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Allied Ships hit by U-boats


Havbør


The photo shows Havfru, a sistership of Havbør. Photo Courtesy of Library of Contemporary History, Stuttgart

NameHavbør
Type:Motor tanker
Tonnage7.614 tons
Completed1930 - Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson Ltd, Wallsend, Sunderland 
OwnerP. Meyer, Oslo 
HomeportOslo 
Date of attack15 Nov, 1940Nationality:      Norwegian
 
FateSunk by U-65 (Hans-Gerrit von Stockhausen)
Position04.24N, 13.46W - Grid ET 9117
- See location on a map -
Complement64 (60 dead and 4 survivors).
Convoy 
RouteAbadan - Freetown - UK 
CargoCrude oil 
History  
Notes on loss At 18.16 hours on 15 Nov, 1940, the Havbør (Master Halvor Skarrebo) was torpedoed and sunk by U-65, while picking up 31 men from rafts from the Kohinur, which had been torpedoed three hours earlier by the same U-boat. The men on the raft warned the Havbør that the U-boat was nearby, but boats were lowered anyway. The master, 27 crew members and all the rescued men died in the flames, caused by the explosion of the torpedo. Three Norwegian and two Danish crewmembers of the tanker jumped overboard and swam towards the abandoned raft from the other ship, tore a plank loose and paddled for life away from the burning oil.
Later the survivors encountered a lifeboat from Kohinur and asked to be taken on board, but after having inquired how much water they had on the raft, the lifeboat sailed away from the raft, because it was already filled to capacity. The raft kept drifting and on 16 November, one of the Danish men died, he had been badly burnt. On 24 November, the remaining survivors were picked up by the British steam merchant Baron Ardrossan and taken to Freetown. 


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