Haakon Jarl (ship)
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The Haakon Jarl was a passenger ship put into service in 1879 by the Norwegian shipping company Det Nordenfjeldske Dampskibsselskab (NFDS), which from 1905 transported passengers and cargo on the Hurtigruten along the Norwegian coast. On June 17, 1924, the Haakon Jarl sank in the Vestfjord after a collision with the Kong Harald . 17 people were killed.
The ship
The steamship Haakon Jarl was built in 1879 at the Motala Mekaniske Verksted AB shipyard in the Lindholmen district of Gothenburg on the island of Hisingen for Det Nordenfjeldske Dampskibsselskab. The construction cost 320,000 Norwegian kroner in terms of monetary value at the time . The ship was named after Håkon Jarl , a Norwegian ruler from the 10th century. The steel Haakon Jarl was 56.9 meters long, 8.3 meters wide and had a maximum draft of 6.5 meters. She was powered by a twin- cylinder compound steam engine that developed 630 PSi and allowed a top speed of 11 knots. In later years the rooms of the cabin class were equipped with telephones and heaters and the dining room was paneled with mahogany wood .
The Haakon Jarl was handed over to Det Nordenfjeldske Dampskibsselskab in April 1879 and began its service on the route from Hamburg to Vadsø , which the shipping company operated in cooperation with Det Bergenske Dampskibsselskab . In 1883 she drove from Bergen to Nordkapp with the Sverre Sigurdsson . Their owners had chosen these two ships for this purpose because they had the most comfortable passenger accommodations. In 1887, Crown Prince Gustav and Crown Princess Viktoria of Sweden took a cruise to North Norge on board the Haakon Jarl . In 1891 the ship was overhauled. A new keel and new steam engines were installed and the hull was extended by 3.2 meters.
In 1905 the Haakon Jarl was relocated to the Hurtigruten route and commuted between Trondheim and Tromsø . However, she was initially only a replacement ship. In 1906 the ship was modernized again at Akers mekaniske Verksted in Oslo . The previous compound steam engine from Motala Mekaniske Verksted was replaced by a 760 PSi triple expansion steam engine. As a result of the modifications, the ship's dimensions changed from the original 899 GRT, 548 NRT and 500 DWT to 873 BRT, 524 NRT and 700 DWT.
In 1907, the ship received a new certificate to carry 200 passengers, 52 of them in the cabin class. During the First World War there were restrictions in the passenger and mail traffic of the Hurtigruten. The shortage of coal troubled the shipping companies. The Haakon Jarl was in full Hurtigruten service from October 1, 1914, as the Norwegian parliament had requested ten additional ships due to the state of war. After the end of the war, the Haakon Jarl was the longest-serving Hurtigruten ship.
On June 17, 1924, the Haakon Jarl was on a northbound course coming from Bodø when she collided six nautical miles north of the island of Landegode in the Vestfjord with the steaming southbound ship Kong Harald , which belonged to the same shipping company. The bow of the Kong Harald dug deep into the aft of the Haakon Jarl , which went down within eight minutes. 17 passengers and crew members drowned. The wreck of the Haakon Jarl lies at a depth of 25 to 35 meters.