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

D/S Hallfried Updated Oct. 1-2011

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

Crew List

Manager: P. Kleppe, Oslo
Tonnage: 2968 gt, 1722 net, 5025 tdwt.
Signal Letters: LKCK

Built by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp., Wilmington, Delaware in 1918. Launched as Pilón, completed as Garibaldi. Renamed Catherine Weems in 1925, Fairfield in 1928 (Quinnipiac Shipping Corp/Seas Shipping Co. Inc. [Robin Line], New York) until 1939, when she was sold to Norway and renamed Hallfried. "The World's Merchant Fleets 1939", R. W. Jordan gives this ship 2848 gt.

Related items on this website:
Warsailor Stories - The story of someone who sailed on this ship from Aug.-1941 until March-1943, 3rd Engineer Sverre Skjæveland (Norwegian text).

A Guestbook message from the grandson of the captain.

A message in my Guestbook (from 2003) states that a Karl Hansen, who at that time lived in Loleta, California is a survivor of Hallfried. I've since learned that Karl Hansen and Thomas Patrick Shaw, who survived the sinking of Hallfried were one and the same man (see crew list below). By running a search on this website, I also found him in the crew list for Rym. His is an incredible story, as evidenced by the next few messages:

Many others later contacted me about this man - see this thread on one of my forums, as well as this posting, then in 2005, this message appeared in my Guestbook. Roger Griffiths (who has sent me a lot of my convoy information) visited the archives in Kew and found some documents with information on him, and from kind people in Norway, who were deeply moved by his situation, and who have been of invaluable help, I later learned that he also sailed on the following Norwegian ships during the war:
Lab, Fagersten, Lyra (then Hallfried), Sirehei, Norbris, and Elise.
After the war, he served on Nyholm, Nyholt, Kaia Knudsen, Concordia Star, Selvik, Athene, Høyanger and Hindanger.

Thomas, or Karl as he called himself, being in an advanced state of senility, was barely able to remember who he was, but the sinking of Hallfried was firmly etched in his mind. He wrote a poem about Hallfried, which he would recite to people he met on his wanderings, and which I've added below. Before long, his caretaker and I were able to piece parts of his life together, and also managed to get him a war pension. He lived with her family for quite some time after she had taken him in off the street; again, please read her moving Guestbook message about how that came to pass. A local newspaper heard about him, and published this article about him (external link). Sadly, T. P. Shaw, alias Karl Hansen, passed away on July 25-2008.

Thomas Patrick Shaw in 1946, and a more recent picture.

Her voyages are listed on these original images from the Norwegian National Archives:
Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4

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

Voyage Record
From March-1940 to Oct.-1943:

(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 mentioned 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; several Norwegian ships took part.

As will be seen when going to Page 1 of the archive documents, Hallfried was on her way from Gibraltar to Lerwick when war broke out in Norway on Apr. 9-1940. This voyage had started out in Torrevieja on March 16, and her original destination had been Kragerø, Norway, but she was diverted to the U.K.

Together with Crux, she's later listed in Convoy OB 159, which originated in Liverpool on June 1-1940 and dispersed on the 4th, Hallfried arriving Halifax on June 18. Ref. external link provided within the Voyage Record. She headed back to the U.K. on Aug. 8 in the Sydney, C.B. portion of Convoy HX 64, bound for Rochester with a cargo of pulp wood, arriving there on Aug. 28. Later that year, she shows up in Convoy OB 249, originating in Liverpool on Nov. 24, dispersed 4 days later, Hallfried arriving St. John, N.B. on Dec. 8, according to the archive document, which adds she had started out from Oban on Nov. 25. This convoy also had other Norwegian ships, namely Dagfred, Heranger, Høegh Scout, Salamis, Solfonn and Varangberg (returned) - again, see the external link provided in the table above.

On Febr. 18-1941, she's listed in the slow Halifax-U.K. Convoy SC 23. She again had a cargo of wood pulp for Rochester, where she arrived, via Loch Ewe and Methil, on March 21. In May she's included in Convoy OB 321, which originated in Liverpool on May 11 and dispersed on the 17th, Hallfried arriving St. Thomas on June 3, proceeding to St. Lucia that same day, with arrival June 6 (Karlander was sunk - follow the link for details. Ledaal and Sildra are also listed). Having made voyages to Jamaica and Baltimore, she headed to Sydney, C.B. in order to join Convoy SC 39* back to the U.K. on Aug. 1. Corvus, Lysaker V, Solitaire and Star are also listed. The following month, we find her in station 82 of the westbound North Atlantic Convoy ON 14. The Commodore's narrative is also available for this convoy. Her destination on that occasion was New Orleans, and she arrived there on Oct. 5, the convoy having been dispersed Sept. 14 - her voyages in this period are shown on Page 2. With a cargo of sulphur for Garston, Hallfried was scheduled to return with the slow Convoy SC 57 from Sydney, C.B. on Nov. 28, but instead joined SC 58 on Dec. 4 and arrived Garston on Dec. 21 (Nidardal was lost in a storm - follow link for more info). Montbretia is named among the escorts.

At the beginning of 1942, she joined the westbound Convoy ON 53*, which left Liverpool on Jan. 2 and dispersed on the 19th. Her destination is given as Tampa, but as will be seen when going back to the archive document mentioned above, arrival Tampa is not mentioned. She arrived St. John's, N.F. on Jan. 25, Bay Bulls on Jan. 26, returning to St. John's on Febr. 7, subsequently spending a long time there; departure is given as May 12 - the reason for this long stay is not known. Early in June that year, she's listed Convoy SC 86 from Sydney, C.B. (Ramø served as Vice Commodore Ship), cargo of steel and lumber for West Hartlepool, where she arrived June 22, returning across the Atlantic in July with Convoy ON 110*, originating in Liverpool on July 6. Hallfried sailed from Loch Ewe that day and arrived Boston on the 25th.

With a cargo of steel and timber for Newport, she joined Convoy SC 96 from Halifax on Aug. 11, but experienced boiler trouble and put in to St. John's on Aug. 18 (see Page 3), subsequently joining the Newfoundland portion of Convoy SC 98 on Sept. 1. According to the archive document, she arrived Newport on Sept. 15, then headed back in the other direction again in Convoy ON 134* (Commodore in Bonneville), which originated in Liverpool on Sept. 26 and arrived New York Oct. 17; Hallfried, however, was bound for Sydney, C.B., where she arrived Oct. 14 (having started out from Milford Haven on Sept. 25). A. Hague has her returning to the U.K. again on Nov. 20 in the Halifax portion of Convoy SC 110* (convoy originated in New York Nov. 17). She arrived Loch Ewe on Dec. 6, continuing to Grangemouth that same day, with arrival Dec. 8.

She returned in the first westbound convoy of 1943, Convoy ON 158, in which the rescue vessel St. Sunniva was lost on her first and only voyage as rescue ship, not due to U-boat activities, but due to the horrendous weather endured by so many convoys that winter. The rescue vessel was last seen 2 days out of Halifax and was not heard of again according to "Convoy Rescue Ships" by Arnold Hague. He adds that she was believed to have iced up and capsized without warning, a theory supported by the state of another ship from the convoy which arrived Halifax the day before with up to 10 ft thick ice in some parts. Other Norwegian ships in this convoy were Acasta, Iron Baron, Ragnhild and Solitaire. ON 158 had departed Liverpool on Jan. 2 and arrived New York on Jan. 23; Hallfried started out from Loch Ewe on Jan. 3 and arrived Halifax Jan. 25, having also suffered weather damage (according to A. Hague). No other ships were lost, but Norwegian ships went down later on due to the continuous storms raging in the North Atlantic that winter (see, for instance, Kollbjørg).

The following month, Hallfried joined Convoy SC 121, in which the Commodore Vessel Bonneville and several others were sunk. Follow the links for much more info - there's also an analysis of attacks. This convoy originated in New York on Febr. 23, but Hallfried, bound for Liverpool with a cargo of flour, joined from Halifax a few days later and arrived Liverpool on March 14.

She survived several other close enemy encounters during the war, including an attack by FW 120 bombers on the convoy she was in on May 30-1943 when approaching Lisbon on a voyage from Gourock (no ships were hit). This must have been Convoy KX 10, in which she's listed - see the external link provided in the Voyage Record. Only 2 weeks later, she's said to have been on a voyage from Lisbon in convoy with 5 other ships, escorted by a Dutch and a French escort vessel, when 3 FW 120's came in for attack. The convoy was 5 n. miles off Cape St. Vincent at the time and altered course towards the Portuguese territorial areas, but the aircraft attacked before it got that far. 4 bombs were dropped, but no ships were hit. (It'll be noticed, when going back to her Voyage Record, that she's not listed in any convoy in this time period).

Not long afterwards, she can be found in Convoy SL 131/MKS 15, cargo of iron ore, voyage Almeria-Barrow, joining the convoy from Gibraltar, together with Norheim - see MKS 15. The Norwegian Dagrun, Anna Odland and Karmt also took part in this convoy. The SL portion, Convoy SL 131, had departed Freetown on June 13-1943 and joined up with MKS 15 on the 24th, the combined convoy arriving Liverpool on July 4; Hallfried arrived Barrow July 5. On July 19, she headed in the other direction with Convoy OS 52/KMS 21, voyaging from Liverpool to Lisbon with coal, station 36, arriving Lisbon on Aug. 2 (Page 4), the convoy having split up on July 28 - see also KMS 21 (combined convoys are available via the external links in the table above). The Norwegian Fernhill was sunk; other Norwegian ships taking part were Borgholm, Jenny and Spurt. At the end of that month, she made a voyage from Gibraltar to Algiers, having joined Convoy KMS 24* and arrived Algiers on Sept. 1.

* The ON convoys will be added to individual pages in my Convoys section, 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 entire SC series will also be updated and completed, but for now, please see ships in all SC convoys for the names of ships sailing in SC 39 and SC 110. Other ships in KMS 24 are named in the section listing ships in all KMS convoys.

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

Hallfried met her final fate on Oct. 31-1943, when she at 08:30 GMT was torpedoed by U-262 (Franke) and sunk, 46 05N 20 26W*, on a voyage from Huelva to Ardrossan in station 24 of Convoy SL 138/MKS 28 with a cargo of 4800 tons of copper ore. She had departed Huelva on Oct. 22, via Gibraltar for convoy, arriving there on Oct. 23, leaving the same day in Convoy MKS 28, which joined up with the SL convoy off Gibraltar the next day. SL 138 had originated in Freetown on Oct. 13 - Page 4 shows Hallfried's voyages in this period. Again, a direct link to more information on the combined convoy has been provided within the Voyage Record; Kristianiafjord, Lisbeth, Norefjord and Spurt are also listed.

The first torpedo hit forward of the bridge on the port side and immediately afterwards another torpedo detonated between the bridge and the engine room and she sank immediately.

Only 3 able seamen survived, all 3 suddenly finding themselves in the water. 2 had lifevests on, but the 3rd, who had been asleep when the attack occurred did not (in the same cabin there had also been 2 stokers and 1 of the British messboys, who all made it up on deck). They were pulled under by the suction as were the rest of the crew who were on deck. Able Seaman Shaw was able to get onto a raft that had floated free, while the other 2 were too far away to reach it. The survivors were picked up about 45 minutes later by the British destroyer HMS Wrestler (D 35), which had previously seen a body floating on some debris - according to the description it may have been one of the British radio operators.

The rescued men were landed in Gourock on Nov. 3-1943, then travelled to Glasgow where they arrived the following day. The maritime hearings were held there on Nov. 9 with all 3 survivors appearing. Able Seaman/Gunner Gjøsæter had been on duty by the machine gun on top of the bridge when the torpedo struck, and jumped overboard. Able Seaman Gunnar Johansen had been asleep in his cabin and was blown overboard by the 2nd explosion.

2 of the witnesses stated that Hallfried had been in a collision some time previously, and had been temporarily repaired in Gibraltar. No. 3 hold was leaking badly prior to the attack, necessitating constant pumping.

The crew had originally consisted of 36 men, but on departure Gibraltar there were only 34, Boatswain Leif Gaare (Gaard?) having been left behind in Huelva (did not make it back on board before departure) and Able Seaman O. Hannes (Hamnes?) having taken ill and stayed behind at a hospital in Gibraltar.

* A visitor to my website has given me the sinking position 44 00N 21 30W (his source: Admiralty records).

For info, U-262 had also been responsible for the loss of Montbretia the previous year - follow the link for details.

Crew List: * Captain Abraham Asvall had previously been on board Vigør, 1 of the 26 ships interned in North Africa earlier in the war. My Guestbook has a message from his grandson.
** 1st Mate Tolleiv Aanensen (or Ånonsen ) had previously survived the sinking of Favorit.

As already mentioned, Thomas Shaw died in July-2008. His story and his poem touched many people in Norway, as well as people he met on his wanderings around Loleta and Eureka, California, as is evident from the various Guestbook messages and forum postings that I've linked to at the beginning of this page. Again, see also thisnewspaper article about him (external page).
(Jakob Gjøsæter died in 1986).

Billy McGee, England has told me that the men denoted * are commemorated at Tower Hill, Panel 54 - they can be found by entering each name in the relevant search field on The Commonwealth War Graves Comm. website, using WW II and 1943 in the other fields to narrow the search.

* tin-fish = torpedo
** 'morn = Norwegian greeting meaning "good morning"

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

This company had previously had another ship named Hallfried, originally built as Duke of York in Sunderland in 1907, 3181 gt. Became Magdalene of Tønsberg in 1911, then Hallfried for P. Kleppe in 1915. Rebuilt 1919, 3125 gt. According to "Damp - Dampskipets æra i Vestfold" she was condemned following an explosion in Apr.-1920 while in New York. However, I believe this ship is identical to Katvaldis, which was sunk in Convoy ON 122 (the Norwegian Trolla was also sunk in this convoy). If so, Hallfried was renamed Henry W. Breyer in 1926, Odile in 1927, becoming Latvian Katvaldis in 1929. She was taken over by the Ministry of War Transport in 1940 and sailed under the British flag when sunk. See also this posting to my Ship Forum for more details on this ship. Another Hallfried was delivered in 1922 to owners in Bergen. This ship became the Japanese Taijin Maru in 1927, Taizin Maru in 1938, and was sunk by an American sub in Febr.-1944.

The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, "Convoy Rescue Ships" by Arnold Hague, "The Allied Convoy System", Arnold Hague, "The World's Merchant Fleets 1939", Roger W. Jordan, "Sjøforklaringer fra 2. verdenskrig", Volume I (Norwegian Maritime Museum), and misc. (ref. My sources). The poem was received from Francine Town, Thomas P. Shaw's caretaker.