Manager: C. T. Gogstad & Co., Oslo
Tonnage: 1416 gt

Built at Elsinore in 1933. Previous names: Ninna until 1935, Martinique until 1937.

Captain: Petter Martin Pedersen commanded her for a short while in Dec.-1941, before joining Thorstrand. He had also served on Vest - see this Guestbook message from his son. Also, Sverre Johnsen (from Dec. 12-1941, according to this external page). He had previously commanded Loke. Said to have died in an accident in New Orleans on March 10-1945. "Våre falne", a series of 4 books naming Norwegians who died during the war, gives the date as March 9, adding that he drowned when returning to his ship and had to step across a barge which had moved due to the current, and in the dark he did not notice it. He's buried in New Orleans.

Her voyages are listed on these original images from the Norwegian National Archives:
Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5 | Page 6 | Page 7

Follow the convoy links provided for more information on each.

Errors may exist, and several voyages are missing.

When war broke out in Norway on Apr. 9-1940, Lutz was on her way from New Orleans to Cardenas, where she arrived Apr. 11, having left New Orleans on Apr. 8. See Page 1. Her 1941 voyages also start on this document and continue on Page 2 and Page 3, which also shows her 1942 voyages. It'll be noticed that she appears to have spent quite a long time at Jacksonville that year. She had arrived there from Hampton Roads on Febr. 21 and departure is given as Apr. 28, when she proceeded to Savannah. A. Hague mentions in his record above that she had run ashore at Halifax on Febr. 3 and was refloated on the 9th, perhaps some repairs had been required? (Similar long stays in port are shown elsewhere in her record as well).

Lutz is mentioned among the ships leaving Halifax to form Convoy HX 195 on June 21-1942. Note, however, that Arnold Hague has not included her in this convoy (see his listing for HX 195 at ships in all HX convoys). In fact, she's listed by him as sailing from Halifax to St. John's, N.F. on that same date with Convoy HJ 6 (external link); she arrived St. John's on the 24th, according to Page 3. The information on my page about HX 195 is based on a diary, and the person who saw Lutz leaving port at the same time as the other ships in this convoy probably just assumed that she was also destined for HX 195.

She had a narrow escape when U-223 (Wächter) attacked Convoy SG 19 about 150 miles west of Cape Farewell with five torpedoes at 04:52 hours on Febr. 3-1943 (convoy had left St. John's for Greenland on Jan. 29). Two of them hit the Dorchester and sank her with the loss of 673 lives. The other torpedoes missed the Norwegian Biscaya and Lutz. All 3 ships had previously started out from New York on Jan. 22 with Convoy HX 224, and had left the convoy on Jan. 27 in order to proceed to St. John's. See also Page 4. Unfortunately, some numbers are missing in the left margin of this particular document and her voyage to Greenland is not detailed, other than saying her destination was Bluie West.

Robert Cressman, "The Official Chronology of the U.S. Navy in World War II" (ref. link to "Hyperwar" at the end of this page) has an entry for Febr. 3-1943 where he says Convoy SG 19, bound for Greenland, was escorted by Coast Guard cutters Tampa (WPG-48), Escanaba (WPG-77), and Comanche (WPG-76), adding that Dorchester was chartered by the War Department. Casualties are listed as 675 men, including 15 of the 24 Armed Guard sailors. He adds "four Army chaplains, representing four different faiths, bravely give up their lifebelts to soldiers who have none; all four perish with the ship". He also says that Biscaya was damaged in this attack.

Convoy SG 19 arrived Greenland on Febr. 4, and Lutz and Biscaya are said have to returned to St. John's with Convoy GS 21, departing Greenland on March 18-1943, arriving St. John's on the 23rd (going back to Page 4, we see that Lutz later spent a long time in Boston). In July that year, she's listed in another convoy to Greenland, namely SG 28, returning with GS 33 in Oct.-1943, so she was there for quite a long time - ref. external links provided within the table above.

Page 4 also has some of her 1944 voyages, these continue on Page 5; convoy information for some of them can be found in the Voyage Record above. Her 1945 voyages and a few 1946 voyages are listed on Page 6, while Page 7 shows her movements to Apr.-1946.

Related external links:
List of Greenland Convoys - Here's the the main page.

Hyperwar - Linked directly to Robert Cressman's information for 1943 (scroll down to Febr. 3).

The attack on Dorchester

Aa–Al	An–Ar	As–Av	Ba	Be	Bi–Bl	Bo	Br–Bu	C	D
E	F	G	Ha	He	Hi–Hy	Hø	I	J	K
L	M	N	O	PQ	R	Sa–Sc	Se–Sj	Sk–Sn	So
Sp–St	Su–Sø	Ta–Te	Th–Ti	To	Tr–Tø	U	V	W	Ø

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