M/S Randsfjord - Norwegian Merchant Fleet 1939-1945 (original) (raw)

M/S Randsfjord - Page 2 Report of Interview with Steward Nils Askeland Received from Roger Griffiths - His source: Public Records Office, Kew.

The report is dated June 29-1940 and states the following:

"We were bound from Halifax to Liverpool with a general cargo. The colour of our hull was grey, the funnel and superstructure were buff. We had wireless on board, but we were not armed. We were not flying an ensign at the time of the attack. The crew, including the Master, was 32, of whom 3 were injured and 3 are missing. The ship was degaussed.

We left Halifax on 9th June, and proceeded without incident until 1 a.m. on 20th, when in position 70 miles East of Queenstown we were struck by a torpedo. I was with the Chief Engineer at the time, on the upper deck, in a room just below the bridge. The sea was calm at the time, with a slight swell, and we were making about 14 knots. Suddenly without any previous noise or warning there was a very sharp explosion. A torpedo had struck the ship about 250 ft. from the bow on the port side. I did not see any flame or any smoke. I rushed out on to the deck and tried to put on my life jacket. I went over to the port life boat, but found that the davit had broken and the boat had disappeared. Then I went to the starboard side to lower the boat. The engines had not stopped. Most of the men managed to jump into the boat, but I did not manage to do this as the speed of the ship was too great. I went on to the lower deck, the water was up to my knees, so I went up to the rails and jumped into the water. When I came to the surface the ship had gone. She had gone down in 3 or 4 minutes. I swam over to a box whick was floating about, and managed to hold on to it. The Third Officer was on the box and we were picked up by the small boat. We picked the Captain out of the water but he was dead.

One of the members of the crew of the submarine shouted in English for us to "Come alongside". As we could not move as quickly as the submarine, it came up to us. The same man on the submarine asked the name of our ship and what cargo we were carrying, and we told him and said we had general cargo, but he must have seen the wreckage of aeroplanes in the water, (we had had 6 aeroplanes in our cargo), but did not say anything about it. This man spoke to us in English all the time, but I do not know if he had an accent. This was the only English I heard spoken from the submarine, as other members of the [crew? word missing] who were in the conning tower were speaking to each other in what I think was German. I did not hear any Italian spoken, and to the best of my knowledge and belief, no other survivors from the ship heard any Italian spoken on the submarine.

We asked for a course, and the man told us to go [a word in the margin is missing here] to Ireland - about 70 miles. He gave us a bottle of brandy. I think the markings on the bottle were German. I asked for a bottle of water, but they gave it to us in a kerosene tin and this was unpleasant so we threw it away. The man who spoke to us was smoking all the time, but he did not offer us a cigarette.

The men on the submarine wore britches, leggings [and? word missing] forrage caps. I am not very sure of the colour as the light was bad, but I think it was khaki. I do not remember very much about the submarine. It was bigger than Norwegian submarines I have seen. The [? word missing] of the submarine was like a funnel. It had round holes on the outside, but I do not know how many guns the submarine had. The crew of the submarine did not offer to pick [us up?].

After a while we started to row. We saw some [tankers?] in the distance, but did not want to put up any lights, [in case?] we drew the attention of the submarine to the tankers and they would be torpedoed. After a while we set up sail. We [altered?] our course and thought we should get to Swansea, but we [dropped?] out of course and thought we should land between Lundy and Lands End. After 36 hours we were picked up by the S.S. Port Hobart and landed in Glasgow on 25th June (statement at the maritime hearings gives the date as June 26 - see page 1)."