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M/T Pan Europe To Pan Europe on the "Ships starting with P" page. Manager: Leif Høegh & Co. A/S, Oslo Completed by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson Ltd., Newcastle in Aug-1931. Captain: Wilhelm Jacobsen. Pan Europe transported 46 cargoes of oil, 26 of which were for the American Navy, to various theatres of war.
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 as can be seen, her 1940 and 1941 voyages are not included.
As will be seen when going to Page 1 of the archive documents, Pan Europe was on her way from Dunedin to Brisbane when war broke out in Norway on Apr. 9-1940. Her 1941 voyages also start on this document. In Nov.-1941, she was one of the Norwegian ships that helped search for survivors of HMAS Sydney, but none were found (Herstein and Hermion were also involved, and according to this posting on my Ship Forum, Nordnes and the Panamanian Ohio also took part - not sure if the latter is correct). Sydney had sunk, and had herself been sunk (with the loss of all her men) by the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran on Nov. 19 (survivors from the German ship had been rescued from rafts and lifeboats southwest of Carnarvon, West Australia by allied ships on Nov. 24). My page about Hermion has some links to more details on Sydney's loss (incl. link to complete crew list). According to Page 2, Pan Europe had sailed from Singapore on Nov. 19 and arrived Melbourne Dec. 5. A few days later, three days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the loss of the battle ships Prince of Wales and Repulse stunned the world. (The Norwegian Hai Lee transported 150 survivors from those ships from Singapore to Batavia). By the end of the month the Allies had suffered one military defeat after another, due to the rapidly advancing Japanese forces. As the new year of 1942 dawned, supplies and reinforcements had to be shipped to new theaters of operations. Singapore, the Dutch East Indies, the Pacific Islands and even Australia were threatened, and in the course of January, February and March 1942 a steady stream of important military convoys crossed The Indian Ocean to the war zone in the Far East, as well as from Australia and north to the vulnerable areas. The first convoy from Australia to Singapore, Convoy MS 1, left Melbourne on Jan. 10-1942, reaching the Sunda Straits on the 28th (arrived Singapore Jan. 31 - see link within the Voyage Record above, as well as at the end of this page). Pan Europe was in this convoy, but while the rest of the ships continued on, she was held back due to the fact that Singapore was under serious threat of the advancing Japanese forces at the time, and also under continuous air attacks. Note that Page 2 of the archive documents states that Pan Europe had departed Melbourne on Jan. 3, not Jan. 10; her destination is given as Fremantle. Her arrival there is not shown on the document but A. Hague gives Jan. 11. She left Fremantle again on Jan. 19 and arrived Palembang Febr. 1. Did she join Convoy MS 1 from Fremantle, several days after it had left Melbourne? (The battle of Palembang started just a couple of weeks later - ref. external link at the end of this page). One Norwegian ship after another found itself right in the middle of this new threat, Hermion, Hindanger, Hellas, Herborg, Herstein, Prominent, Eidsvoll, Erling Brøvig, Elsa, Seirstad, Tunni, Bordvik, Proteus - some survived, others were less fortunate. More details on all of them can be found with the help of the alphabet index at the end of this page, or go to the Master Ship Index. It looks like Pan Europe spent quite a long time in Melbourne that spring. She had arrived there from Abadan on May 24, and A. Hague gives departure as July 28, when she returned to Abadan, with arrival Aug. 30. She left Abadan again on Sept. 3, arriving Melbourne Oct. 7, and is subsequently listed, together with the Norwegian Fingal, in Convoy OC 35, which left Melbourne on Oct. 14 and arrived Newcastle, N.S.W. on the 18th (Pan Europe is said to have been detached the day before) - also available via link in the table above. Her destination is not given, but going back to Page 2, we learn that she arrived Los Angeles on Nov. 16, remaining there for several weeks, before returning to Australia in Jan.-1943. The archive document mentioned above also shows some 1943 voyages, while the rest are listed on Page 3. It'll be noticed that she appears to have had a long stay in Vancouver at the end of that year (unless some movements are missing from the record). Just a little snippet of information - on my Ship forum there's a message stating the following: She also had a long stay in Baltimore at the end of 1944. She had arrived there from New York City on Oct. 29 and departure is given as Dec. 21, when she proceeded to Aruba - see Page 4. Her 1945 voyages also start on this document. In the spring of 1945, Arnold Hague has included her in Convoy HX 353, which departed New York on Apr. 29 and arrived Liverpool May 15 (in other words, VE Day was celebrated at sea - the archive document gives Pan Europe's destination as London). This convoy is not yet available among the HX convoys included on my website, but will be added - see Ships in all HX convoys; the Norwegian Kaia Knudsen, Samuel Bakke (Commodore Vessel), Skotaas, Solfonn, Stiklestad and Vardefjell are also named. Most of them, including Pan Europe, returned with the westbound North Atlantic Convoy ON 304, departing Southend on May 21, arriving New York on June 5. This convoy will also be added to an individual page in my Convoys section, but for now, the ships sailing in it are named on this page. Kaia Knudsen, Solfonn, Stiklestad and Vardefjell are again listed. Pan Europe's subsequent voyages are shown on Page 5 (to Apr.-1946).
Sold in May-1950 to Norddeutsche Reederei GmbH, Hamburg (of which J. A. Reinecke later became manager), West Germany and renamed Europa. Arrived Hamburg in July-1954 to be broken up by Eckhardt & Co. External links related to the text on this page: Force Z Survivors Association - Has info on the sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse, includes HMS Prince of Wales crew members and HMS Repulse crew members. Back to Pan Europe on the "Ships starting with P" page. The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, Leif Høegh & Co. fleet list and misc.
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