M/S Heimvard

To Heimvard on the "Ships starting with H" page.


Source: Kaare S. Sidselrud (see Lidvard) who says the picture was taken in Dakar.


Received from and painted by Jan Goedhart, Holland.

Related items on this website:
Interned Ships
A Series of postings to my Ship Forum from someone who has some pictures of I. Strand and family, and who would like to get in touch with his descendants to share these pictures with them.
Forum posting from the son of Ken Fabian, who served on Heimvard (as well as Norfold, Sjøbris and Toulouse), and would like to get in touch with someone who knew him.

Internment and Escapes:

Heimvard was 1 of the 26 Norwegian ships interned in North and West Africa 1940-1942. She had arrived Dakar on Apr. 18-1940 having come from Saigon with a cargo of rice, then after unloading the cargo she continued to Kontonu to take on board palm oil and coco beans for Dunkirk, departing for the journey to Europe on June 13. En route she was redirected back to Dakar, and was subsequently interned. "Nortraships flåte" gives the date as June 22-1940.

According to Guri Hjeltnes' "Sjømann - Lang vakt", Heimvard had a crew of 29, all Norwegian, a total of 21 escaped.

12 men from Heimvard escaped to Bathurst in a lifeboat on March 5-1941, among them were Ingvald Dyrland, Edvard Jensen, Ludvig Thomassen and the brothers Nils Lund and Vermund Lund. They got passage to Freetown on the Danish Dagø on March 9, arriving 4 days later, then signed on various other vessels. A few days later another 6 also escaped, then on Apr. 27 Radio Operator/Mate Ola Johansen, 2nd Engineer Mortensen, 3rd Engineer Vikenes, Electrician Karlsen, Cook Moen and Mechanic Melsether managed to get out in one of Heimvard's gigs. After an eventful voyage they arrived Bathurst safely; from there they were sent to Freetown on board a Dutch vessel that had escaped from Dakar the year before (M/S Rolf?). 32 escapees from Dakar were then sent from Freetown to England on board the troop transport Windsor Castle, arriving Clyde on May 16.

Free at last!

In "Krigsseileren No. 2 for 1985 there's an article written by Ola Johansen, detailing their arrival Gt. Britain and describing the destruction from the air attacks. He starts off by saying they had to stay on board Windsor Castle until May 18 at which time they were taken to the railway station in Glasgow under military escort (as they had come from an enemy area and had no passports). He describes the destruction of the shipyards outside Glasgow and all along the route to London. On May 11 London had suffered one of its worst air attacks of the war and when they were taken by car through the city they saw clear evidence of that raid. Their destination was Royal Victoria School in the Battersea district which was utilized as a transit point for escapees from enemy territories. Papers were checked and questions asked, and on May 25 the escapees from Dakar had "cleared" security and were picked up by a representative of the Norwegian authorities. While they stayed at County Hotel near Nortraship's offices at Tavistock House, trips to the various offices to get new identification papers, passports, ration cards etc. followed, before they were again ready to join allied service, and the group from Dakar was scattered. Ola Johansen joined D/S Marga in June, but on arrival Grimsby from Canada in Sept. he payed off together with the Mate Bryde and almost the entire complement; he says no-one seemed to like it on board. (In Oct. Ola Johansen joined D/S Hardanger and later sailed on D/S Biscaya and Høegh Silverlight, then worked his way home from New York to Norway on M/S Hermund in the late fall of 1945).

Heimvard was back in Nortraship's fleet by March 20-1943, following Operation Torch in Nov.-1942, which freed all the interned ships.

The second external website that I've linked to at the end of this text has Heimvard in Convoy SL 129 (MKS 13) which departed Freetown on May 11-1943 and arrived Liverpool on June 1. She had a cargo of coffee, bauxite and other general, voyaging from Pointe Noire to Clyde. The Norwegian Belnor, Fernhill and Vest are also listed. Follow the link for more convoy details.

Later that year, in Oct.-1943, I have her in Convoy AP 50 / AB 18, together with Egerø, Havkong and Kong Sverre.

A year later, in Oct.-1944, we find her in Convoy SL 175/MKS 66, the SL portion of which departed Freetown on Oct. 28, joined up with the MKS portion from Gibraltar on Nov. 8, the combined convoy arriving Liverpool on Nov. 15. Heimvard was on a voyage from River Plate to Liverpool with a general cargo consisting of oilcake, maize, cased meats, fats, bone material, leather, casein and hair. Again, follow the external link to the SL convoys below. The Norwegian Toledo and Ragnhild also took part in this convoy, Ragnhild joining from Gibraltar.

In Dec.-1944 Heimvard was in the westbound North Atlantic Convoy ON 270, along with several other Norwegian ships, as will be seen by clicking on the link.

More war voyages will be added.

POST WAR:

Sold in 1950 to DDG Hansa, Bremen, Germany, and renamed Axenfels. Sold to Japanese breakers and arrived at Hirao on Dec. 24-1961 to be broken up.

Related external links:
The Great Ocean Liners has more on Windsor Castle on this page.

SL convoys - As can be seen, Heimvard is listed in Convoy SL 129/MKS 13 and SL 175/MKS 66.

Back to Heimvard on the "Ships starting with H" page.