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

D/S Havørn Updated Oct. 8-2011

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

Manager: J. Odland & Søn A/S, Haugesund
Tonnage: 1526 gt, 912 net, 2400 tdwt.
Signal Letters: BLPT, previously LEBN

The tonnages given above are from misc. sources; she may have been rebuilt after delivery(?), at which time her tonnage is given as below:

Delivered from Laxevaag Maskin- & Jernskibsbyggeri, Bergen in Apr.-1902 as Ørn to P. Hamre e.a., Bergen, 1478 gt, 920 net, 2380 tdwt, 257.6' x 36.3' x 17', triple exp. 146 nhp (Laxevaag). When purchased in 1919 by A/S Ulrikka (Chr. Mathiesen), Mølstervåg/Haugesund she had the name Ørn II of Tønsberg, renamed Ulrikka II. From 1927 registered for Chr. Mathiesen & Sønners Rederi A/S. Sold in 1929 to Jacob Odland & Søn A/S, renamed Havørn (D/S A/S Havørn). The external website that I've linked to above has more detailed history, somewhat different from what I've given here.

Captains: Karl Helmer Henriksen from Dec.-1941 until Febr.-1942 (see M/S Vinni's Story - his other ships are listed on this external page). Captain at the time of loss was Engel Hansen Holme.

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

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

Voyage Record
From Febr.-1940 to June-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 as can be seen, the record is incomplete.

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.

With a cargo of pulp for Liverpool, Havørn is listed in the original Advance Sailing Telegram for Convoy HN 10B from Norway to the U.K. in Febr.-1940. In March, A. Hague has included her in Convoy ON 21 to Norway. Page 1 of the archive documents indicates she later got out of Norway in May (exact date not given), arriving Stornoway on May 13. Her final destination is given as Bordeaux, where she arrived May 29, returning to the U.K. in June. She was later mostly in general tramping services between Canada and U.S.A.

Together with Kolsdal and Lisbeth, she's listed in Convoy OB 196, which originated in Liverpool on Aug. 10-1940 and dispersed on the 15th, Havørn arriving Port Williams, N.S. on Aug. 28. She headed back to the U.K. again on Oct. 5 in the slow Convoy SC 7 from Sydney, C.B., in which the Norwegian Snefjeld and several others were sunk - follow the links for details. HMS Leith's report is also available for this convoy. Havørn had a cargo of pit props for Mersey (again, see also Page 1). The following month, we find her in Convoy OB 252, which started out in Liverpool on Nov. 30 and dispersed Dec. 4, Havørn arriving Corner Brook Dec. 25. Andrea Brøvig, Brisk, Elg, Malmanger, Profit, Skrim and Solhavn are also named. Direct links to both OB convoys mentioned here have been provided within the above record.

On Febr. 18-1941, she's listed, with a cargo of lumber for Great Yarmouth, in the slow Halifax-U.K. Convoy SC 23, but returned to Halifax on Febr. 26. There's a handwritten note on Page 1, which is rather hard to decipher, but it looks like it says something about boiler damage (possibly weather damage?). She proceeded to Boston on March 8, arriving March 12, and did not leave again until June 12*, when she headed back to Halifax, where she also stayed for a long time.

*She had been scheduled for Convoy SC 31 from Halifax to the U.K. on May 9, but did not sail. In fact, she did not go back to the U.K. again at all for the rest of the war, as evidenced by the archive documents.

Attacked by U-boat - 1942:

According to "Nortraships flåte", Havørn reported 2 torpedoes having been fired at her on Jan. 19-1942, but she was not hit. This was during Operation Paukenschlag, and Havørn was off Cape Race at the time, having sailed from St. John's on Jan. 18 (Page 2). After the attack she headed at full speed for Argentia with arrival the next day. I posted a query on Uboat.net's forum about this in hopes of finding out which boat this might have been, and this is what Rainer Kolbicz says in his reply (external link):
"U-84 (Uphoff) reported an unsuccessful attack at an unknown steamer of approximately 2500 GRT in grid BB6739 (46°17N/55°03W) on 19 January 1942. The U-boat fired a spread of two torpedoes at 14.21 hours and heard one hit on the ship, but it did not detonate and the other missed. At 14.31 hours, a third torpedo was fired which was a surface runner and missed the ship".

I've received a journal excerpt about this incident from Karl H. Henriksen, Norway, the grandson of Havørn's captain at the time, Karl Helmer Henriksen. Unfortunately, it's in Norwegian, and I had hoped to be able to post a translated summary of it here, but have now decided to post it "as is" for those of you who do read Norwegian - hopefully I'll get time to translate it at a later time - it's dated Febr. 12-1942 and can be found on on this page

For info, U-84 was also responsible for the attack on Torvanger in June that year - follow the link for details.

Havørn's subsequent voyages are shown on Page 2, while convoy information for some of them can be found in the table above.

Related external link:
U-84

Havørn departed Montreal for St. John's, N.F. (to join a convoy) with about 1832 tons general cargo (345 tons on deck) on July 17-1942. While in Montreal she had been in dry dock for misc. repairs. On July 18 she anchored up off Quebec where the pilot disembarked, and Havørn awaited further orders until she at 18:35 continued her voyage with a new pilot on board (J. E. Langlois). They ran into thick fog shortly after midnight on the 19th, and at about 02:10 she was rammed on her port side forward of the engine room by the British Radhurst, just off Prairie Light in St. Lawrence. The water gushed into the engine room and bunkers, the engine stopped and the lights went out. She listed more and more to starboard, and fearing she would sink any minute, and that the boilers might explode the captain found it best to order all men to the lifeboats and head for shore, which wasn't far away. Havørn had sunk (47 23 09N 70 27 07W) by the time they reached land in the 2 boats, 1 landed about 02:40 and the captain's boat about 03:00.

"Informal" hearings were held in Montreal on July 28-1942 with the captain (who at that time was Engel Hansen Holme), the 2nd mate, the carpenter (helmsman) and the donkeyman being questioned by the Norwegian Vice Consul. It looks like there was a possibility of a court case regarding this collision. As was common in cases like this each captain blamed the other for the incident. It appears Radhurst's captain had claimed his ship was stationary at the time, while Captain Hansen Holme says that if this had been the case they could easily have avoided her, and claims that the other ship had a good speed, which he feels was confirmed by the force with which she struck Havørn's bow.

Crew List - No Casualties:

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

Other ships by this name: Norway had previously also had a whale catcher by the name Havørn, built 1910. Renamed Veslemarit in 1922, converted to tug in 1940. There had also been a whale catcher named Havørn II, built 1912 (ex Linga II, ex Juarez). The fishing vessel, M/B Havørn (SF 40 SV) escaped from Måløy to Lerwick on May 8-1940 with 20 people on board, 11 of whom were British, 2 Jews from Austria and 7 Norwegians. P. Meyer, Oslo managed a ship named Havørn from 1949, at which time the ship was delivered from Sweden, 4944 gt. Sold and renamed Lundefjell for Olsen & Ugelstad, Oslo in 1964. Sold to Haugesund in Febr.-1970 and renamed Pax (Arne Østensjø A/S). Lost following a fire on board on Febr. 19-1974, when in Shanghai. Broken up. Another Havørn was delivered to A/S Havfugl (A/S Havtor), Oslo in Jan.-1977, built in Kiel, 23 463 gt. Had various owners until 1995, when she was sold to Monrovia and renamed Aristotelis, sold again in 1997 and renamed Babylon. Broken up 2001.

The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, "Våre gamle skip", Leif M. Bjørkelund & E. H. Kongshavn, "Sjøforklaringer fra 2. verdenskrig", Volume I (Norwegian Maritime Museum), and misc. (ref. My sources).