M/T Havfru
Updated Oct. 6-2011

To Havfru on the "Ships starting with H" page.


Source: Bjørn Pedersen's collection.

Another picture from July 19-1941 is available at the Australian War Memorial website (external link).
The caption reads: "Aerial starboard side view of the Norwegian tanker MV Havfru. She is armed with a 6 inch gun aft. This photograph was probably taken in Moreton Bay as she underwent inspections and temporary repairs after running aground near the Cape Moreton lighthouse on July 14. On 26 July 1941 she departed from Brisbane for Wellington, New Zealand, where more permanent repairs were performed". (See also Page 2 of the archive documents).
More pictures are available on this external page (click in them to make them larger).

Misc. War Voyages:

For information on voyages made prior to and in between those mentioned here, please see the documents received from the Norwegian archives and A. Hague's Voyage Record above.

As can be seen when going to Page 1 of the archive documents, Havfru was in Suez when war broke out in Norway on Apr. 9-1940. She had arrived there from Alexandria on Apr. 8. Some of her 1941 voyages are also shown on this document, while the rest are listed on Page 2, which also has her 1942 voyages. Page 3 lists her 1943 and early 1944 voyages. Convoy information for some of them can be found in the Voyage Record above.

Just a small tidbit from "Nortraships flåte"; Havfru reported seeing a surfaced U-boat far west of Madagaskar on July 9-1944. According to Page 4, she was on her way from Abadan to Fremantle on that date.

Skipping now to March-1945, when she's listed as sailing in Convoy HX 342*, departing New York on March 4. According to the archive document mentioned above, she arrived Londonderry on March 20, and from there, she returned across the Atlantic a couple of days later with Convoy ON 292* (Commodore in Ivaran), which left Southend on March 22 and arrived New York Apr. 8; Havfru sailed from Londonderry on March 22. From New York, she subsequently joined Convoy HX 350* on Apr. 13, and arrived The Downs Apr. 29. Havfru was equipped to replenish escort vessels on the Atlantic convoy crossings, supplying 5 Canadian corvettes on this last crossing. The rest of her cargo was unloaded at Thameshaven, and while there, several V-2 bombs hit the area, but no damage was caused to the oil installations.

Havfru left again in ballast in a convoy for New York on May 6. A. Hague suggests she may have joined Convoy ON 301* for this voyage (Commodore in Høyanger). At 03:45 on VE Day May 8, both engines were stopped (on order from the Commodore?) and shortly afterwards a powerful "bang" was heard, followed by a power failure. Due to all the confusion that occurred in the convoy Havfru was rammed by the American José Marti; screws and bolts and other items "rained" around the engine crew. Note that this ship is not listed in the same convoy, but is included in Convoy HX 352*, which arrived Liverpool from the U.S. on the date of the collision, May 8. At daylight it was decided to take Havfru to Portland (U.K.), where she arrived that same day. Tony Cooper, England has informed me that a survey was done at South Shields on May 22 in respect to the damage caused through this collision off Portland Bill while in thick fog. 3 injured seamen had been taken to Portland Royal Naval Hospital on arrival. She had sailed from there on May 15, arriving South(?) Shields on the 18th for repairs to 8 shell plates. (Please compare with Page 4).

The repairs took 6 weeks, and Havfru then continued to a U.S. port to pick up a cargo for Antwerp. According to Page 4 above, she left North Shields on July 20 and arrived New York on Aug. 3, left again 2 days later and arrived Antwerp on Aug. 20 - see Page 5, which also provides the additional information that she headed home to Norway in Oct.-1945.

Some crew members at the time of the collision:
2nd Mate Finn Anker Isaksen, Able Seamen Johan Tandberg, Jan Arthur Jørgensen, Arnt Abrahamsen, and Svenn Olsen, Ordinary Seaman Michael Goodhew (British?), 1st Engineer Peder Hansen, 3rd Engineer Fredrik Gustav Werner, British Gunner Sidney Heslop.

Some of the details in the last few paragraphs above were found in a story written by 1st Engineer Peder Hansen (see my sources below). From a snippet of information in his story, it looked to me like the Commodore Ship for this convoy may have been the Norwegian Temeraire, because he says that Albert Toft, of Talabot "fame", who later served on Temeraire was the captain of this convoy's Commodore Ship which, therefore, I thought may have been Temeraire. However, a posting to my Ship Forum by Temeraire's 2nd radio operator at the time, Dave Jeanes states that Temeraire departed her anchorage off Southend-on-Sea on May 7-1945, to sail independently to Melbourne, via the English Channel and then Panama, adding she was not in a convoy and therefore not the Commodore Ship for the convoy in which Havfru collided. On the other hand, Temeraire is indeed included in Convoy ON 301 (with a note saying she detached to proceed independently on May 18). As mentiond above, the Commodore for this convoy was in the Norwegian Høyanger.

Peder Hansen says 7 German U-boats (under British supervision) arrived Portland shortly after Havfru had anchored up there and he adds "whether it was these boats that had caused the commotion in the convoy I don't know".

Peder Hansen wanted to go home to Norway to see his family since the war was now over, but getting there proved difficult, until Kaupanger's captain one day came on board asking for some provisions. Havfru's captain agreed to comply, but on the condition that his engineer was given passage to Norway on Kaupanger, whereupon Peder Hansen boarded that ship (which had been under German control during the war) and arrived Skien on Sept. 3-1945 after having been away for 7 consecutive years. He had been on Havfru since Jan.-1940, previously on M/T Ora as 2nd engineer.

* The ON convoys will be added to individual pages in my Convoys section in due course, along with further details on each. In the meantime, the ships sailing in them (and escorts) are named in the section listing ships in all ON convoys. The HX series will also be updated and completed, but for now, please go to ships in all HX convoys for the names of other ships sailing in HX 342, HX 350 (and HX 352, in which José Marti had arrived the U.K.). It'll be noticed that several Norwegian ships took part.

POST WAR:

Sold in 1951 to Rio Blanco Cia. Nav. Panama, renamed Ambitious. Broken up in Baltimore in 1953.

Related external link:
The Australian War Memorial has several pictures of V-2 bombs, one picture has the caption: A sectionalised drawing showing the component parts of a German V-2 rocket (also designated A-4), while another photo has the caption: The first picture of the German V2 Flying Bomb which fell in Belgium.

Back to Havfru on the "Ships starting with H" page.

The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, Chief Engineer Peder Hansen's story in Arendal's Seamen's Association's 150th Anniversary Book by Kristen Taraldsen (which was very kindly sent to me by an acquaintance of the author's for me to use for this site), "Sjøforklaringer fra 2. verdenskrig", Norwegian Maritme Museum and misc. (ref. My sources).