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D/S Lab To Lab on the "Ships starting with L" page. Owner: A/S Lab Built in Oslo in 1912. Captain: Emanuel Edwardsen Related item 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. Errors may exist, and the record is incomplete.
Lab is listed among the ships in Convoy HN 9A from Norway to the U.K. in Jan.-1940. She arrived Blyth on Febr. 11, having lost touch with the convoy on Jan. 29. According to A. Hague, she went back to Norway again in Convoy ON 15, and on March 22, we find her in the original Advance Sailing Telegram for Convoy HN 21 from Norway, destination Calais, cargo of pulp, but I'm not entirely sure she actually got away in this convoy, because she's also listed in Convoy HN 23B, departing Norway on March 31, and this agrees with the information found on Page 1 of the archive documents, which adds that she arrived Shields on Apr. 6 (Norway was invaded on Apr. 9), proceeding to Calais later that month. As will be seen when following the links, several Norwegian ships took part in these convoys. Having made a couple of more voyages to France and back to the U.K. in May and June, she headed to Sydney, C.B. in July, with arrival there on Aug. 10 - I have no convoy information for this voyage. 5 days later, she proceeded to St. John, N.B., then returned to Sydney in order to join the slow Convoy SC 4 on Sept. 10, together with several other Norwegian ships. Lab was bound for Tyne with a cargo of lumber, and it looks like she had been cancelled from the faster Convoy HX 72, in which Simla and several others were sunk - follow the links for details. Lab subsequently traded around the U.K. until lost. The archive documents show her voyages, while convoy information for some of them can be found in the Voyage Record above. From Dec.-1941 until the end of March-1942 a British seaman by the name Thomas Patrick Shaw sailed as ordinary seaman on this ship. He had recently been torpedoed when serving on Rym. My page about Hallfried has a picture and more details on him, including some of his other WW II and post war ships. If anyone remembers this man, please contact me via the address provided at the end of this page.
Lab departed Southampton in ballast in the afternoon of Nov. 17-1942 in Convoy PW 250 bound for Swansea for orders (external link - incomplete listing). They proceeded to Corfe Roads, then continued towards Swansea at 10:30 a.m. on the 18th. At about 03:10 on Nov. 19 she was attacked by S-116, one of a group of 6 E-boats of the 5th S-Flottille under kapitänleutnant Klug, "5 miles south of Eddystone Lighthouse on a course West-half-North" according to the captain's statements at the subsequent hearings. In addition to Lab an escort trawler (Ullswater) and 2 other merchant ships were sunk (the British Yewforest and Birgitte). Lab was possibly hit by two torpedoes, the first of which struck on the port quarter, the resulting explosion blowing away the stern and killing 3 men there. The captain felt she was struck a second time "somewhere in the bunkers". The survivors were unable to launch the starboard lifeboat, but they got off in the port boat and rowed away from the ship which sank by the stern a few minutes later. They rowed and sailed towards the Eddystone Light and after having passed the Lighthouse at around 09:00 they encountered a British minesweeper which towed them to Plymouth, arriving at 11:30 a.m. Maritime hearings were held there on Nov. 21-1942 with the captain, the 1st mate, the 1st engineer, Ordinary Seaman Torleif Ask (helmsman) and the carpenter (lookout) appearing. They all stated they felt a 2nd torpedo had hit the ship. "Nortraships flåte" gives the position as 11 n. miles west-southwest of Eddystone Light. Charles Hocking agrees with 5 miles off the Eddystone Light. A visitor to my website has told me that she lies 4.5 miles southeast by east of Eddystone Rocks, according to "Shipwreck Index of the British Isles".
Related external link: Back to Lab on the "Ships starting with L" page. The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, "Sjøforklaringer fra 2. verdenskrig", Norwegian Maritime Museum, Volume I, and misc. (ref. My sources).
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