M/S Kronprinsessen
Updated Dec. 6-2011

To Kronprinsessen on the "Ships starting with K" page.

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("Kronprinsessen" means "the Crown Princess").
Most of the "Empire"-named ships that were transferred from the British to the Norwegian flag during the war years were given the prefix "Nor" and some were named after members of the exiled Norwegian Royal Family.

She took on board some British naval personnel and equipment bound for Tristan da Cunha and the Falklands where the British had radio stations, then left Capetown on March 2 (Page 1 gives departure date as March 4) for Walvis Bay to join a convoy, then departed in a convoy the following day (see CN 11 in Voyage Record), though left the convoy after 3 days to continue south to Tristan da Cunha alone (the convoy was bound for the Caribbean) where some of the passengers were disembarked, before continuing to the Falklands the same day, March 13, arriving Port Stanley on March 23 where the rest of the passengers were disembarked the next day. Left for Punta Arenas, Argentina on March 24, from there to Valparaiso on March 27, with arrival Apr. 2.

Later that month she headed to New York, then on to St. John, N.B. and Halifax, joining Convoy HX 241, which had originated in New York on May 25-1943. Kronprinsessen joined the convoy from Halifax on May 29, taking station 84. She was bound for Manchester with general cargo, and was the only Norwegian ship joining from Halifax, but others had joined in New York. She arrived Manchester on June 13 (Page 1), later returning across the Atlantic in Convoy ON 191*, which left Liverpool on July 1 and arrived New York on the 15th. At the end of that month we find her in Convoy HX 250 from New York, general cargo for Liverpool, where she arrived Aug. 12. According to the Commodore's notes for this convoy, she was one of several ships of 10 1/2 knots and over that had been detached at 11:00 on Aug. 11 in order to proceed independently to Mersey. She subsequently joined the westbound Convoy ON 199*, departing Liverpool on Aug. 26, arriving New York Sept. 9; Kronprinsessen, however, was bound for Philadelphia, where she arrived on the 10th, according to Page 2 of the archive documents. From there, she proceeded to Hampton Roads and on to Port Said (Convoy UGS 19 - ref. external link provided in the table above).

Having returned to the U.S. in Febr.-1944 (Convoy GUS 28), she joined Convoy UGS 36 in March in order to go back to Port Said. The convoy onsisted of 72 (79? 83?) merchant ships and 18 landing crafts, escorted by 11 American destroyers. In Gibraltar the British cruiser (anti aircraft) Colombo was added, while 2 Dutch and 4 British ships were 6 n. miles ahead of the convoy on look-out for U-boats. The convoy was attacked on Apr. 1 (in the Mediterranean) by 20 two-motor Do-217's, 3 of which were shot down, 1 ship was damaged, according to "Nortraships flåte" (this was probably the American Jared Ingersoll). UGS 36 had departed Hampton Roads on March 14 and arrived Port Said on Apr. 9 (again, ref. external link in Voyage Record - see also link at the end of this page, which includes the Commodore's report).

German bombers, stationed in the south of France, posed a more serious threat to allied shipping in the Mediterranean than the U-boats did at this time, their primary goal being the large UGS convoys from the U.S. carrying supplies to the allied forces in Italy. On the other hand, the convoys' anti aircraft defence system was very strong, with aircraft patrolling night and day. Additionally, the merchant ships' own armament played a part in the defence, as did the squadrons stationed in North Africa and the special anti aircraft cruisers which often joined the escorts from Gibraltar, as well as the radar installations in the escorts which could detect the aircraft early and thereby give the convoys time to prepare for attack.

Skipping now to Aug. 17-1944, when I have her in Convoy HX 304 from New York, for which the Norwegian Emma Bakke served as the Vice Commodore's ship. Kronprinsessen was bound for Liverpool with a cargo of sugar, arriving there on Sept. 1, returning with Convoy ON 253*, which left Liverpool on Sept. 13 and arrived New York on the 28th. Her destination is given as Sydney, C.B.; according to Page 3, she arrived Sorel on Sept. 28, proceeding to Quebec Oct. 2. About a week later, she shows up in the Sydney, C.B. portion of Convoy HX 312, bound for Liverpool with a cargo of grain. She subsequently joined the westbound Convoy ON 264*, departing Southend Nov. 3, arriving New York Nov. 21, but Kronprinsessen was bound for Sydney, C.B., where she arrived on Nov. 18, continuing to Montreal and Quebec the next day. She later went back to the U.K. in Convoy HX 323, bound for Avonmouth with grain, arriving there on Dec. 14, again having joined the convoy from Sydney, C.B. Samuel Bakke served as Commodore Ship for HX 323, while the Vice Commodore was in Laurits swenson. Kronprinsessen's last Trans-Atlantic voyage that year was made in Convoy ON 274*, which left Southend on Dec. 23 and arrived New York Jan. 8-1945; this time, she was bound for Halifax, where she arrived on Jan. 6, having started out from Milford Haven on Dec. 25. (Commodore was again in Samuel Bakke).

With a cargo of grain for London, she returned to the U.K. later that month (Jan.-1945) in the Halifax portion of the New York-U.K. Convoy HX 333, and her last westbound North Atlantic convoy voyage was made in Convoy ON 285*, which departed Southend on Febr. 16 and arrived New York March 5; Kronprinsessen stopped at Halifax on March 2. Acanthus is named among the escorts, as is Buttercup (which came under the Norwegian flag following the loss of Tunsberg Castle) - see ON convoy escorts. Kronprinsessen now remained in Halifax for over a month, later heading to Alexandria and Haifa; again, see the Voyage Record above and Page 3. From the same document, we learn that she got to go home to Norway in Aug.-1945.

Among the documents for Kronprinsessen received from the National Archives of Norway, I also found this list of voyages, as well as this list. Unfortunately, no name is written on them so I'm not sure which ship they belong with, but as will be seen on Page 3, she's said to have left Trondheim, Norway for Hampton Roads on Sept. 15, and the 2nd document does mention Hampton Roads. The documents were arranged in alphabetical order, and the ship before her was Kronprinsen, the next ship was Kronviken. Kronviken was in a different part of the world in 1945, but it'll be noticed, when going to Kronprinsen's voyages in this period, that some of the voyages in the 1st document are the same; does it belong to Kronprinsen, or is it just a coincidence that the movements are the same?

* The ON convoys will be added to individual pages in my Convoys section in due course, along with further details on each. In the meantime, the ships sailing in them (and escorts) are named in the section listing ships in all ON convoys. As will be seen, they all had several Norwegian ships.

Related external link:
The Empire Ships - Empire Latimer can be found on this page. (Details on her post war history are a little different here - not sure which is correct).

Convoy UGS 36

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The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, some info received from Barbara Mumford (her source: Mitchell & Sawyer's "Empire Ships"), "Krigsseileren", Issue No. 4 for 1997, and misc. (ref. My sources).