M/T Jotunfjell - Norwegian Merchant Fleet 1939-1945

M/T Jotunfjell

To Jotunfjell on the "Ships starting with J" page.

Source: Sverre Johansen's collection.

Jotunfjell made several independent voyages in 1940, 1941 and 1942 to places like Abadan, Capetown, Durban, Port Elizabeth, East London, Bahrein, Beira, Lourenço Marques, Bombay etc.

According to the Memorial for Seamen in Stavern, Norway, she lost a crew member on June 15-1942, namely Motorman Hans Henrik Hansen, who is said to have died in an accident on board on that date.

She made a voyage from Bandar Abbas to Bombay with Convoy PB 12 in Nov.-1942, arriving Bombay on Nov. 22 - please follow the instructions provided at the external link at the end of this page for more details on this, and her various other convoy voyages. In 1943 she made some independent voyages to Fremantle, Geraldton, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, and in Jan.-1944 she travelled from San Francisco to Townsville, later to Balboa, and subsequently made a couple of voyages in convoy (Curacao-New York, Apr.-1944).

She was scheduled for the New York-U.K. Convoy HX 288 in Apr.-1944, but did not sail. She was also cancelled from the next convoy, HX 289, but eventually got away with HX 290, which left New York on May 5 and arrived Liverpool on the 19th - follow the links for more info on these convoys; as will be seem, several Norwegian ships took part. A week later she joined the westbound North Atlantic Convoy ON 238, which departed Liverpool on May 26-1944 and arrived New York June 9; her destination was Baltimore, where she arrived June 10. This convoy will be added to an individual page in my Convoys section, in the meantime, the ships sailing in it are named on this page. Among them are the Norwegian Bralanta, Fernwood, Morgenen, Skotaas, and Thorsholm.

The following month, she headed to Augusta with Convoy UGS 47, which left Hampton Roads on July 4-1944; Jotunfjell arrived Augusta on the 25th, later proceeding to Taranto, then back to Augusta, then on to New York with Convoy GUS 48, which originated in Port Said on Aug. 3-1944. Jotunfjell joined the convoy from Augusta on Aug. 8 and arrived New York on the 27th. Several independent voyages now followed, to places like Cartagena, Cristobal, Vancouver, Port Townsend, Seattle, Pearl Harbor, and San Francisco, then back to Pearl Harbor, with arrival Dec. 21-1944.

From Dec.-1944 until Nov.-1945 she had a female Canadian radio operator named Rosemary Byron. Other Norwegian ships also had female Canadian radio operators, a list of their names, along with their ships, can be found on my page about M/S Mosdale.

From Pearl Harbor Jotunfjell headed to Balboa on Dec. 25-1944, where she arrived on Jan. 15-1945, then sailed to Cartagena, New York, Corpus Christi, Baltimore, and Puerto la Cruz, as well as to Philadelphia and other U.S. ports, bringing us to May-1945, when she joined Convoy HX 357, which departed New York on May 19-1945 and arrived Liverpool on June 3. This convoy is not included among the HX convoys listed on my own site, but I've linked directly to it below. The Norwegian Abraham Lincoln, Brimanger, Fagerfjell, Kaldfonn, Montevideo, Østhav, Thorshavn, and Tungsha are also listed (Tungsha returned to port).

More details on all the other Norwegian ships named here can be found with the help of the alphabet index at the end of this page, or go to the Master Ship Index.

Related external links:
Misc. convoys - By clicking on "Ship Search", using "Jotunfjell" as keyword, several convoys that are not mentioned in my own text will come up. Here are UGS 47 and HX 357, both mentioned in the above narrative.

Norway also had another Jotunfjell pre war. This ship is the same as the Varangberg ex. Morris Adler listed on my V-page. The (external) website Historical Index of the Great Lakes has quite a bit of info on this ship. Type "Jotunfjell" in the field for 'vessel', then on the page that comes up, click in the little box with the item number for Morris Adler. The next page has technical details on the ship and a picture thumbnail - clicking on the thumbnail will bring up a larger photo. It also lists all her owners until lost, and has info on her fate. (Typing 'Norway" in the search field for 'Registry' will bring up several other Norwegian vessels).

The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, E-mails from Roger W. Jordan - and misc., including the first external website that I've linked to above.