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

M/S Toulouse Updated Dec. 2-2010

To Toulouse on the "Ships starting with T" page.

Launched on Oct. 7-1933 (Deutsche Werke A.G., Kiel - Yard 228) and completed Jan 4-1934.The picture on the right shows Toulouse at launching. All pictures on this page are from Xavier Escallier's postcard collection. Here is the back of the postcard
Manager: Wilh. Wilhelmsen, Tønsberg Tonnage: 7027 gt, 4309 net, 10 720 tdwt Dimensions: 469.0' x 60.7' x 28.9' Machinery: 2 x 8 cylinder 4 s.c.s.a oil engines totalling 8000 ihp driving twin screws (by shipbuilders). Service speed 15.5 knots - 10 passengers.
Related items on this website: Forum posting from the son of Ken Fabian, who served on Toulouse (as well as Norfold, Sjøbris and Heimvard), and would like to get in touch with someone who knew him.Another posting - From a relative of Patrick Harris-Iles.

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

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

� Voyage Record
From Oct.-1940 to Apr.-1944: �

(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.

As can be seen when going to Page 1 of the archive documents, Toulouse had just been to Norway the month before the Germans invaded the country (Apr. 9-1940). Her departure date from Oslo is not given, but she arrived Lisbon on March 25, leaving again for Table Bay on the 28th, with arrival Apr. 23. From there, she proceeded to Fremantle, Adelaide and Melbourne. It'll be noticed that she later appears to have pent a long time in Sydney, where she had arrived from Melbourne on June 11; departure is given as Sept. 1, when she left for Brisbane.

In Oct.-1940 she's listed among the ships in the Bermuda portion of Convoy HX 82, cargo of sugar, wool and steel for Liverpool. Her 1941 voyages are shown on Page 1. As will be seen, she had a long stay in New York that year. She had arrived there from Baltimore on Aug. 24 and did not leave again until Oct. 13. Similar long stays in port are shown all through her record - see also Page 2.

At the end of 1942, A. Hague has included her in Convoy DN 6, which left Durban on Dec. 11-1942 (available via the external link provided within the Voyage Record). Her destination is given as Mombasa, where she arrived, via Diego Suarez (Dec. 19/Dec. 27), on Dec. 30, leaving again for Tanga and Melbourne on Jan. 17-1943, according to Page 2. This document shows another long gap in her voyages for that year, from May 11-1943, when she had arrived Suez from Aden, to March 4-1944, when she left Suez for Port Sudan. She later returned to Suez, then on to Port Said, where she joined Convoy MKS 44 on March 20. This convoy joined up with the Freetown Convoy SL 153 off Gibraltar on Apr. 2, proceeding to the U.K. as the combined Convoy SL 153/MKS 44, arriving Liverpool on Apr. 13 - again, see the external link in the table above. Her voyage is given as Port Sudan and Suez to Mersey with cotton, diesel oil and vehicles. The Norwegian Boreas is also listed in the MKS portion from Port Said; A, Hague has also included Europe, Lidvard, Norsol and Star, but none of these were bound for the U.K. The MKS convoy will be added to an individual page in my own Convoys section; in the meantime, the ships sailing in it are named in the section listing ships in all MKS convoys.

Toulouse now spent a long time in Liverpool, before proceeding to Loch Ewe on June 27-1944 (Page 2). From there, she went to Methil Roads on July 1, then on to North Shields and as can be seen when going to Page 3, there's now another long gap in her voyage information. She had arrived North Shields on July 4-1944; departure is given as Dec. 29-1945 "for trials". She later continued to Casablanca, with arrival Jan. 5-1946. The document lists her voyages to Apr.-1946.

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

Sold to Oleada Cia. Naviera (Michail A. Karageorgis, manager), Greece on Oct. 28-1959 and renamed Michalakis. During a voyage from Callao (just outside Lima, Peru) to Hull with a cargo of fishmeal in paper bags on March 26-1962, a fire broke out in No. 1 hold when she was about 8 miles north of San Juan, P.R. She put in at San Juan the next day and the fire was extinguished on the 31st. Damage was beyond economical repair and she was abandoned on July 30-1962 to insurance underwriters as a constructive total loss. Sold for demolition on Aug. 24-1962 to Buques y Materiales S.A. Arrived Bilbao on Aug. 26 to be broken up.

Back to Toulouse on the "Ships starting with T" page.

Wilh. Wilhelmsen later had another ship by this name, 1962-1974. This message in my Guestbook has more details on this ship.

The text on this page was compiled with the help of: Wilh. Wilhelmsen fleet list and misc.