D/S Silja

To Silja on the "Ships starting with S" page.


Received from Lillesand Sjømannsforening, Norway (external link).

Manager: K. Sandaas, Kragerø
Tonnage: 1259 gt.

Final fate - 1940 (Norway still neutral):

Requisitioned by the Norwegian authorities in the fall of 1939 and was on a voyage from Trapani (Jan. 26) with a cargo of salt for Bergen via Gibraltar, departing Gibraltar on Febr. 5-1940 and was never heard from again. Believed to have been torpedoed and sunk on Febr. 10-1940 by U-37 (Hartmann), 51 21N 11 32W.

For info, U-37 was also responsible for the attacks on Hop, Tosca and Keret - follow the links for details.

Crew List - No survivors:
Info from the Norwegian magazine "Krigsseileren", Issue No. 1 for 1973, which says Silja had a complement of 15.

Casualties
† Captain Knut Jensen	† 1st Mate Johan Meidel Pedersen	† 2nd Mate Gudmund Hansen	† Able Seman Thomas Andersen	† Seaman Nils Pedersen	† Ordinary Seaman A. Tilts (Estonian)
† 1st Engineer Kristian Hjertaas	† 2nd Engineer Ludwig Karlsen	† Donkeyman Emery Elki	† Deckboy Ragnvald Hansen	† Stoker Kristian Juel Kristensen	† Stoker Nils Kristiansen
† Steward Einar Sørensen	† Galley Boy Kåre Svendsen	† Mess Boy Kåre Fridtjof Berg

Related external links:
Stavern Memorial commemorations - 16 Norwegians are commemorated here, birthdates and hometowns are included. The spelling of the names are somewhat different from my list above, and some of the titles are also different. Emery Elki (first name spelt Emerich) is listed as stoker, Captain Knut Jensen is listed as mate, and 2 extra stokers, Klaus Edvard Pedersen and Bjarne Schultz Klæboe are included; according to "Våre falne", a series of 4 books naming Norwegian WW II casualties, they both served as stokers on D/S Start and died when she was sunk in Jan.-1940 - in fact, the memorial has included them both among the casualties for Start as well - it's possible they had previously served on Silja?

Operation information for U-37

U-37 | Werner Hartmann

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