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

D/S Fana Updated Aug. 1-2011

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

Voyage Record
From March-1940 to June-1945:

(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 details on them; some also include the Commodore's report and several Norwegian ships took part.

Fana is listed in Convoy OB 110 in March-1940. The Norwegian Salonica is also included in this convoy, which originated in Liverpool on March 16, joined up with Convoy OA 110 on March 18, the combinded convoy forming the Gibraltar bound Convoy OG 22*. However, Fana probably parted company with OG 22 at some point in order to proceed to Georgetown, S.C., where she arrived on Apr. 6 and was still there when war broke out in Norway on Apr. 9. She left Georgetown again on Apr. 11 and arrived New York on the 14th, proceeding to Halifax the next day - according to Page 1 of the archive documents, her voyage had started out in Manchester. (OB 110 is available via the external link provided within the table above).

From Halifax, she headed back to the U.K. on Apr. 22 in Convoy HX 37, sailing in station 35 of the convoy, carrying paper and rosin for Bristol, with arrival there on May 6. She subsequently joinedConvoy OB 151, originating in Liverpool on May 19, dispersed May 22, Fana arriving New Orleans independently on June 10 (having sailed from Milford Haven May 20). Alaska, Stigstad and Titanian are also listed. 2 days later, she proceeded to Bermuda, and with a cargo of wood pulp for Manchester, she returned across the Atlantic on June 20 in the Bermuda portion of Convoy HX 52. We now find her, together with Balduin, Fenris, Haakon Hauan and Polartank, in Convoy OB 184, departing Liverpool on July 15, dispersed on the 18th, Fana arriving Halifax independently on July 28. Having made voyages to Richibucto and Newcastle, N.B. (again, see Page 1), she went to Sydney, C.B in order to join Convoy HX 66 from there on Aug. 16 (Norne was sunk - follow the link for details. HX 66 had started out in Halifax). Fana was bound for Hull with a cargo of pit props, arriving there on Sept. 3, and the following month, she's listed in Convoy OA 225, which left Methil on Oct. 6. Fana arrived St. John's, N.F. independently on Oct. 23, the convoy having been dispersed. Direct link to this convoy, and to the OB convoys mentioned here, have been provided in the Voyage Record above. Christmas that year was celebrated while in Convoy HX 96 from Halifax, bound for London with a cargo of lumber.

According to the original document for Convoy OB 286, Fana was scheduled for this convoy, which originated in Liverpool on Febr. 13-1941, but is crossed out on the form. Her voyage information is given as Aultbea-Freetown. She instead joined Convoy OG 53*, which sailed from Liverpool on Febr. 15 and also included the Norwegian Gudvin and Rimfakse (Fana joined from Oban). This was a Gibraltar bound convoy, but Fana, bound for Freetown with cement, parted company on Febr. 26 in order to proceed to her destination, where she arrived independently on March 7. Her voyages in this period are shown on Page 2. With Elg, Hardanger, Lysaker V, Novasli and Tanafjord, she later joined Convoy SL 73 back to the U.K., departing Freetown on Apr. 27 (link in Voyage Record). At the beginning of July that same year, she's listed in Convoy OB 341, together with Brisk, Evanger, Leikanger, Novasli, Nueva Granada, Nyholt, Polartank, Ringstad, Sommerstad, Thorøy, Thorshavn, Thorsholm and Vigsnes - please note, however, that I believe some of these ships belong in Convoy OB 341A - see Evanger for an explanation. OB 341 had originated in Liverpool on June 30; Fana sailed from Oban on July 1 and arrived Freetown independently on July 22, the convoy having been dispersed on the 6th (ref. link in the table above).

Later that year, when in Convoy SL 87 from Freetown in Sept.-1941, she rescued 27 (21?) survivors from the torpedoed British S/S Dixcove (convoy departed Sept. 14 and arrived Liverpool Oct. 6). More details on the attack on this ship is available via the external link further down on this page. Captain Nic Knudsen says in an article that Fana also had 4 survivors from the torpedoed Sildra on board on this voyage - follow the link for more details. Also, Fana is said to have rescued about 50 men from a naval vessel in British waters (this must have been in connection with the incident recounted further down in this narrative).

Fana left Liverpool again on Oct. 24, joining Convoy OS 10 in order to go back to Freetown (station 12). However, she returned to port (Clyde, Oct. 28) following a collision with the Norwegian Rio Verde, subsequently joining the next convoy on Nov. 8, OS 11, arriving Freetown on Nov. 28. Other Norwegian ships taking part in OS 10 were San Andres and Somerville, while Dagrun, Danio, Elg and Tigre are listed in OS 11 (links in Voyage Record). Fana's subsequent voyages are listed on Page 2.

She returned to the U.K. again with Convoy SL 99, departing Freetown on Jan. 27-1942, arriving Liverpool Febr. 16. Elg, Norma, San Andres and Vest are also listed, though the latter returned. In March, Fana joined Convoy OS 21, voyaging from Liverpool to Bathurst with general cargo in station 34 of the convoy, which left Liverpool on March 4 and also included Kollskegg, Petter and Triton. Fana arrived Bathurst on March 22, and with a cargo of groundnuts, she later went back to the U.K. with Convoy SL 107/SLF 107, which left Freetown on Apr. 16. Fana was in the slow section (SL) and arrived Loch Ewe on May 7. Maloja was also scheduled, but did not sail (the Norwegian Norfjell sailed in the fast section, SLF 107, which detached on May 4 and arrived Liverpool on May 6).

Later that month, she made a voyage to Halifax, where she arrived June 11, having sailed in the westbound North Atlantic Convoy ON 98*, which originated in Liverpool on May 26-1942 and had New York as its final destination. Other Norwegian ships were Fjordheim and Måkefjell. Her voyages at this time are shown on Page 3. According to Arnold Hague, she later went back to the U.K. with the slow Convoy SC 99, having joined from Sydney, C.B. on Sept. 6 (SC 99 started out in Halifax on Sept. 5). Fana was bound for Manchester, where she arrived on Sept. 21. She subsequently joined the westbound Convoy ON 136*, this time bound for New York, where she arrived on Oct. 26, the convoy having left Liverpool on Oct. 3. She had again been in the company of other Norwegian ships, namely Astrid, Glarona (from Halifax), Iron Baron, Lisbeth, Novasli and Ravnefjell (also from Halifax). A. Hague now has her returning, together with Ferncliff, Gezina, Hallfried, John Bakke, Meline, Norbris (Panamanian flag), Norefjord, Tanafjord and Vav, in Convoy SC 110, departing New York on Nov 17, arriving Liverpool Dec. 6. (Will be added to my Convoys section, in the meantime, see ships in all SC convoys).

For several years I've suspected that Fana was in Convoy ON 154 in Dec.-1942. In an article in "Krigsseileren", Issue 4/1989, Captain Knudsen describes a voyage they took part in, and mentions that Norse King had disappeared one morning, and also says Ravnefjell was in the convoy. The captain's story, coupled with voyage descriptions found in the book "Ravnefjell", written by Mate/Radio Operator Peder Kr. Nilsen lead me to this tentative conclusion, and I'm now able to confirm that both ships were indeed in this convoy - please scroll down to the list of ships in Convoy ON 154 on this page. I will add this convoy to its own individual page in due course, with the ships in their proper stations; James Hawson, Norhauk, Ramø, Veni and Vest are also listed (in addition to Norse King and Ravnefjell, already mentioned). See also my page about Ravnefjell for a summary. This convoy departed Liverpool on Dec. 18-1942 and arrived New York on Jan. 12-1943. Captain Knudsen says that the ships came from various ports to assemble north of Ireland on Dec. 19, with the U.S. bound ships in ballast, while Fana and all the other ships in the port side column had cargoes for West Africa and were to leave the convoy at a certain point north of the Azores. Fana was the first ship in this column, and was bound for Bathurst, where she arrived on Jan. 14-1943.

Captain Knudsen and Peder Kr. Nilsen both say the convoy was attacked on Christmas Eve, but other sources indicate the first attack took place on Dec. 27 - the external sites that I've linked to below describe the convoy battle in great detail and also give the names of all the ships sunk, so I won't go into that here. Knudsen describes how Fana after several U-boat attacks was the only ship left in her column, and was in fact the only ship to reach West Africa (38 days after departure U.K., according to him), delayed as a result of the constant attacks. The fact that Fana, according to the captain's article, was still present on the morning they discovered that Norse King had disappeared, indicates that Fana must have left the convoy some time after Dec. 29. After having discharged her cargo in Bathurst, he says she continued along the coast to Lagos, via Freetown, with about 150 native passengers on deck, and after having taken on board general cargo there she returned to Freetown, then back to Liverpool.

My query to my Ship Forum with regard to Fana and Ravnefjell produced several responses, one of which, posted by Tony Cooper, said the following:
Norse King left Swansea Dec. 14-1942, arrived Milford Haven the next day, departed on the 17th for Belfast Lough where she arrived the following day, then left that same day for Boston.
Ravnefjell arrived Glasgow on Nov. 29-1942, left on Dec. 7, arrived Clyde Anchorage the next day, then departed on the 18th for New York, arriving on the Jan. 12-1943 (corresponding with what is found for ON 154 in "The Allied Convoy System" by Arnold Hague).
Fana left Liverpool on Dec.17-1942, arrived Bathurst on Jan. 14-1943. Left Bathurst on the 22nd to arrive Freetown on the 25th, then departed on the 30th, arrived Sherbro but date not known, departed at an unknown date for Freetown arriving there on Febr. 3-1943. Left again on Febr. 10 for Bathurst, where she arrived on the 13th. It appears she departed Bathurst for a local voyage that same day; Tony says she arrived up river at an unknown date, departure date not known, but arrived Bathurst again on Febr. 19, to depart for her return voyage to the U.K. on Febr. 26 - see also Page 3 of the archive documents. Tony adds "this vessel was not in the same convoy as the Norse King or Ravnefjell, it's just a coincidence that all three vessels sailed around the same date" - however, as I said, it looks like they both did sail in ON 154.

For info, there's a book about ON(S) 154 entitled "The convoy that nearly died" by Henry Revely. It's available from amazon.com.

* All the ON convoys mentioned here are available and 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 OG convoys will also be added, but for now, please see the page listing ships in all OG convoys.

For more information on all the other Norwegian ships named on this page, please see the alphabet index below, or go to the Master Ship Index.

External websites related to the narrative above:
The attack on Dixcove - Other ships lost from Convoy SL 87

ON(S) 154 Memorials - Names of those lost from the ships in this convoy, incl. Norse King. This is a section of Battle of the Atlantic - Convoy ONS 154 - Barbara & Gordon Mumford's website which describes the battle in great detail.

See also
ONS-154, 26-30 Dec 1942

What follows is also a summary of the captain's narrative, but his information does not match up with Fana's voyages as listed on Page 4 of the archive documents and in the above Voyage Record, where no voyages to Freetown are included for the fall of 1943, nor later on. I believe these events took place in the spring of 1943.

The captain says that Fana was in a convoy with Belnor for Freetown with general cargo in the "fall of 1943". Belnor and a British ship which was similarly built for heavy equipment had new patrol boats on their decks, and these boats were so wide they extended far beyond the sides of the ships. The danger from U-boats along the coast of Freetown had increased and these patrol boats would help protect the ships in this area. The ingenuity applied in unloading these boats, with the help of practical use of the ballast tanks and other methods did not go unnoticed among the naval authorities, who could put them into action immediately. (Captain Knudsen says that theft and robbery had become so bad in the ports along this coast that the area had to be fully lit).

Fana departed for England with a cargo of groundnuts and again Belnor was part of the convoy, which stopped by Gibraltar and anchored up near Thorshøvdi which had been sunk by limpet mines in Aug.-1943*, and was still partly visible above water (follow the link for more details). Due to the sabotage danger they were given TNT filled hand grenades by Navy Control. Knudsen says that when fishing vessels accumulated near the ship, causing general fear of acts of sabotage, it was often enough just to show the grenades and the vessels would remove themselves. There were also patrol boats which maneuvered in among the ships at anchor and dropped depth charges every 5 minutes, so the crew didn't get much sleep.

* This note about seeing Thorshøvdi is confusing, and does not fit with Fana's voyages at all - as far as I can see, she never went to Gibraltar after Thorshøvdi had been lost. She did, however, arrive Gibraltar from Bathurst on March 8-1943 in Convoy SR 2, together with Belnor, both ships continuing to Clyde on March 16 in Convoy XK 3 (external links), arriving Clyde on March 27. Fana's cargo is given as palm kernels.

On arrival Clyde Fana and Belnor were permitted to leave the convoy, with Fana proceeding to Greenock and Belnor to Ardrossan (again, this fits with details found on Page 3 of Fana's voyages for the spring of 1943, as well as with the info in Belnor's Voyage Record for this period). En route, Fana passed an aircraft carrier engaged in exercises, and watched as 3 aircraft landed on the carrier. Suddenly, a big explosion occurred and the next time they looked towards the carrier behind them all they could see was the bottom of the forepart and hundreds of people clinging to her hull and a rubber raft, before the carrier sank a few minutes later. Fana stopped, lowered her lifeboats as well as lines and nets and started to pick up survivors, a difficult task, smeared as they were with oil. But to their horror the surface of the water started to burn amongst the desperate swimmers, several of whom managed to reach Fana but one by one they died before they could be taken on board. Only 2 were still alive and were treated by a doctor who was a passenger on board, but they both died within 20 minutes. Fana's lifeboats managed to get clear of the burning surface and were able to transfer 37 survivors to a patrol boat which had arrived from shore. Some of the survivors had died in the lifeboat after having been given a cigarette, and Fana's rescuers were later told by the doctor, who had previously served in the U.S. Navy during battles in the Pacific, that he had had the same experiences with regard to giving cigarettes to survivors; they simply died. This was thought to be caused by them having inhaled the gasses resulting from the oil covered water while swimming in it, and a cigarette after that caused their heart to stop.

After about half an hour no survivors were seen and Fana continued towards the pilotboat near Towards Point, about an hour away, where they met a number of vessels on their way to investigate the black smoke they had seen in the distance. People on Belnor had seen a U-boat nearby and assumed the aircraft carrier had been torpedoed, while the people on Fana believed the ship had struck a mine. Captain Knudsen was summoned to the naval authorities in Glasgow to give a report on the incident, but the name* of the aircraft carrier was not revealed to him.

*A visitor to my site has suggested it might have been HMS Dasher, which exploded and sank on March 27-1943 with the loss of 27 officers and 331 ratings (named at link below). She had just undergone repairs to her flight deck, damaged due to severe weather in Convoy JW 53 in Febr.-1943 (she had been forced to return, and did not go to Kola with this convoy). Here's more info on Convoy JW 53. As already mentioned, and as can be seen in her Voyage Record, Fana did arrive Clyde on March 27-1943, the day Dasher exploded, and it'll be noticed when going to Convoy XK 3 (external link), in which Fana had arrived from Gibraltar, that Belnor is also included. The date of Dasher's demise does not fit in with Captain Knudsen's story, since he says it took place towards the end of 1943, but I believe he remembers the sequence and dates of events incorrectly. (Several years later, while in for repairs in England, on board another ship, one of the workers at the yard approached Captain Knudsen and asked him if he had been captain of Fana during the war. It turned out this man was one of the men they had saved).

Captain Knudsen says Fana was again involved in a rescue about half a year later, when on a voyage Havana-New York (according to her Voyage Record and Page 4, she was in Havana in Nov.-1943, but was not bound for New York at the time. She had, however, just been there). An American aircraft drew their attention to a small rubber boat, and when they came near they discovered an injured pilot in the bottom of it. They took him on board, whereupon they were told by radio to head towards Key West where they were met by a frigate which put a doctor on board, and the pilot recovered.

Related external links:
HMS Dasher - D 37 (ex merchant navy vessel Rio de Janeiro).

This external site has the names of her casualties.

More information is available at
HMS Dasher on Mac's Web Log

As mentioned, Fana had arrived Clyde from Gibraltar on March 27-1943 (Page 3). The following month, she was in station 41 of the westbound North Atlantic Convoy ONS 5 - follow the link for more information, the Commodore was in Rena. See also my page about Bonde, which was sunk in this convoy (as were several others). According to Page 4, Fana arrived New York on May 15. On June 5, she's listed among the ships in Convoy SC 133 from Halifax, and arrived Preston on June 19. Early in July she joined the westbound Convoy ONS 12 in order to travel to Boston, where she arrived July 20; Garnes, Gausdal, Hjalmar Wessel, Iron Baron, Mui Hock, Norvarg, Para (returned), Petter II, Suderøy and Tropic Star are also listed in this convoy, which originated in Liverpool on July 3 (other ships in ONS 12 are named on this page).

The rest of her 1943 voyages are shown on Page 4, which also has a few 1944 voyages, with more on Page 5, while convoy information for some of them can be found in the Voyage Record.

Fana did not return to the U.K. until Febr.-1945, when we find her in the slow Halifax-U.K. Convoy SC 167, bound for West Hartlepool with lumber (see also Novasli).

From Page 6, we learn that she got to go home to Norway already at the end of May-1945, and also made other voyages to Norway in the course of that year, and again in the spring of 1946 (see Page 7).

Purchased by Fred. Olsen & Co. in 1947 and renamed Bergamo. Sold to John Bruce, Glasgow in 1949 and renamed Alpera. This external page has further Post War info.

Related external link:
S/S Bergamo (ex Fana) - Technical data, and picture of Fana (Darren Dypevåg).

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

Other ships by this name: Norway had a motor vessel named Fana in the 1960's. This ship sailed as M/S Molda during the war. Also, Vilhelm Torkildsens Rederi, Bergen had another Fana delivered to them in Apr.-1950, 2459 gt. This ship was sold to Skibs-A/S Orion (Martin Bruusgaard), Oslo in the late fall of 1959 and renamed Nepos, then sold again a year later to Olaf Pedersens Rederi, Oslo and renamed Sunny Boy. Sold to China in 1961 and renamed Hong QI 154 - deleted in 1991.

The text on this page was compiled with the help of: Articles in the Norwegian magazine "Krigsseileren", "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland and misc. other.