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

D/S Marianne Updated May 26-2010

Owner: A/S Nesjar
Manager: Eilert Lund, Bergen
Tonnage: 1915 gt, 1110 net, 3150 tdwt
Signal Letters: LCNH

Delivered in July-1920 from T. van Dnijvendijk, Lekkerkerk, Holland as Haraldshaug to D/S A/S Haug (A/S Merctor), Haugesund. (Tonnage is given as 1920 gt, 1112 net, 3150 tdwt in "Våre gamle skip"). 265.4' x 42.4' x 18.6', tripple exp. 207 nhp (Hardinxveld). Sold in Sept.-1928 to Sigurd Brekke, Bergen and renamed Nygaard. Company went bankrupt in Apr.-1930 and the ship was sold the following month at auction together with A. W. Brekke (ex _Elida Clause_n) to A/S Nesjar (Eilert Lund), Bergen and registered as Marianne. (See also the external page above which shows a somewhat different history).

Related item on this website:
Guestbook message from the grandson of one of Marianne's survivors, Olav Mathias Bærø (see crew list).

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 Oct.-1941 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.

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 further details.

From Page 1 of the archive documents, we learn that Marianne was in Albany, N.Y. when war broke out in Norway on Apr. 9-1940, having arrived there from New York City the day before. Her 1941 voyages also start on this document and continue on Page 2.

Arnold Hague has included Marianne in Convoy SC 50, which left Sydney, C.B. on Oct. 17-1941 and arrived Liverpool Nov. 4 - Marianne stopped at Loch Ewe on Nov. 3, later proceeding to Scapa, where she arrived on Nov. 11. She had a cargo of flour, sailing in station 44. This convoy is not yet available among the SC convoys listed on my website, but will be added. For now, the ships sailing in it are named in the section listing ships in all SC convoys. The Norwegian Atlantic, Bur, Fjordaas, Geisha, Lysaker V and Rio Novo are also included. The rest of Marianne's 1941 movements are shown on Page 2 above.

On March 7-1942, she's listed in Convoy RU 14 from Reykjavik to the U.K., but returned to port, joining the next convoy a week later, RU 15. The Norwegian Hildur I is also listed in RU 14, and Fidelio sailed with Marianne in RU 15. She arrived her destination Grimsby, via Loch Ewe and Methil Roads, on March 25, returning to Reykjavik the following month. Her voyages in this period are listed on Page 3 (with convoy info in the table above). With vehicles for Cardiff, we now find her in Convoy RU 22 from Reykjavik in May; she arrived Cardiff (via Belfast Lough) on May 17. She also appears to have been scheduled for Convoy RU 32 on July 16, but did not sail, nor does she show up in any of the subsequent convoys. According to Page 4 of the archive documents, she left Reykjavik for Scrabster on July 20 - perhaps she made this voyage independently(?). It'll also be noticed that she subsequently spent quite a long time at Tyne, before heading to Iceland again in Sept.-1942.

More details on the other Norwegian ships mentioned on this page can be found with the help of the alphabet index below, or go to the Master Ship Index.

Marianne was 1 of 5 ships sunk in a convoy that was attacked by the 4th S-Flottille (Bätge) on Dec. 12-1942. She had departed Rochester in ballast on Dec. 10, arriving Southend that same day where she joined a convoy for Sunderland, leaving in the morning of Dec. 12 - again, see Page 4. A visitor to my website has told me she was in Convoy FN 889 (external link - incomplete listing; Ask, Astrid and Spurt are included).

She was torpedoed by S-63 (Block), 345° 2 miles from No 4 Buoy, Lowestoft, causing her to list heavily to port, while a tremendous amount of steam made it impossible to get from the bridge to the boat deck for a while. The wheelhouse was blown away and the alarm didn't work. Some had been blown overboard by the explosion, which occurred in the stoker room amidships, others had to jump into the water and swim away when the ship capsized on top of the port lifeboat which had been launched by 1st Mate Werge (the officer on watch), Able Seaman Taarland (helmsman at the time) and Radio Operator Spjutøy. On the bridge when the attack occurred were also the captain, Able Seaman/Gunner Tjøtta and Gunner Hutchkins, while Able Seaman Steffensen and Gunner Anderton, who were both killed, were on watch aft. The ship went down in about 1 to 1 1/2 minute.

The captain and 5 others found 2 of Marianne's rafts which somehow had gotten connected to each other, and were on these for about 2 hours before being picked up by a British ML and later landed in Great Yarmouth. Others were picked up by various vessels that came to; another 4 were also landed in Great Yarmouth, while 6 were landed in Newcastle. Able Seaman/Gunner Rasmussen had last been seen drifting off on some debris. Those who were on the rafts attempted to get to him, but it was impossible to reach him. He called out to the captain, saying he had lost his leg. The men in the engine room were assumed killed on impact.

The inquiry was held in London on Dec. 16-1942 with the captain, the 1st mate, Able Seaman Taarland and Able Seaman/Gunner Tjøtta appearing. The 1st mate stated that the water was full of people, not only from Marianne, but also from other ships* that were struck after she had been attacked (she was the first ship to be torpedoed). Able Seaman/Gunner Tjøtta, who had been on watch by the machine gun on the starboard side of the bridge, had been blown overboard by the blast and clung to various debris until he was picked up by a lifeboat from a Greek ship, then transferred to a British rescue vessel and taken to Gt. Yarmouth.

*Other ships sunk from Convoy FN 889 that day were the British steamships Avonwood by S-48 (Mirbach), Lindisfarne, also by S-63 (same as Marianne's attacker), Glen Tilt by S-110 (Graser), and Knitsley, by S-117 (Bludau).

Marianne was the last Norwegian shipwreck in the English coastal trade in 1942.

Crew List:
Here's a Guestbook message from the grandson of Olav Mathias Bærø. He had previously served on G. C. Brøvig and Nova (very briefly). Following the loss of Marianne, he joined Lysland, Alaska (also very briefly) and Velox.

* Billy McGee has told me that Trimmer James W. Bennett (37) and Boy Alexander Davison are commemorated at Tower Hill, Panel 68 - they can be found by entering each name in the relevant search field at The Commonwealth War Graves Comm. website, using Merchant Navy and Second World War in the other fields to narrow the search. I also found a Joseph Frederick Anderton listed as having died on the date Marianne was sunk; not sure if he's the same person, he's said to have been buried at Fredrikshavn Cemetery in Denmark. The site also has a Charles McCormack, who's commemorated at Plymouth Naval Memorial. This page says the Canadian John T. Morgan is commemorated on Panel 22 at the Halifax Memorial. He's also included on the Commonwealth W.G. site.

Back to Marianne on the "Ships starting with M" page.

Denmark lost a steamship by this name to a mine in the Sound on May 28-1946 - built 1924, 1239 gt.

Eilert Lund later had 2 more ships named Marianne - information on one them can be found in a thread on my Ship Forum, starting here.

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 II (Norwegian Maritime Museum) and misc. (ref. My sources).