Manager: Nortraship
Tonnage: 7247 gt

Delivered in May-1945 from Todd Houston Shipbuilding Co., Houston as Alfred L Baxley (204) to US War Shipping Administration, Houston (Liberty Ship). "Våre gamle skip" gives tonnages as 7542 gt, 3377 net, 10 731 tdwt, 441.5' x 57' x 34.9', Triple exp. 2500 ihp (Houston Hendy Iron Works). On bareboat charter to Nortraship with the name Lektor Garbo, taken over in Houston on March 7-1945.

She was 1 of 5 ships that were taken over by Nortraship from American ship yards in 1945. The others were T/T Finnmark, D/S Carl Oftedal, T/T Honningsvaag and T/T Hammerfest (all discussed on this website; see the Master Ship Index).

Her voyages are listed on this original image received from the National Archives of Norway.

Some Convoy Voyages:

Following delivery in Houston in March-1945, Lektor Garbo sailed to New York (see archive doc), then joined Convoy HX 347, which left New York for the U.K. on March 29. She carried explosives and gliders, and had station 62. This convoy is not yet included among the HX convoys listed on my site, but will be added - see ships in all HX convoys. The Norwegian Brasil, Buenos Aires, Dalfonn, Fenris, Marit II, Roald Amundsen, Sophocles (Commodore Vessel), Sverre Helmersen and Thorsholm are also listed, as is the Panamanian Norlys, which had Norwegian managers and is, therefore, listed under the N's on this website.

Lektor Garbo headed back to New York the following month with Convoy ON 299, which departed Southend on Apr. 26 and arrived New York on May 13; in other words, VE Day was celebrated while at sea. This convoy will also be added to an individual page in my Convoys section in due course; in the meantime, the ships sailing in it are named on this page. As can be seen, Buenos Aires and Sophocles were again in company, as were Fagerfjell, Glarona and Kaldfonn. (For more information on all the other Norwegian ships mentioned here, please see the Master Ship Index).

On her return voyage to the U.K. no convoy was necessary; she left New York again on May 29-1945, arriving Downs on June 10 (according to A. Hague), subsequently proceeding to Antwerp the next day. From there she sailed to New York and Baltimore (June/July), back to Antwerp, again to New York and Baltimore, on to St. Nazaire (Sept.-1945), then back to Antwerp again, with arrival Oct. 14, and from there back to New York, where she arrived Nov. 17, remaining there for quite a long time. According to the archive document, she did not leave New York until Jan. 29-1946. It'll be noticed, that she later headed to Oslo, Norway in July-1946, but arrival is not given.

POST WAR:

Purchased by A/S Theologos (Nils Røgenæs), Haugesund in Sept. (Oct.?)-1946 and renamed N. O. Røgenæs in 1947. In worldwide tramping. Sold in Febr.-1960 and renamed Kalu, Namdal Shipping & Trading Co. (Carl Aune & Cia. Lda., Rio de Janeiro), Liberian flag. To Companhia Nav. e Comercio Pan-American, Rio de Janeiro 1961, Brazilian flag. Broken up in Brazil in Apr.-1973.

Related external links:
Liberty Ships - Unfortunately, the list no longer appears to be included at this site (unfortunate, because I have 100's of links to it from my Convoys section). If I remember correctly, that particular section was hosted by Peter Thompson, who has now moved to a different site, but I cannot find his list of Liberty Ships. I'll leave the link up for now until I can find out whether it's still available somewhere. I did find an identical page here, but as will be seen, the alphabetical links receive an error.