Norwegian Victims of Orion - Norwegian Merchant Fleet 1939-1945 (original) (raw)

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**MORE FACTS ON ORION:**HSK 1 SCHIFF 36 was formerly the D/S Kurmark, belonging to Hapag (Hamburg-Amerika-Linie), 7021 gt, built in Hamburg in 1930 with a maxmum speed of 14.8 knots. She was sent out on Apr. 6-1940 under the command of Kurt Weyher and ended up right in the middle of the battle for Norway with warships going to and fro in every direction in the North Sea (Orion was disguised as the Dutch Beemsterdijk at the time, but once passed the Arctic Circle she became the Russian Soviet). She returned to Germany in Aug.-1941 after having captured 8 Allied ships, as well as 2 together with Komet. She had proven to be unsuited as an auxiliary cruiser and was not sent out again.

Armament:
Six 5.9 inch, one 75 mm, one twin 37 mm, four 20 mm, six 21 inch torpedo tubes, 228 mines. One Arado 196 aircraft, later one Nakajima 90-11.

Ships sunk or taken by Orion (in chronological order):

Apr. 6-1940/Aug. 23-1941:
Haxby, Tropic Sea, Notou, Turakina, Ringwood, Triadic, Triaster, Chaucer.

Together with Komet: Triona and Rangitane.

Sunk by Orion's mines:
Niagara and H.M.N.Z.S. Puriri.

See also
Enemy attack on shipping at Nauru

Related external links:
Orion - Ship 36 - Has a lot of information on this ship, its voyages and captures ("Mac's Web Log"). Also, a picture, as well as a picture of her aircraft. According to this site Orion was later renamed Haktor, sunk by bornbs off Swinemunde on May 4-1945. Kurt Weyher had various Naval posts in the Black Sea, Crete, and in the east Frisian Islands.

Map showing Orion's cruise - (On the website Arsenal of Dictatorship, which also has a section about the German raiders. There's also a Map showing Komet's cruise).

Orion, HSK 1 - From the website Schiffsregister der Kriegsmarine.

RMS Rangitane - A website about the sinking of this ship. Includes a crew and passenger list.

German Raiders of the Pacific - Includes information on the sinkig of Turakina and others, and many pictures (keep clicking on "next section" at the bottom of the page). From New Zealand Electronic Text Centre. Here's a table of contents.

Owner: Rederiet Vindeggen A/S.
Manager: Chr. Østberg, Oslo
Tonnage: 5781 gt, 3560 net, 8750 tdwt.
Call Sign: LJLG.

(Click on Tropic Sea above to go to that ship on the Ships starting with T page).

Her voyages prior to capture are listed on this original document received from the National Archives of Norway.

Captain: Henrik Nicolaysen.

Departed Sydney, Australia on June 8-1940 with 8000 tons wheat in bulk for New York, via the Panama Canal. Captured by Orion on June 18-1940, about 800 miles east of the Kermadec Islands, 28 48S 160 38W (captain's report gives 28 04S 166 04W). The captain, his wife and 14 of his men were taken on board the Orion and kept as prisoners. Following a rendevouz with the tanker Winnetou (Fritz Steinkrauss) for provisioning and fuelling, Tropic Sea was released on June 30, and with a prize crew of 28 under the command of Leutenant Steinkrauss, 23 prisoners from the previously sunk British D/S Haxby (Apr. 24 - Captain Cornelius Arundell, 1st mate Lockhart Dobbie McKirdy) and the crew from Tropic Sea she departed for France, with estimated arrival Bordeaux on Sept. 4 (Muggenthaler [German Raiders of WW II] says she had 55 prisoners, including 24 from Haxby).

Tropic Sea was scuttled on Sept. 3 in 46 30N 11 30W (Bay of Biscay), when intercepted by the British submarine HMS Truant (H. A. V. Haggard). The sub took on board the 23 British seamen as well as Captain Nicolaysen and his wife. Another 10, including 1st Mate Drevik were picked up from a lifeboat on Sept. 4 by a Sunderland flying boat and taken to Plymouth, while by that time 2nd mate Rolf Henriksen's lifeboat with 20 men, as well as the Germans' boat(s?) were well on their way to Spain, landing at Corunna on Sept. 7. From there they were taken to Vigo.

8 of the Norwegians chose to return to Norway, while the rest continued to sail for Nortraship.

Rohwer gives the position 46 50N 11 50W for the scuttling of Tropic Sea.

Summary of the captain's report:

Maritime inquiry - Gibraltar Sept. 9-1940

Captain Nicolaysen says they sighted a large steamer on the starboard bow at 7 am on June 18, and at 10:30, when in position 28 04S 166 04W(?), the ship was abreast, 1 to 1 1/2 mile off. The captain was below, but upon hearing the shot fired across their bows he ran up on the bridge, where the 3rd mate was on watch. Tropic Sea was proceeding at a greater speed than the other vessel and was about to overtake it, but Orion increased her speed and when another 2 shots were fired, Captain Nicolaysen decided to stop the engines. A signal was hoisted on the raider, telling them to refrain from using the wireless. The captain ordered both amidships lifeboats to be lowered. He noticed that the raider was also preparing to launch a boat, but when she manouevered astern of Tropic Sea he decided to take the ship's papers over to the raider in the starboard lifeboat. Half way, he met the raider's boat and was ordered to return to his ship, however, this order was changed and he was sent over to Orion, where he was told to go into the saloon where the papers were examined by Weyher and his officers. Upon finding that the cargo had been shipped from an Australian port and was to be delivered at New York to the order of the Commonwealth Bank, they told the captain he would have to stay on board for about 4 days, because they had to communicate with Germany to find out what to do with the ship and cargo. The 1st and 2nd mates, the 1st engineer and 11 crew were also ordered to come on board, and they were all locked up in the hold. The officers were brought up on deck every morning for about 6 days and locked up in a small mess room on the port side of the bridge deck until 9 p.m., at which time they were sent back to the hold. During the last 6 days they were only allowed 1 hour on deck on 1 day only, while the crew was allowed 1 hour daily for the first 6 days, but for the last 6 days they too were up on deck for 1 hour on one day only.

On June 19 Weyher handed him a letter* formally notifying him of the seizure of his ship. On June 28 he was told that they on June 30 were to be sent back to Tropic Sea, and that they, together with the captain and survivors of Haxby were to proceed to Germany under a German prize crew of about 28 men, learning later that the destination was Bordeaux. Upon returning to Tropic Sea the captain and his wife were placed in the 1st engineer's room, while the Norwegian officers were placed in the officers' cabins on the starboard side, 2 in each room, and the British officers were accommodated in the officers' cabins on the port side, 2 in each room. The Norwegian and British crews were placed in the crew's quarters aft. The captain was informed that six bombs had been placed in various parts of the ship, which would be scuttled if any attempts should be made to recapture the ship. He was also told that that Weyher had orders to prevent the ship from falling into British hands. The prize crew had 2 machine guns, and each guard was armed with a revolver.

* The document stated: "An den Kapitän des norwegischen Schiffes Tropic Sea.
Laut Chartervertrag vom 5. April 1940 war Ihr Schiff Tropic Sea gechartert für das Ministerium of Food London (Feindstaat). Ihre Ladung, bestehend aus 8101 t Weizen geht von der Australien Wheat Board in die Hand der Commonwealth Bank of Australia (Fiendstaat) über. Die Ladung ist hermit feindlich und Banngut und unterliegt der Beschlagnahmen und Einziehung. Danach hat Ihr Schiff Feindunterstützung im Sinne des Art 38 der deutschen Prisen-Ordnung begangen. Das Schiff Tropic Sea wird daher nach Prisen-Ordnung beschlagnahmt und in den Besitz des deutschen Reiches überführt. Über Zerstörung bezw. Weiterverwendung werde ich zur gegebenen Zeit entscheiden." (Briefly, this simply states that since Tropic Star's cargo was shipped from and for the enemy, it had to be considered contrabande and therefore seized by Germany).

As mentioned, they parted company with Orion on June 30, and after having passed Cape Horn on July 24, they steered a course to pass about 150 miles east of the Falkland Islands, then steered a mid Atlantic course northwards until abreast of the Azores, before heading east to Bordeaux. Just before they had passed the Azores, a red flare and flashlight was sighted by the German lookout, whereupon the ship was turned around to investigate, but nothing could be found, so they resumed their course after about half an hour.

At about 6 in the morning of Sept. 3 they were called out and told that a submarine had been sighted, coming astern about 5 miles off. After about half an hour the sub sheered off to port and the commander of Tropic Sea ordered her engines stopped, realizing it was not a German boat. They were told to get in the lifeboats, taking nothing but what they were wearing, except for the captain, who was permitted to bring a bag containing the crew's accounts etc., and his wife, who was allowed a small hand bag. When getting into the lifeboat Mrs. Nicolaysen fell into the sea and badly hurt the left side of her body.

The British Haxby's captain picks up the story from here:

Captain Cornelius Arundell says that they all got into the lifeboats except the German commander and 3 others, who got off in a rubber boat after setting off the time bombs, which started to explode about 10 minutes after they had left the ship. They heard only 3 explosions, though they had been told there were 6 bombs, the most severe damage to the ship being on the forward port side where a plate had been blown clean out on the water line. Tropic Sea kept afloat for about half an hour, then suddenly sank. He was taken aboard the sub and was asked by the commander how many British were in the lifeboats, to which Captain Arundell informed him there were 23 British, 33 Norwegians and about 28 Germans. The commander told him apologetically that he could only take the British on board (even that was considered by Captain Arundell to be a grave risk), but upon being told that the Norwegian captain had his wife with him, he immediately agreed to take those 2 as well. Captain Nicolaysen was very concerned about the safety of his crew, but was assured that "something" would be sent to their assistance. He could not relax until he later heard by broadcast at Gibraltar that they had been safely picked up and conveyed to England.

Brief summary of 1st Mate Drevik's report:

Maritime inquiry - Plymouth Sept. 6-1940

The 1st mate report echoes the captain's on the whole, but he gives the position of capture as 28 48S 160 38W, and says the 2nd mate had also gone across to the raider with the captain in the lifeboat. While they were gone an armed guard from the German boat came on board Tropic Sea, taking charge of the bridge, radio room and engine room. At 19:00 the 1st mate, the 1st engineer and the rest of the deck crew were transferred to the raider, and while prisoners on board the 2 vessels were maneuvering at a slow speed. He mentions that when Tropic Sea left the raider on June 30, the latter, accompanied by a small tanker which had evidently brought supplies to her, went off in a westerly direction (this would have been Winnetou). When Tropic Sea was scuttled on Sept. 3 he heard 2 explosions from the port side amidships, whereupon she began to heel slowly over to port and eventually sank at about 10:00 a.m., about 200 miles from Bordeaux, position 46 30N 11 30W.

The 1st mate with 5 Norwegian and 2 Danish crew members proceeded in their lifeboat in a southeasterly direction which he calculated would take them to the nearest shore. The following day they met another lifeboat which appeared to be overcrowded (mostly Germans), so 1 Norwegian and 1 Finnish seaman were moved to his own boat. In the afternoon of Sept. 4 they were picked up by the British Sunderland flying boat, as mentioned, and landed in Plymouth.

Crew List - No Casualties:

N = Returned to Norway

(One of my sources says she had a crew of 48).

According to August Karl Muggenthaler's "German Raiders of WW II", Fritz Steinkrauss, who must have been in the boat which landed at Corunna after the encounter with HMS Truant made his way to the Orient via the Trans-Siberian Railway and later took command of the captured (by Atlantis) Norwegian Ole Jacob

Back to M/S Tropic Sea on T-list

Owner: Skibs-A/S Ringwood.
Manager: Olav Ringdal, Oslo
Tonnage: 7203 gt, 10 410 tdwt.
Call Sign: LCEL.

(Click on Ringwood above to go to that ship on the Ships starting with R page).

Pre war picture, when she had the name Beljeanne for Christen Smith, Oslo 1926-1937
Source: Bjørn Milde's postcard collection.
(Click on Ringwood in the button above for info on her prewar history).

Captain: Alfred Parker.

Sunk on Oct 15-1940 by Orion (disguised as the Japanese Maebasi Maru?) which had moved to the waters between the Solomon Islands and the Marshall Islands that month in order to meet up with the auxiliary cruiser Komet, arriving from Norway via the Northeast Passage. Ringwood (complement of 36) was on a voyage from Shanghai to Ocean Island in ballast when she was apprehended, having left Shanghai on Oct. 1, according to the document received from the Norwegian archives. The captain didn't even order a distress call sent out, as he probably didn't expect to meet a German warship in that area, and suspected nothing until German seamen stood on his deck. All 36 were transferred to Orion and after the Germans had searched her thoroughly and taken everything they wanted, she was sunk with explosives, position 02 18N 116 40E ("Nortraships flåte" gives 05 29N 159.42E). Orion then met up with Komet and they sailed together for a while. On Nov. 27 they attacked a British passenger ship east of New Zealand, before heading north towards Nauru, where more ships became their victims (listed at the top of this page). See also Enemy attack on shipping at Nauru

Unlike his colleague on the Komet, Orion 's Weyher refused to land his white prisoners at Emirau (ref. M/S Vinni's Story) and only agreed to let go of the ones of colour. I found some additional info on this in some articles in "Krigsseileren", Issue No. 4/1977, and No. 4/1978 written by Asbjørn Worseth from Ringwood. He describes the intense disappointment when they had to stay on board the raider, while women, people of colour and crews of many nations, even some British officers were landed at Emirau. Ringwood's crew was later placed on the German Merchant ship Ermland, which from Japan went to Bordeaux, via Cape Horn, "dressed" as the Russian M/S Tibilisi of Vladivostok for the occasion. She also had prisoners from a number of other ships on board, some of whom were transferred to Ermland en route, among them were prisoners from Admiral Scheer and from a German transport sailing under the U.S. flag.

Ermland reached France on Apr. 3-1941. After a while in Bordeaux they were sent to a large camp near Bremerwurde (spelling error?) in Germany, and early in May the Norwegians from Ringwood arrived in Norway with the German M/S Donau (about 800 Norwegian seamen from several captured vessels, including Sandefjord, Polykarp, Storstad, Norvard and Granli were sent home with that ship).

There had also been a Russian on board Ringwood, I'm unable to establish what happened to him - he may have been interned in Germany.

Crew List - No Casualties:

All the Norwegians were repatriated to Norway

* The Chinese crew members were landed at Emirau.

Back to M/S Ringwood on R-list

The text on this page was compiled with the help of misc. sources, including "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, "German Raiders of World War II", August Karl Muggenthaler, misc. issues of the Norwegian magazine "Krigsseileren", and "Sjøforklaringer fra 2. verdenskrig", Norwegian Maritime Museum, Volume II - (ref. My Sources)