsequently made voyages to Noumea, San Francisco, Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal, Langemak Bay, Guam etc., with trips to the U.S. in between. In the course of 1945 she travelled to places like Astoria, Saipan, Port Townsend, and Okinawa, just to name a few - see Page 2. (On VE Day she had been at Eniwetok in the Pacific, departing for Saipan on May 9).

For more information on the other Norwegian ships mentioned on this page, please see the alphabet index below, or go to the Master Ship Index.

POST WAR:

Sold in 1946 to A/S Borgå (Fred. Olsen & Co.), Oslo and renamed Belgrano. Sold in 1961 to Strøm Shipping (Gunnar T. Strøm), Oslo and renamed Strøm Gunhild. Sold in 1967 to Universal Shipping Lines Inc. (Carlos A. GoThong & Co.), Cebu, Philippines and renamed Iligan Bay. Last reported on Jan. 24-1971 from about 120 miles north/northeast of Cabo Villano with leaks due to heavy weather, when on a voyage from Antwerp to Manila with a general cargo that included chemicals. Lost without trace.

Related external link:
Battle of Eniwetok - (see also this Wikipedia article).