D/S Kvernaas

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Source: Alf Helge Omre (from his father's personal album - ref. Fjordaas).
More pictures are available on this external page (click in them to make them larger).

Final Fate - 1940 (Norway still neutral:

Torpedoed and sunk by U 10 (Preuss) on Febr. 17-1940, while on a voyage from Rotterdam to Oslo with coke, position 51 50N 03 19E (4 miles northwest of Schouwen Bank, Holland). No casualties.

Arendal's Seamen's Association's 150th Anniversary Book (Kristen Taraldsen) states she was en route from Amsterdam to Oslo, having departed Amsterdam the day before. Due to the danger of mines in the North Sea the captain was ordered by the company to proceed along the east coast of England, following a course given by the British consulate in Amsterdam. The captain had also been given a map on which information about the minefields had been marked. At 01:25 on the date given above, after having passed Ijmuiden and Maas Light a powerful explosion occurred in the middle of the afterpart of the ship. The captain and 2nd Mate Torodd Müller were on the bridge at the time; the 3rd engineer managed to stop the engine before getting himself to safety. Kvernaas sank in 5 minutes. Her crew, who had gone in 2 lifeboats were picked up after 4 hours by the Dutch Oranjepolder, en route to London, but turned around and landed the 20 shipwrecked men at the pilot station in Hoek van Holland the next day. The maritime hearings were held in Rotterdam, and a couple of weeks later the crew travelled to Amsterdam. From there they were flown to Sweden, then travelled on to Norway by train.

This book says she was managed by Arnt Mørland's brother Jens Mørland. Before the war had even started in Norway, the Mørland company had lost 3 of its 6 ships (the other 2 being Fredville and Takstaas). It further states that Kvernaas had been stopped by a German U-boat when on a voyage from Arendal to Holland earlier that year, and taken to Kiel where she was kept for 16 days. However, parts of this appears to be an error. According to a posting to my Ship Forum she was stopped and examined by the German destroyer Wilhelm Heidkamp on Sept. 29-1939 in position 59 31N 06 18E, when on a voyage Sundsvall-Amsterdam, then instructed to go to Kiel. En route she was stopped by the German destroyer Hermann Künne in the afternoon of Sept. 30 and taken to Kiel with a prize crew on board. Freed on Oct. 13.

Charles Hocking states Kvernaas struck a mine and sank on the date given above.

Related external link:
U 10

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