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

D/S Fagersten Updated July 31-2011

To Fagersten on the "Ships starting with F" page.

Crew List

Received from Lillesand Sjømannsforening, Norway.

Owner: Skibs A/S Akershus
Manager: Rob. Nilson & Arild Nyquist, Oslo
Tonnage: 2342 gt, 1412 net, 4125 tdwt.
Call Sign: LCIZ.

Built by Eltringhams Ltd., Willington Quay-on-Tyne in 1921. Previous name: Frithjof I until 1927. According to this external page, she was owned by A/S D/S Frithjof (Alf Monsen), Tønsberg at the time.

Captain: Sverre Langfeldt

From May-1942 until Aug.-1942 a British able seaman by the name Thomas Patrick Shaw served on this ship. He had previously served on Lab, after having been torpedoed when serving on Rym. If anyone remembers this man,

please

contact me at the address provided at the end of this page - see my text for Hallfried for picture and more details on him, including some of his other WW II and post war ships.

Related items on this website:
Guestbook message from the grandson of one of the survivors, Jonas Anton Berg Arvesen.
Guestbook message from the grandson of another survivor, Reidar Nesset Hareide.

Her voyages are listed on these original images from the Norwegian National Archives:
Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3

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

Voyage Record
From Nov.-1940 to Oct.-1942:

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

Follow the convoy links provided for more information on each.

Errors may exist, and some voyages are missing.

For information on voyages made in between those discussed here, please see the documents received from the National Archives of Norway and A. Hague's Voyage Record above. Follow the convoy links provided for more deatils on them; they also included a number of other Norwegian ships.

Judging from the information found on Page 1 of the archive documents, Fagersten was at Cardenas when war broke out in Norway on Apr. 9-1940. It'll also be noticed that she appears to have spent a long time in Philadelphia that year. She had arrived there from Antilla on July 30 and departure is given as Nov. 5, when she proceeded to New York. Her 1941 voyages also start on this document and continue on Page 2.

Together with Akabahra, Astra, Audun, Balduin, Blink, Carrier (returned), Einvik (sunk - follow the link for details), Evviva, Fanefjeld, Grado, Gudrun, Heien, Hestmanden, Hildur I, Ledaal, Leka, Lom, Marga, Nesttun, Orania (returned), Reiaas, Siak and Spes, she's listed in the slow eastbound North Atlantic Convoy SC 41*, departing Sydney, C.B. for the U.K. on Aug. 24-1941 (many of these ships had joined from Iceland). Fagersten had a cargo of steel and sulphite, sailing in station 35. Going back to Page 2, we learn that she had just been to Quebec, and stopped at Loch Ewe on Sept. 11, before proceeding to Methil and Rochester.

The following month, she's listed in station 15 of Convoy OS 9. This was a Freetown bound convoy, but Fagersten was bound for Lisbon, where she arrived on Nov. 1, having left Oban on Oct. 14. A. Hague has also included Annavore and Fjord in this convoy - ref. link provided within the Voyage Record. On Dec. 14, Fagersten joined Convoy HG 76 from Gibraltar in order to return to the U.K., as did Annavore, which was sunk (follow the link for info). Fagersten's destination is given as Glasgow, where she arrived on Dec. 28. Escort's report is also available for this convoy.

In Jan.-1942, she joined the westbound North Atlantic Convoy ON 58* which originated in Liverpool on Jan. 20, but returned to port the next day due to bad weather (see Bronxville), so she later joined Convoy ON 60*, originating in Liverpool on Jan. 26 (Fagersten joined from Clyde on both occasions). Both convoys had several Norwegian ships, namely Bronxville, Lisbeth, Maud, Rena and Suderøy in ON 58 (Acanthus and Monbretia are named among the escorts - see ON convoy escorts), and Aust, Henrik Ibsen, Inger Elisabeth, Ledaal, Lisbeth, Rena (the latter 2 returned again), Selbo and Suderøy in ON 60. This convoy had Halifax as its final destination (arrived Febr. 15), but Fagersten was bound for Tampa, where she arrived on Febr. 23, according to Page 2. She headed back to the U.K. on March 18 with Convoy SC 75 from Halifax, cargo of phosphates for Aberdeen, with arrival there Apr. 5.

In May that same year she's listed in the westbound Convoy ON 96*, together with Berto, Bollsta, Carmelfjell, Granfoss, Ingerfem, Norelg, Norfalk and Rolf Jarl. Fagersten arrived Sydney, C.B. on June 4 (having left Loch Ewe May 19), later proceeding to Quebec and Rimouski, with arrival the latter on July 5. She left Rimouski again on July 15 in order to return to Sydney, C.B., and on July 24, we find her in Convoy SC 93, cargo of lumber for London. She later joined the westbound Convoy ON 128, which originated in Liverpool on Sept. 5. The Commodore's narrative is also available. The convoy documents indicate that Fagersten joined from Halifax, but it looks like she had, in fact, been present from Loch Ewe - see Page 3. She arrived New York on Sept. 24, proceeding the next day to Boston and Providence, R.I., arriving Sept. 26.

As will be seen below, Fagersten was sunk on her return voyage to the U.K.

* The ON convoys will be added to individual pages in my Convoys section, with more information on each; in the meantime, the ships sailing in them (and escorts) are named in the section listing ships in all ON convoys. The entire SC series will also be updated and completed (including the already existing convoys - some have already been updated), but for now, please see ships in all SC convoys.

More information on all the other Norwegian ships named here is available via the alphabet index at the end of this page, or go to the Master Ship Index.

As mentioned, Fagersten had arrived Providence on Sept. 26-1942. She left again for New York on Oct. 1, joining Convoy SC 104 from there on Oct. 3 (station 112). She had a cargo of 651 tons steel and 944 standards lumber for the UK. Among the escorts were the British destroyers Viscount and Fame and the Norwegian corvettes Potentilla, Acanthus, Monbretia and Eglantine (group B 6 of Liverpool Escort Force). SC 104 will be added to my Convoys section - see ships in all SC convoys. It also included Bernhard, Bonde (returned), Boreas, Garnes , Gudvor (the latter 2 to Sydney, C.B. only), Inger Lise, Ingerfem, Lido, Nea, Senta (sunk - follow the link for info), Suderøy and Vinga. My page about Potentilla has additional information as do the external links provided at the end of this page.

At 02:30 on Oct. 13, she was torpedoed in the starboard side, forward hold, by U-221 (Trojer), position 52 54N 43 55W*, resulting in a heavy starboard list. With great difficulty in the heavy weather 8 men managed to launch and get away in the port lifeboat, but were unable to go alongside again to reach their 6 ship mates whom they saw were still on board. 2 of them, Ordinary Seaman R. N. Hareide and Trimmer R. Glen jumped overboard and were picked up by this boat, while the rest were believed to have gone aft to launch a raft, because a raft was seen later on, but the lifeboat was unable to row up against the wind to get to it.

The 10 in the boat bailed all night, and as day dawned most of Fagersten was under water. No more survivors were seen. They were rescued at 13:30 that afternoon by Potentilla, which by the end of the battle on Oct. 17 had 90 rescued people on board. An empty raft from Fagersten was also found. The captain, 17 other Norwegians and 1 from Britain had died.

8 merchant ships had been sunk, 2 U-boats had gone down and several damaged. The British D/S Ashworth went down with all 49 hands in this battle, as did the Norwegian D/S Senta and her 35 men. Other ships sunk were the British Empire Mersey 16 died, and Southern Empress 48 died, the Greek Nellie 32 died, the Yugoslavian Nikolina Matkovic 14 died, and the American Susana 38 died. Note that my page about Potentilla has an eye witness account of this battle. See also the various websites that I've linked to at the end of this page for further information.

The maritime hearings were held in London on Oct. 28-1942 with the 1st mate, the 3rd engineer, and Ordinary Seaman Hareide (helmsman) appearing.

For info, U-221 was also responsible for the attacks on Jamaica and Sandanger the following year - follow the links for more info.

* Jürgen Rohwer gives the position for Fagersten's attack as 53 05N 44 06W (that's also the position for the attack on Ashworth by the same U-boat about 20 minutes later, followed by Senta 1 minute after that). He gives the time as 05:56, German time for Fagersten, 06:22 for Ashworth. Charles Hocking simply gives the position as about 500 miles east of Belles Isles Strait.

Crew List:

* Fagersten's 18 year old Mess Boy Richard John Stainer from Mitcham, Surrey is commemorated at Tower Hill, Panel 48; further details on him can be found on this page.

There had also been a Norwegian able seaman and a gunner on board before departure New York, but they had gone ashore without leave and had not returned in time for departure.

Back to Fagersten on the "Ships starting with F" page.

The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, "Sjøforklaringer fra 2. verdenskrig", Norwegian Maritime Museum, Volume I, and misc. other. - ref. My sources.