D/S Hermod
Updated Oct. 19-2011

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


Picture (of a painting) received from the captain's daughter, Wenche Steier Bjønness (who also provided the picture of her father)
Here's a message from her in my Guestbook.

This one was received from Aud Steier Griem, another daughter of the captain.
She has a message on one of my forums, in which she says she'd like to get in touch with crew members or their descendants.

Hermod's Final Fate - 1942:

Hermod departed Calcutta on Apr. 2-1942 for Colombo with general cargo. In the late afternoon of Apr. 3 she joined up with the British Dardanus and the American Point Clear as instructed by Naval Control in Calcutta, but in the evening of Apr. 4, Hermod left the other ships and continued along the coast alone. At 04:14 GMT on Apr. 6 she was fired upon by what is assmued to have been the same Japanese war ships that had just sunk M/S Dagfred that day (M/T Elsa was also sunk in the area on April 6). Her engines were stopped and shortly afterwards they saw the attacker about 5-6 n. miles off to port, but were not able to identify the vessel. The ship fired again, hitting Hermod in several places.

The 6 Norwegian officers and crew of 30 Chinese had escaped unharmed in 3 lifeboats and rowed away from the ship as quickly as they could. When they were about 150 meters away, about 8 minutes after the intitial attack, Hermod went down, whereupon the attacker disappeared. At that time 2 aircraft circled above the area, but the men in the lifeboats were not fired upon. They set sail for the coast which was about 10 n. miles away and landed at 10:00 GMT that morning near the village Atraveda (Antervedi?) on the coast of Godavari (Madras Presidency), where they were well taken care of by the locals before being sent on to Calcutta by train, with arrival on Apr. 9. The maritime hearings were held there on Apr. 13-1942 with the captain, the 1st engineer and the 1st mate appearing.

In addition to the captain, these Norwegians were on board:
1st Mate Einar Corneliussen, 2nd Mate Johannes Andreassen*, 1st Engineer Alvinius Alviniussen, 2nd Engineer Ole Olsen, and 3rd Engineer Johan Føske.

*Johannes Andreassen had previously served as boatswain on Ole Jacob when that ship was captured in Nov.-1940, subsequently joining Mabella as 2nd mate in Dec.-1940. Following the loss of Mabella, he joined Hermod as 2nd mate on Apr. 2-1942, in other words, just a few days before she was sunk. He then joined Nyco as 2nd mate from May-1942 until June-1942, and 1st mate from Sept.-1942 until Nov. 19-1942, when he took over as captain, remaining as such until Febr. 11-1943 - follow links for more details. (Source: E-mail from Helge Christoffersen, Norway - his source: National Archives of Norway).

Related external links:
The Imperial Japanese Navy
Japanese Navy Ships - Pictures (includes submarines).

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

The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, "Sjøforklaringer fra 2. verdenskrig", Vol. I - (ref. My sources).