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D/S Karlander To Karlander on the "Ships starting with K" page. Manager: H. Th. Wilkens & Co. A/S, Fredrikstad Built in Oslo in 1914. Previous names: Frolund until 1914, Visna until 1929. Captain: Gerhard Reichelt. He later became captain of Annavore, and died when that ship was sunk in Dec.-1941. (Captain Reichelt's son Erik was among those involved in the tragic loss of Brattholm I - follow link for details. He also had another son, Borti, who was involved in illegal activities in Norway and was shot by the Germans in Oct.-1944). 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.
It'll be noticed, when going to Page 1 of the archive documents, that Karlander appears to have spent a long time in Baltimore in 1940. She had arrived there from Louisburg on July 20 and departure is given as Sept. 11, when she proceeded to Pictou, N.S., later continuing to Sydney, C.B. in order to join the slow Convoy SC 7 to the U.K. on Oct. 5, in which the Norwegian Snefjeld and several others were sunk; follow the links for more details. The escort's report is also available for this convoy. Karlander was bound for Sharpness with lumber, and arrived there on Oct. 29. It also looks like she spent quite a while at Barry later on, having arrived there from Sharpness on Nov. 15, leaving again on Dec. 15. According to A. Hague's record above, she had hit the jetty, and perhaps she had been damaged enough that repairs were required? According to the external website that I've linked to below, she was scheduled for Convoy OB 263, which originated in Liverpool on Dec. 23, but she did not sail (her destination was Halifax). When going back to the archive document, we learn that she arrived Halifax on Jan. 9-1941(remaining there for several weeks) - A. Hague says she had made this voyage independently. With pit props for Hull, she was scheduled for Convoy SC 22 on Febr. 8-1941, but did not sail. She did not leave Halifax again until Febr. 18, joining Convoy SC 23, but put back to St. John's, N.F. on March 1 (reason not given). From St. John's, she returned to Halifax (Page 1) and on March 30, we find her in station 32 of Convoy SC 27. See also this report (the Norwegian Favorit was sunk - again, follow the links for more info). Karlander arrived her destination, via Loch Ewe and Methil Roads, on Apr. 24. Related external link:
As mentioned, Karlander had arrived Hull from Halifax on Apr. 24-1941. She later left Hull Roads in ballast in a convoy on May 4 (EC 15 - see link within Voyage Record; Hallfried and Thalatta are also named, incomplete listing) with a crew of 24 and 2 British soldiers on board. She was bound for Curacao via Oban, arriving the latter on May 8 (see Page 2), where the British soldiers were replaced by 2 new ones (I'm not entirely sure whether they were gunners or just passengers, but she did have 2 Lewis guns and 2 Hutt guns which were fired by the British soldiers during the attack on the 14th, so they may have been her gunners). Departure Oban took place on May 12, Convoy OB 321 (again, see external link in the table above). This convoy had originated in Liverpool on May 11 and was later dispersed (May 17). Hallfried is again included, as are Ledaal and Sildra. On May 14, when in 55 36N 13 24W*, an aircraft was seen coming towards the convoy from the port side, flying very low, and as it was about 100 meters from Karlander it started to drop bombs, 1 of which fell close by on her port side, causing a heavy leak in the engine room. Within 20 minutes the water had risen, and she was listing heavily to port, so the captain ordered the crew to the lifeboats. They were picked up shortly thereafter by the rescue vessel Zaafaran (the rescue ship had also been attacked and bombed, but avoided damage). 3 hours later the corvette HMS Campanula announced that she had shelled and sunk Karlander at 10:20 am GMT. The survivors were landed in Gourock on May 20 and travelled to Glasgow that same day. Hearings were held there on May 27-1941 with the captain, the 1st mate, the 1st and 2nd engineers and Able Seaman Salvesen (helmsman at the time of attack) appearing.
Crew List - No Casualties:
Related external link: Back to Karlander on the "Ships starting with K" page. The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, "The Allied Convoy System", Arnold Hague, "Sjøforklaringer fra 2. verdenskrig", Volume I (Norwegian Maritime Museum), and misc. as named in the text - (ref. My sources).
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