HNoMS Fridtjof Nansen OPV

HNoMS "Fridtjof Nansen" was the first ship in the Norwegian armed forces to be built specially to perform coast guard and fishery protection duties in the Arctic. Command was assumed 29 May 1931 by Commander Ole A. Blom. [Sivertsen 2001: 126] She was constructed with build number 118 at the Royal Norwegian Naval Yard at Horten. [Horten municipal archive of local history: [http://www.lokalhistoriskarkiv.no/arkivet/historiske_sider/horten_verft/byggenummer Build numbers at Horten naval yard] no icon]

Name

She was named after Fridtjof Nansen - the great Norwegian explorer, scientist, diplomat and Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

1933 sinking

On 21 December 1933 "Fridtjof Nansen" departed the port of Hammerfest on her way to her patrol areas in eastern Finnmark. While passing through Vestervågen in Måsøy she ran aground and sank the next night. She was raised the next year and taken to Horten for repairs. [Sivertsen 2001: 260]

War service

Norwegian Campaign

At the outbreak of war with the German invasion of Norway 9 April, 1940, "Fridtjof Nansen" was posted to the Finnmark detachment of the 3rd Naval District covering North Norway. [ [http://niehorster.orbat.com/022_norway/navy_03.htm Administrative order of the Royal Norwegian Navy's third district, 8 April 1940] ]

In exile

After surviving several air attacks without damage during the Norwegian Campaign "Fridtjof Nansen" was one of the thirteen Royal Norwegian Navy vessels that made it to the UK, as she escaped westwards at the dawn of the 10 June 1940 mainland Norwegian capitulation. On 8 June 1940 she took on board in Tromsø Rear Admiral Henry E. Diesen and foreign minister Halvdan Koht in addition to some other refugees.Sivertsen 2001: 139]

She arrived at Tórshavn on the Faroe Islands on 13 June and later sailed to the United Kingdom where she was made war ready.

From 29 August 1940 she was posted as a patrol vessel in Iceland to reinforce the British naval forces there. On 8 November she ran on an unmarked shallow outside the Norwegian Arctic island of Jan Mayen and sank. The crew of 67 was all saved.

ee also

* List of World War II ships
* List of shipwrecks in 1940

Notes

ources

* Abelsen, Frank: "Norwegian naval ships 1939-1945", Sem & Stenersen AS, Oslo 1986, ISBN 82-7046-050-8 en icon/no icon
* no icon
* [http://navalhistory.flixco.info/G/288833x9/8330/a0.htm Naval history via FLIX: "Fridtjof Nansen"] , retrieved 17 March 2006 en icon