Manager: Nortraship
Tonnage: 7209 gt

Launched by Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyards Inc., Baltimore (2350) as William Hodson (Liberty Ship), completed Apr. 13-1944. 1 of 10 ships transferred to the Norwegian flag in 1944. See my page "Ship Statistics & Misc." under "gains" 1944 for a list of all 10. Sverre Helmersen was transferred to Nortraship in Baltimore on April 22.

Captain: August Chr. Konow.

Following delivery in Apr.-1944, she travelled from Baltimore to Philadelphia, then on to Hampton Roads, joining Convoy UGS 42 from there in May-1944, but returned to port, later joining UGS 43, which left Hampton Roads on May 23 and arrived Port Said, her destination at the time, on June 18. The Norwegian Fernplant, Garonne, Heimvard, Norelg, Tatra and Trondheim are also listed. Later that month she appears in Convoy AP 73 from Aden to Bandar Abbas, departing June 26-1944, arriving July 3. Heimvard was again in company, as was Polartank. She subsequently made some independent voyages to Bahrein, Khorram Shahr, Capetown, Buenos Aires, and Rio de Janeiro. She left Rio on Sept. 23 in Convoy JT 45 to Trinidad, with arrival there on Oct. 6, departing the following day for Philadelphia, where she arrived on Oct. 16. All the convoys mentioned here are available via the external links provided at the end of this page.

From Philadelphia she sailed to New York at the end of Oct.-1944, arriving New York Nov. 1, then joined Convoy HX 318 to the U.K. Sverre Helmersen had a general cargo and had station 14 of the convoy, which left New York on Nov. 4, and arrived Liverpool on Nov. 19. She returned to New York with the westbound North Atlantic Convoy ON 273*, which left Southend on Dec. 18-1944 and arrived New York on Jan. 4-1945. The Norwegian Frithjof Nansen, Glarona, Kaia Knudsen, Morgenen, Reinholt, and Skotaas are also listed.

Sverre Helmersen, general cargo for Liverpool, went back to the U.K. again in Convoy HX 333 (departed New York Jan. 18-1945, arrived Liverpool Febr. 1 - follow the link for more convoy details), subsequently heading back across the ocean on Febr. 11 with the westbound Convoy ON 284*, which arrived New York on March 1. She was again in the company of a number of other Norwegian ships, namely Abraham Lincoln, Fernwood, Noreg, Norsol, Toronto, Troubadour and Velma. According to the external website already mentioned, she later joined Convoy HX 347, departing New York on March 29-1945, arriving Liverpool on Apr. 14. Brasil, Buenos Aires, Dalfonn, Fenris, Lektor Garbo, Marit II, Roald Amundsen, Sophocles, and Thorsholm are also listed, as is the Panamanian Norlys, which had Norwegian managers and is, therefore, included under the N's on this website. Sverre Helmersen had station 124 of the convoy, carrying a general cargo and engineers equipment.

The same website has her, again with Roald Amundsen, in Convoy TAM 139, which left Southend on Apr. 15-1945 and arrived Antwerp the next day.

She was for a long time thought to have struck a mine off Ramsgate on Apr. 22-1945, but after the war it was determined she had been torpedoed by U-2329** (Schlott), no casualties. (I've seen mention of D/S Akershus being on the scene, helping with the salvage). She was taken in tow to Falmouth, declared a total loss. According to "Lloyd's War Losses, Vol. I" she was on a voyage from Antwerp to New York in ballast at the time, and was towed to Cowes Roads (arr. Apr. 26), then proceeded to Falmouth in June (arr. June 22). Left River Fall July 22-1948 for Zeebrugge for breaking up.

* The 2 ON convoys mentioned above will be added to individual pages in my Convoys section in due course, with more information on each; in the meantime, the ships sailing in them are named in the section listing ships in all ON convoys.

** Jürgen Rohwer states in his "Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two" that U-2329 did not confirm the attack on Sverre Helmersen. He suggests a midget submarine (KU 5) might have been behind the attack but that's not proven either. He gives the date as Apr. 23 and the position as 51 28N 01 55W, adding that she was not repaired. ("Liberty Ships in peacetime", I. G. Stewart gives the position as 51 19N 1 47E(?), but gives the mine theory). Note also that she's included in Convoy ATM 133 from Antwerp on Apr. 23-1945 at the external site below.

For more information on all the other Norwegian ships mentioned on this page, please see the alphabet index, or go to the Master Ship Index.

Related external links:
Misc. convoys - By clicking on "Ship Search", typing part of her name as keyword, the above mentioned convoys will come up. Here are UGS 42, UGS 43, AP 73, JT 45, HX 347, TAM 139, and ATM 133.

Liberty Ships - William Hodson is listed on this page. This site says she was launched on June 29-1944, delivered July 12. This site, however (the Empire Ships website) says she was completed in Apr.-1944.

Back to Sverre Helmersen on the "Ships starting with S" page.

The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, and misc. other as named in the above narrative, including the first external website that I've linked to above, which is based on Arnold Hague's research.

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

Site Map | Search Warsailors.com |Merchant Fleet Main Page | Warsailors.com Home