M/S Tijuca - Norwegian Merchant Fleet 1939-1945

M/S Tijuca

To Tijuca on the "Ships starting with T" page.

Received from Sverre Johansen, Norway (postcard collection).

Manager: Wilh. Wilhelmsen, Tønsberg
Tonnage: 5498 gt, 3082 net, 8662 tdwt.
Dimensions: 418.0' x 54.5' x 27.5'.
Machinery: 2 x 6 cyl. 4 scsa oil engines totalling 4000 ihp by Burmeister & Wain's Maskin- og Skibsbyggeri A/S, Copenhagen, driving twin screws. Service speed 12 knots.

Launched on Sept. 2 1925 by Chantier et Ateliers de St. Nazaire (Penhoët) S.A., Grand Quevilly, Rouen (Yard No. E 5), completed March 2-1926. 1926-1936: 57,952 cu. ft. of refrigerated cargo space. 7 passengers.

Misc. War Details:

(More voyages will be added).

Tijuca is listed among the ships in Convoy HX 86 in Nov.-1940, bound for Belfast with a cargo of steel and general. As will be seen by clicking on the link, several Norwegian ships took part in this convoy.

Wilh. Wilhelmsen's fleet list states Tijuca struck a mine in the Bristol Channel on Jan. 12-1941 when outward bound from Avonmouth for Trinidad, but was able to proceed to Barry. "Nortraships flåte" says she was on her way to Barry when this occurred and was damaged enough that she had to be towed in afterwards. Barry and the ports in the Bristol Channel had been closed earlier that day while the area was being swept.

The external website that I've linked to at the end of this text, has Tijuca in station 62 of Convoy SL 106/SLF 106, which departed Freetown on Apr. 9-1942. Her destination is given as Belfast, and she had a cargo of general, wool and cotton. The fast section of this convoy, the SLF section, in which Tijuca sailed, was detached from the convoy on Apr. 22, and arrived Liverpool on the 29th, while the slow section arrived on May 2. The Norwegian Rio Branco also took part (slow section). Christmas of 1942 was spent in Convoy HX 219 which left New York on Dec. 13 and arrived Liverpool on the 29th. Tijuca was bound for Hull with general cargo, including pig iron, wheat and mail, and had station 23 of the convoy. In his notes, the Commodore names her captain as F. Fredriksen, and says he fired a snowflake, thereby endangering the safety of the entire convoy.

POST WAR:

Sold on Apr. 8-1952 to Olaf Pedersen's Rederi A/S (Olaf Pedersen, manager), Oslo and renamed Sunny Prince. Sold in 1958 to The People's Republic of China and renamed Hoping Ssu Shi Pa. Deleted from Lloyd's Register 1976-77 in the absence of up to date information about her continued existence.

Related external link:
SL convoys and OS/KMS Convoys - The site also has a section for the Russian convoys, and a very useful Multi-Convoy Web Search feature - here's the main page. As can be seen, Tijuca is listed in Convoy SL 106/SLF 106.