Part of the
Acorn Archive
Hearts of Oak
Ships of
Operation Performance
For Full Story of Kvarstad Ships, see
http://www.warsailors.com/freefleet/kvarstad.html
A O Andersen
was one of the partners in the Anco Group ( Norway ).
One of A O Andersen’s ships was lost in Operation
Performance
31st
March 1942
Operation
Performance
31st March 1942
That evening ten Norwegian freighters attempt to break out
from Gothenburg, to reach Leith, Scotland. British Warships FAULKNOR, ESCAPADE,
ESKIMO, WALLACE, VANITY and VALOROUS were sent to assist the merchant ships to
leave. German Armed Trawlers V 908, V 1604, V 1609, V 1612, V 1613 and German
Submarines U 591, U 592, U 702 and U 703, together with Luftwaffe bombers were sent to prevent the ships from leaving.
The crews were taken prisoner and allowed to leave on the
Swedish cruiser GOTA LEJON.
Ten ships left
Gothenburg, Sweden.
Six of the ten were lost.
BUCCANEER ; A. O. Andersen Shipping Co. A/S, Oslo.
CHARENTE ; Fearnley & Eger, Oslo.
GUDVANG ; H. Gjerpen, Oslo.
RIGMOR ; Johan Stenersen, Oslo.
SKYTTEREN ; Yngvar Hvistendahl.
STORSTEN ; Rafen & Loennechen, Tønsberg.
Two of the ten made it to British waters.
B.P NEWTON ; Tschudi & Eitzen, Oslo.
LIND ; J. O. Odfjell, Bergen.
Two of the ten returned to Sweden.
DICTO ; E. B. Aaby, Oslo.
LIONEL ; Alf Mohn, Oslo.
Two of those ten ships encountered the Cornish Coast.
SKYTTEREN as SUEVIC : 17th March 1907
Split into two, off The Lizard Point.
LIND as ST GUENOLE : 1st
November 1948
Total Wreck, near Penberth Cove.
Ships Lost
BUCCANEER
Built
1927 NV Scheepbouw Mij., Nieuwe
Waterweg, Schiedam
Yard
Nr 141
6,222
grt; 9,525 dwt
11.5
knots
8
cyl B&W Diesel; 2500 bhp
1927 Launched as the DUIVENDRECHT ; Van Ommeren
1938 BUCCANEER ; A.O Andersen Shipping Co. Oslo,
Norway
1942 1st April : Lost in Operation
Performance.
Fired
on by German warships, the Buccaneer was scuttled by the crew, off Maseskjaer,
Sweden. Position 58.05N:11.05E.
Buccaneer as
Duivendrecht
CHARENTE
Built
1935 Porsgrunds mek. Værksted.
Yard
Nr 98
D/S
A/S Garonne Fearnley & Eger, Oslo
1,282
grt; 1,800 dwt
242ft
Cargo steamship; 800hp
1942 1st April : Lost in Operation Performance.
When
fired upon from a German warship, the crew scuttled her,
6
miles off Kaeringen. Position 58.05N:11.05E.
Charente
GUDVANG
Built 1912 by Fredrikstad Mekanik, Verkstad
As steamship STALHEIM
For A/S Standard (J.B.Stang), Oslo
Yard Nr 155
1470 brt; 877 nrt; 2550 dwt.
243ft x 39ft 5ins x 17ft 4ins
3Exp. (FMV), 172 nhp
Call Sign : LEXU
1936 April : Renamed GUDVANG ; D/S A/S
Gudvin (H.Gjerpen), Oslo..
1940 9th April : Secured at
Göteborg
1940 April : Handed to Nortraship
1942 1st April : Lost in Operation
Performance.
Fired at and sunk by a German warship, in the Skagerak.
The crew were captured and sent to a German concentration camp.
Gudvang
RIGMOR
Motor
Tanker ( 2 masts )
Built
1931 Gotaverken, Gothenburg
For Waages Tankrederi A/S, Oslo
9,100dwt;
6305 grt
Water
line length 124.05m
128.82
x 16.76 x 9.83m
Gotaverken
diesel engines; 2,800 bhp; 11.5 knots
140
rpm twin propeller, 4 blade, diameter 3.352m.
1940 Johan Stenersen, Oslo
1942 1st April : Lost in Operation
Performance.
Sunk
by German torpedo from a bomber.
Rigmor
SKYTTEREN
Built
1900 Harland & Wolff , Belfast as
liner SUEVIC ( sister RUNIC ).
An
earlier RUNIC became Haldor Virik’s ship GUVERNØREN.
12,
531 grt; 15,600dwt
565ft
x 63ft 4ins
2x4
cylinder quadruple expansion engines; two propellers
13.5
knots
Launched
8th December 1900
Maiden
voyage to Australia 23rd March 1901.
1907 17th March : Wrecked on the
Maenheere rocks, off Lizard Light
The stern section was salvaged and
she was rebuilt.
1908 4th January : She resumed commercial service
on schedule.
1928 October : Renamed SKYTTEREN ; Yngar
Hvistendahl,
Finnvahl A/S of Tonsberg for
£35,000.
Converted into a whale factory ship
at Fruppe's Germaniawerft, Kiel.
1942 1st April : Lost in Operation
Performance.
Fired on by German warships, and
bombed, the SKYTTEREN was
scuttled by her crew, off
Maseskjaer, Sweden. Position 58.09N:11.04E.
Skytteren
STORSTEN
Built
1926 Barclay Curle & Company,
Glasgow; Launched 12th May.
5,343
grt; 3,114 nrt; 7,850 dwt Tanker
388ft
2ins x 52ft 8ins x 29ft
Yard
Nr 613
For
Rafen & Loennechen, Tønsberg; Tonsberg Rederi AS Norway
11
knots
Original
Engines : 4 cylinder 2SCDA Maclagan oil engine, 24.5ins x 44ins, 2,700 bhp by
North British Diesel Engine Works (1922) Ltd, Glasgow.
1928:
Unhappy with the reliability of the original engine, the ship was re- engined
at the builder’s expense with a conventional Doxford engine.
3
cylinder Doxford 58L3 opposed-piston oil engine, 22.8ins x 91.3ins,
2100
bhp.
1942 1st April : Lost in Operation
Performance.
Bombed
and struck a floating mine 32 miles S of Kristiansand.
Scuttled
by crew later that day when vessel was attacked by a German patrol boat. Position 58.05N:11.05E.
Storsten
=====================
Ships Escaped to
Leith
B.
P. NEWTON
Motor
Tanker
Call
Sign LKLV
Built
1940 Kockums Mekaniska Verkstads A/B,
Malmö, Sweden.
For
Tschudi & Eitzen, Oslo
10,324
grt; 16,000dwt
512ft 3ins x 63ft 3ins x 39ft
1,551 nhp; oil engines.
1942 1st April : Taken to England
1942 Master J.W. Calvert succeeded in reaching
Leith, the designated destination, on the 3rd April, with 71 people
on board; the ships BP NEWTON and LIND were twice attacked from the air and had
an encounter with a small German Convoy. Chartered to the American company Gulf Oil.
1943 B.P.NEWTON (
Skibs A/S Navales ), a Norwegian tanker, was on a voyage from Curacao to Table
Bay with aviation spirit. She was was torpedoed by a German submarine on 8th
July, off the coast of French Guiana. The tanker caught fire and eventually
sank. Twenty-two of her crew died on board and one man died of injuries soon
after being picked up.
B P Newton
LIND
Built 1938 NV
Scheepsbouwwerf de Groot & van Vliet, Slikkerveer, Netherlands
Yard Nr 216
461 grt, 186 nrt, 600 dwt
168ft 4ins x 25ft 10ins x 10ft
8 cyl 4T DM single acting DM (KHD A/G, Köln), 500 bhp
Call Sign LJUT
1938 Delivered 7th
March to Skips-A/S Oljetransport
(A/S Rederiet
Odfjell), Bergen
1940 9th April : Held at
Göteborg.
1942 1st April : Taken to England
Managed by Anglo-American Oil Co. Ltd., London.
and
later handed to Nortraship.
1947 July : Sold to Cie. Des Transportes Maritime de Goudron,
Paris, Fr.
Renamed ST. GUENOLE
1948 1st November
It was the usual 'wreck weather' for the
western cliffs; hazy with heavy ground seas, the aftermath of a hard south-west
gale. Shortly after one o'clock on the morning of November 1st, 1948, the
coastguard on watch at Treen saw the lights of a motor vessel emerge from a
fierce squall of rain and head straight for the surf beating upon Pednevounder
sands. In response to the rapid blink of his Aldis lamp, she turned eastwards
and vanished round Logan Rock headland. Though she made no signal, either to
acknowledge the warning or to ask for help, he called out Treen LSA company and
another coastguard and went down into Penberth Cove. There was no sign of the
mysterious ship, but the wind was thick with the stench of fuel oil. Suddenly
he saw a young man washing about in the surf and despite almost being swept
away, dragged him out and carried him to a nearby cottage. Search parties began
to scour the cliffs. A lifejacket marked 'ST GUENOLE-ROUEN' was picked up on
the rocks near the cove, and at dawn a vessel of about 500 tons was found
bottom up beneath Gribba Point, less than half a mile away. The ST GUENOLE, a
steel tar tanker owned by Cie Mar de Transport de Goudron of Rouen, bound in
ballast from Nantes to Irvine on Clydeside with a crew of twelve, was a total
wreck. Twenty-three-year-old Andre Fourcin, the sailor saved by the coastguard,
was the sole survivor. The ST GUENOLE rusted away beneath the Penberth cliffs.
===============
Ships Returned to
Gothenburg
DICTO
Built
1939 Gotaverken, Gothenburg
E.
B. Aaby, Oslo
5,263
grt; 9,470dwt; Motor cargo ship
Diesel
Engines 680/1500 VG-6; 5200 ihp; 4300 bhp; 112 rpm.
1940 In Swedish waters from April.
1942 Attempted to reach Leith April 1942, but
returned to Gothenburg.
1964
Renamed ONISOLOS; Salamis Shipping (Panama)
S.A., Greece
1970 Broken up in Shanghai.
Dicto
LIONEL
Built
1926 Odense Staalskibs, Odense,
Denmark.
For
A/S D/S Østlandet (Alf Mohn), Oslo
5,653
grt; Motor cargo ship
1940 In Swedish waters from April.
1942 Attempted to reach Leith April 1942, but
returned to Gothenburg.
1947
A/S D/S Ostlandet (Peter Valeur, Manager)
1955 Renamed AGUANTE ; Soc Anonyme
Maritime et Commerciale
SA Suisse, Geneva, Switzerland.
Panama Registration.
1964 Sold to Thomas W. Ward Ltd. for breaking up
at Grays, UK
Arrived there on 17th
March 1964.
Raymond
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