D/S Varøy

To Varøy on the "Ships starting with V" page.

Crew List


This was received from John McCreadie, who has also posted this message to my Guestbook, naming other Norwegian seamen (the gravestones are at Cardonald Cemetery in Glasgow, Scotland).
Checking with "Våre falne", a series of 4 books listing Norwegian WW II fatalities, I find that Olav Margido Berg became ill and died in Glasgow on the date given. He served on Varøy at the time.
I can't find Osvald B. Hansen in these books, but for information on Rolf Christophersen, please see Bergensfjord.

In the summer of 1941 she's listed in the westbound North Atlantic Convoy ON 1, leaving Liverpool on July 26-1941 with several Norwegian ships, as will be seen by following the link. Varøy was only bound for Iceland.

Final Fate - 1942:

Varøy sank following a collision in convoy off Gt. Yarmouth on Oct. 8-1942 on a voyage Southend-Grangemouth. A visitor to my website has told me she had departed Gravesend on Oct. 3-1942 for Cliffe to load cement, left again on Oct. 6, then left Thames that same day for Grangemouth in Convoy FN 33* in station No. 2, cargo of 1825 tons cement. Most of this agrees with the captain's report, however, he says they did not get away until 11:30 in the morning of Oct. 7 due to fog, and that Varøy was No. L 17 F (not sure what this means) and was to be the 4th vessel in the starboard column, the ships bearing even numbers being assigned to the port column, those with odd numbers to the starboard column. He adds that although L 13 F and L 15 F were included in the cruising order, no names of the vessels were given, and when the convoy formed up, Varøy took up the 2nd position in the starboard column, i.e, right behind the Vice Commodore ship. The only other ships he remembers are Mr. Therm(?), Commodore Vessel, Commander Taylor R.N.R., leading the port column, and the Norwegian Ask which was stationed somewhere astern of them. According to convoy orders the columns were to keep 3 cables apart and the ships in each column 2 cables behind each other. The escorts were HMS Wallace (S.O.) in the front and HMS Quantock in the rear. The other escorts did not join in time because of the fog. The convoy was diverted through the Would Channel, and kept clear of the fog.

* This convoy has been designated FN 833 by Arnold Hague (FN 33/Phase 9) - see this external page. In addition to Ask, the Norwegian Stirlingville is also listed, but the info is otherwise incomplete (only 6 of 23 ships are named).

Originally, the speed was set to 7 1/2 knots but as they left Southend a little late the speed was about 8 to 8 1/2 knots. That afternoon the 1st mate picked up a flag signal from the Commodore saying that the speed was to be 8 knots and orders were given to the engine room accordingly. At that time, the rule was that ships trading in the North Sea should not exhibit lights, unless necessary to avoid collisions, so no ships in the convoy had their lights lit.

At 1.55 am (engine room time) on Oct. 8, when 5.2miles off Cromer, Norfolk Varøy collided with Francis Fladgate, in station 5 of the same column. The captain of Varøy says this happened when they were between Buoys 8b and 57g, having passed No. 8a buoy at 1.28 am. The weather at the time was thick fog with heavy rain. Both ships were steaming at 7.5 knots; neither had time to swing, and the angle of impact was estimated as 45° from aft by Francis Fladgate, and 70° by Varøy, which was struck in No. 2 hold. Her deck was raised about 2-3', the side set in 2-3' and she was settling down by the head very quickly, so the crew was ordered to the boats. At the time of the collision the convoy was already in considerable confusion, partly due to the darkness, partly owing to the fact that Helmwood, a ship in the convoy, had collided with a tug at anchor at about 1:30 am, 1/4 mile west of 8a buoy.

The 2 lifeboats left the ship about 02:10 and pulled over to a buoy where they were tied up until picked up by ML 201 at 02:30 and taken to Grimsby. Varøy sank in about 20 minutes, position 52 58 24N 1 28 45E. In the captain's opinion the collision was caused by Francis Fladgate getting out of her position in the convoy and altering course to port towards the ship in the starboard column, and he thinks that when she saw that she was outside the starboard column she attempted to fall in astern of Varøy but misjudged the distance and struck her in the starboard side with her stem. (It would be interesting to read Francis Fladgate's report, which probably blames the Norwegian ship).

Crew List - No casualties:

Captain Berge Andreassen	1st Mate Ole Hovlandsvåg	2nd Mate Søren Gram	Boatswain Olaf M. Brekvam	Able Seaman Erling Koppen	Able Seaman Norman Nilsen
Able Seaman Arthur Fon	Able Seaman John Wilson (British)	Ordinary Seaman Trygve Moldøy	Ordinary Seaman Johannes Johansen	1st Engineer Karl M. Wråldsen	2nd Engineer Odd Hansen
Donkeyman Henry Langeland	Stoker William Litherland (British)	Stoker Trygve Saastad	Stoker Erns Schaal (Nationality?)	Trimmer Sigurd Halvorsen	Trimmer Adolf Skorpeide
Steward Monrad Jacobsen	Cook Gotfred Aronsen	Mess Boy George Henry Swale (British)	Gunner Hans J. Hansen	Gunner Henry Tangen	+ 2 more?

Related external link:
Knutsen OAS Shipping today - with a brief history of the company.

Back to Varøy on the "Ships starting with V" page.

The company had previously had another steamer by this name, delivered in Oct.-1883 as Gambetta to S. M. Kuhnle, Bergen, 564 gt. Purchased by Knut Knutsen O.A.S. in July-1912 and renamed Varø, then Varøy in 1916. Ran aground on Aug. 16-1922 near Langanes, Iceland on a voyage Haugesund-Siglufjordur in ballast. The captain was fined.

The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "Våre gamle skip", Leif M. Bjørkelund & E. H. Kongshavn (pre war history), "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, "Sjøforklaringer fra 2. verdenskrig", Volume II, Norwegian Maritime Museum - (ref. My sources).