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M/S Hindanger To Hindanger on the "Ships starting with H" page. Manager: Westfal-Larsen & Co. A/S, Bergen Delivered in Oct.-1929 from Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth & Co. Ltd., Newcastle on Tyne. Captain: Otto Olsvik, who had been on board for 11 years, having served as captain since Nov.-1941. Related items on this website: Her voyages are listed on these original images from the Norwegian National Archives: Please compare the above voyages with Arnold Hague's Voyage Record below.
(Received from Don Kindell - His source: The late Arnold Hague's database). Follow the convoy links provided for more information on each. As can be seen the record is incomplete.
As will be seen when going to Page 1 of the archive documents, Hindanger was on her way from Gothenburg, Sweden to Kingston, Jamaica when Norway was invaded by the Germans on Apr. 9-1940. Her 1941 start on Page 2 and continue on Page 3. Judging from the latter document, it looks like she spent quite a long time in New York at the end of that year. She had arrived there from Boston on Oct. 23-1941, and departure is given as on Dec. 14, when she proceeded to Trinidad - reason not known. When Rangoon fell (March 8-1942), she was en route from Suez to Rangoon with 250 British troops and equipment and was rerouted to Bombay, where she arrived, via Aden, on March 20, according to Page 3 above. Her last few voyages are shown on Page 4. On Aug. 2-1942, she's listed among the ships in the Halifax-U.K. Convoy HX 201, but lost the convoy in fog during the night of Aug. 4/5 and put in to St. John's, N.F. on Aug. 6. A day-by-day report is also available for this convoy, and Hindanger is mentioned under Aug. 5 and Aug. 6. According to Arnold Hague, she had been involved in a collision with HMCS Pictou on Aug. 5; I have no further details on this collision. Checking further, I find that this Canadian corvette had been escorting the westbound North Atlantic Convoy ON 116 until July 31 (see ON convoy escorts). Hindanger left St. John's again on Aug. 11, joining Convoy HX 202, which arrived Liverpool on Aug. 21 (HX 202 had started out in Halifax on Aug. 9). Both these convoys also had other Norwegian ships, as will be seen when following the links.
As mentioned above, Hindanger had arrived Liverpool on Aug. 21-1942. She subsequently joined the westbound North Atlantic Convoy ON 127, leaving Liverpool on Sept. 4. See also A. Hague's listing for ON 127, which is more complete. Hindanger was bound for New York, but never reached that destination. On Sept. 11-1942, she was torpedoed by U-584 (Deecke), position 49 39N 32 24W. At the time of the attack she was on a course 234° true, sailing at a speed of 8 knots, in fine weather and good visibility, wind southwest force 3. 4 lookouts were stationed, 2 aft and 2 on the bridge. The officer on watch saw the torpedo approaching, but there was no time to take any avoiding action, and the torpedo struck amidships in the engine room on the starboard side, destroying the lifeboat on that side. The explosion completely wrecked the engine room and boilers, the No. 4 and No. 5 bulkheads gave way and the holds were flooded. Distress signals were sent, but no reply was received. The ship was abandoned in 3 lifeboats and the survivors were rescued about 20 minutes later by the escorting Canadian corvette Amherst. The 3rd engineer, who had been in the engine room had been injured, having received a deep wound in his hip, and Able Seaman Ødegaard had injured his back. About 30 minutes later the captain, 1st mate, 3rd mate, boatswain, 2nd engineer and others got into a lifeboat and rowed back on board to look for a missing motorman, who had been on duty in the engine room, but upon entering the engine room and finding that the engines had collapsed and that the room had filled with water, it was assumed that he had been killed in the explosion. The captain of Amherst was ordered by the senior officer of the escort to sink Hindanger with gun fire. According to Jürgen Rohwer this took place almost 4 hours after the attack and was done with depth charges, giving the position as 49 32N 32 21W. However, he adds in a footnote that the depth charges from Amherst may not have sunk her on the 11th, so that she had to be given 2 coups de grâce by U-608 the next day (Struckmeier - this U-boat sank a damaged vessel on Sept. 12 which Rohwer suggests might have been Hindanger). The grandson of 1st Mate Trygve Helland says in this Guestbook message that he remembers clearly his grandfather saying she was sunk by the escort, and that he was annoyed that this was done without them being given a chance to save her and take her to port. (It's still possible, of course, that she did not sink and that she had to be sunk the next day). A memorandum based on statements by survivors gives the same position as J. Rohwer, giving the time of the initial attack as 17:20 GCT, adding she was sunk by shellfire from Amherst at 20:30 GCT. The survivors were landed in St. John's on Sept. 16 where the injured 3rd engineer and able seaman were admitted to Memorial Hospital. The maritime hearings were held in St. John's on Sept. 18 with Captain Olsvik, the 2nd mate, the 1st engineer (who had been on board for 13 years, in other words, since the ship was new), Able Seaman Mjøs, and Able Seaman Kvam appearing. The captain, who had been asleep in the chart room when the torpedo struck stated that she sank 4 hours later, which corresponds with J. Rohwer's info mentioned above, but he adds that he actually saw her sink. The other witnesses stated it was very dark, and they had seen her on fire, then the fire suddenly disappeared so they assumed she had gone down at that moment. M/T Sveve was also sunk in this convoy, as were several other ships - ref. link to my own page about Convoy ON 127, as well as the external link below for more information. See also D/T Marit II, M/T Fjordaas and M/T Daghild. As mentioned, my Guestbook has a message from the grandson of the 1st mate. See also this this message. Kaspar Skjerve later survived the sinking of Karmt. * I believe this able seaman may have been on board Berganger when that ship was sunk in June-1942. It may not be the same man, but it's such an unusual name that I think it could be.
Related external links: ON-127, 9-14 Sept 1942 - Lists the U-boats taking part in the attack on the convoy and other ships sunk. Back to Hindanger on the "Ships starting with H" page. Westfal-Larsen later had another ship by the name Hindanger. This was the ex Cape Constantine, 5221 gt, which was launched on Febr. 21-1943 in Beaumont, Texas for the United States War Shipping Administration, completed in June that year. Westfal-Larsen bought the ship after the war (Nov.-1946) and renamed her Hindanger, but she was later purchased by Wilh. Wilhelmsen in Febr.-1961 and renamed Tampa. In June-1967 she was sold to the Philippines and renamed Manuel Quezon, then had 2 more name changes (President Quirino and Lucky Eight) before she was scrapped at Kaohsiung in Apr.-1975. The text on this page was compiled with the help of: Misc. sources, incl. "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, "Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two", Jürgen Rohwer, "Sjøforklaringer fra 2. verdenskrig", Volume I (Norwegian Maritime Museum), Summary of Statements by Survivors, a memorandum dated Oct. 16-1942, signed by USNR Ensign E. D. Horderson (Henderson?), received from Tony Cooper, England - ref. My sources.
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