D/S Cresco - Norwegian Merchant Fleet 1939-1945 (original) (raw)

Captain: Ingebrigt Teigland, later J. Skylvik, who had previously served on Thore Hafte (until 1944). This external page (also Lillesand Sjømannsforening's website) has a picture of him and a list of other ships he served on, including WW I ships.

Her voyages are listed on these original images from the Norwegian National Archives:
Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5 | Page 6 | Page 7 | Page 8 | Page 9 | Page 10 | Page 11 | Page 12 | Page 13 | Page 14 | Page 15

Please compare the above voyages with Arnold Hague's Voyage Record below.

Voyage Record
From Febr.-1940 to May-1945:

(Received from Don Kindell - His source: The late Arnold Hague's database).

Follow the convoy links provided for more information on each (it'll be noticed, that some listings are incomplete). Where the "Convoy" column is left blank, it means that convoy is not known.

Errors may exist, and some voyages are missing.

For information on voyages made in between those mentioned here, please see the documents received from the National Archives of Norway and A. Hague's record above. Follow the convoy links provided for more details on them, several Norwegian ships took part.

According to A. Hague, Cresco sailed in the U.K.-Norway Convoy ON 16 at the end of Febr.-1940. She must have returned to the U.K., because in March, he has her in Convoy ON 21 to Norway. On Apr. 3, we find her in Convoy HN 24 from Norway to the U.K.; in other words, she got out of Norway just before the German invasion (Apr. 9). Cresco's voyage is said to have started out from Oslo and she was bound for Shields in ballast, arriving there on Apr. 9, which agrees with Page 1 of the archive documents.

Later that year she's listed, together with the Norwegian Brisk, Don and Eikhaug, in Convoy OA 216, which left Methil on Sept. 18-1940 and joined up with OB 216 on Sept. 21. She was in ballast for Chatham, N.B. on that occasion - ref. external links in the table above. Convoy OB 216 had left Liverpool on Sept. 19 and dispersed on the 23rd, Cresco arriving Chatham, N.B. independently on Oct. 5. She returned to the U.K. later that month with the slow Sydney (C.B.)-U.K. Convoy SC 9, bound for Boston, Lincs. with pit props, where she arrived, via Clyde and Methil Roads, on Nov. 25.

She subsequently made voyages around the U.K. - again, see Page 1. Her 1941 start on Page 2 and continue on Page 3; as can be seen, she made a voyage to Reykjavik in June that year. Convoy information can be found in the Voyage Record above.

In Sept.-1941 she's mentioned, with a cargo of coal for Iceland, in the westbound North Atlantic Convoy ON 14, which originated in Liverpool on Sept. 7. The Commodore's narrative is also available for this convoy, which lost 3 ships. Cresco arrived Reykjavik on Sept. 14, having sailed from Loch Ewe on the 9th - according to A. Hague, she had detached from the convoy on Sept. 11.

She was otherwise mostly in service around the U.K., though took part in Operation Overlord (Normandie) as ammunition and supply ship, arriving June 9-1944, departing June 17 to pick up another cargo. See her Voyage Record for information on some of the convoys she's listed in during this time period.

From Page 14 of the archive documents, we learn that she got to go home to Norway already in June-1945, and again in July that year.

According to Lillesand Sjømannsforening (external link), she was owned in 1956 by Erich Drescher, Hamburg, and had the name Wittore. Sold in July-1958 to Eisen und Metall K.G. Lehr & Co. for breaking up. Broken up (commenced?) July 17-1958.