Site Map | Search Warsailors.com | Merchant Fleet Main Page | Warsailors.com Home |
|
D/S Polarland To Polarland on the "Ships starting with P" page. Owner: D/S A/S Vestland Delivered in Oct.-1923 from Laxevaag Maskin- og Jernskibsbyggeri, Bergen, Norway (135) as Polarland to D/S A/S Vestland (Rich. Amlie), Haugesund. 246' x 37.9' x 15.7', Triple exp. (Laxevaag), 164 nhp. Managed by Rich. Amlie & Sverre Amlie, Haugesund from 1936. Captain: Finn N. Abrahamsen Related item on this website:
Her voyages are listed on these original images from the Norwegian National Archives:
Polarland is mentioned in a document I have for Convoy SC 76, which left Halifax for the U.K. on March 24-1942. However, please note that she's not mentioned in the Advance Sailing Telegram for this convoy, so she probably left Halifax that day for other reasons than to join this convoy. She arrived Argentia on March 28. On Sept. 12 that year she's mentioned among the ships in Convoy SC 100, but again, it looks like she left Halifax that day for other reasons than to join this convoy. In fact, according to Arnold Hague, she joined Convoy HJ 11 that day, and was bound for St. John's, N.F., where she arrived Sept. 16 - see Page 3. Arnold Hague has also included Polarland in Convoy SC 105, which originated in New York on Oct. 11-1942. Her destination is given as St. John's only. This convoy is not available among the SC convoys in my own Convoys section, but I've linked directly to Hague's listing below. I'm not entirely convinced she sailed in this convoy, as it does not quite match up with the details found on the archive document mentioned above. She did sail to St. John's in this time period, having left Sydney, C.B. on Oct. 15, but for this voyage, Hague has her in Convoy LC 50. She arrived St. John's on Oct. 19. The following year, she was fortunate to miss what has been dubbed the worst convoy battle of the war fought in the North Atlantic. This took place in March-1943 and the two eastbound convoys SC 122 and HX 229 were involved. Gudvor, Askepot and Polarland had started out from New York in Convoy SC 122 on March 5, but only Askepot was present when the attacks started, the other 2 having lost the convoy in a storm and returned to port. The battle lasted for 5 days and when it was over on March 20, 22 merchant ships had been sunk, with HX 229 being the hardest hit (Abraham Lincoln was the Commodore Vessel for HX 229 in which Elin K was sunk) - only one U-boat was sunk by airplane on March 19. Please follow the links to my pages about these convoys for much more information; see also the external links below. According to Page 4, Polarland left New York again on March 12 and arrived Halifax on the 15th. Related external links: HX 229, 16-19 March | SC 122, 17 -19 March - the battle day by day (uboat net has 37 ships in HX 229 and 50 in SC 122). More on this battle - Scroll down on the page (from USMM in WW II).
In the afternoon of Jan. 4-1945 Polarland was in station 31 of Convoy SH 194, on a voyage from St. Lawrence, N.F. and Sydney, N.S. (departed the latter Jan. 3) for Halifax and Philadelphia, with a cargo of 1200 tons of fluor spar, when a torpedo struck on the port side (in view of land off Halifax, about 4 n. miles away) and she sank within 15 seconds, 44 30N 63 00W. 2 men were able to throw themselves onto a raft which floated clear of the ship as she sank, another 3 came to the surface nearby and were also helped onto the raft. All the survivors had been on the poop when the attack occurred. The torpedo had come from U-1232 (Dobratz), which had also torpedoed the Canadian M/T Nipiwan Park shortly before Polarland was hit, and the alarm had been sounded on Polarland so that all on board had been called out. The survivors were picked up about an hour later by the Canadian mine-sweeping sloop HMCS Kentville (J-312) and landed in Halifax where an inquiry was held on Jan. 6-1945 with all 5 survivors appearing. Rohwer also lists the Canadian minesweeper HDML 1163 as damaged by this U-boat. Position is given as 44 30N 63W for all 3 vessels.
Related external links: Stavern Memorial commemorations - 20 are commemorated here. Seaman Anton Thomassen died on Jan. 25-1941 after an accident on board. There's also a Mate Sigvald Andreas Eide listed - perhaps he too had died previously? Back to Polarland on the "Ships starting with P" page. The company later had another Polarland, built in Haugesund 1966, 12 877 gt. Became Iscelu in 1977 (Georgetown), Turkish Trakya in 1981, Trakya I of Istanbul that same year, Panama registered Lung Hao in 1989. Wrecked by typhoon Sarah near Hualien on Sept. 12-1989. The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, "Sjøforklaringer fra 2. verdenskrig", Volume II (Norwegian Maritime Museum), and misc. (ref. My sources).
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
