Irma (ship)
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The Irma was a passenger ship put into service in 1905 by the Norwegian shipping company Det Bergenske Dampskibsselskab (BDS), which initially brought passengers and cargo to Great Britain and Germany and from 1931 onwards on the Hurtigruten along the Norwegian coast. On February 13, 1944, the Irma was sunk in the bay of Hustadvika off Kristiansund by two torpedo hits. 61 Norwegian civilians died. It was only after the war that it was discovered that the ship had been attacked by a motor torpedo boat belonging to the Norwegian Navy . The incident sparked great controversy.
The ship
The 1,322 GRT large steamer Irma was at the shipyard Sir Raylton Dixon and Company in the northern English port city of Middlesbrough built and ran on 5 January 1905 the River Tees from the stack. The hull was made of steel . The construction costs amounted to's then monetary value 570,684 Norwegian kroner . The ship was named after the asteroid Irma , which was discovered in 1877 . The combined passenger and cargo ship was 74.4 m long, 9.9 m wide and had a draft of 6.4 m. The triple expansion steam engine achieved an output of 1,500 hp and enabled a maximum cruising speed of 13.9 knots . The passenger accommodations were initially designed for 92 passengers in the first class, 10 in the second class and 45 in the third class. In 1907 the number was reduced to 144 beds. After renovations in 1932, there was space for 39 passengers in first class and 48 in third class.
After its completion in the spring of 1905, the Irma was handed over to its owner, the Det Bergenske Dampskibsselskab (BDS) shipping company, founded in 1851 and based in Bergen , which was also its home port. The Irma was now in regular service on the Trondheim - Bergen - Stavanger - Newcastle upon Tyne route . This was a collaboration with the Trondheim shipping company Det Nordenfjeldske Dampskibsselskab (NFDS). She was the successor to the 14-year-old ship Mira on this route . From 1921, however, it operated in Norwegian waters and brought tourists to the North Cape and Svalbard in the summer seasons . From 1927, the Irma replaced the Neptun on the Bergen – Hamburg route , an established route of their shipping company. From 1931 the Irma was finally used on the Hurtigrute when she had to replace the steamer Hera , which sank in a storm off Havøysund in March of that year .
In the course of the years of service there were constant renovations and improvements. In 1913 a new heating system was installed, and in 1914 a radio system was purchased . In 1928 the ship got a new propeller . In 1931 and 1932 further renovations followed. In 1933 the ship was equipped with cooling devices, in 1938 with improved navigation systems and in 1939 with an echo sounder .
The Irma was popular with the passengers, especially her smoking room received attention. In the pre-war years have seen only once in an accident when the Irma 1937 Kabelvåg in the Lofoten on a reef aground. Although she got a leak in the port side , she was able to reach Kabelvåg harbor on her own and put all her 120 passengers safely ashore. The steamer was repaired in Bergen.
In World War II
After the outbreak of the Soviet-Finnish winter war on November 30, 1939, Norwegian army forces were brought north to strengthen the Norwegian border areas. The Irma brought on 11 December 1939 Norwegian troops from Mosjøen in the of the Red Army occupied Finnish territory Petsamo .
When the Wehrmacht occupied Norway and Denmark on April 9, 1940 as part of Operation Weser Exercise , the Irma was in the port of Bergen, one of the cities that were occupied by the Germans that day. During the German occupation of Norway , the Irma remained in passenger and cargo traffic on the Norwegian coast.
Sinking
On Sunday, February 13, 1944, the Irma sailed north from Bergen to Trondheim. On board were 45 crew members and 47 passengers, including about seven Germans (the numbers vary in the various sources). The cargo consisted of general cargo , mail and 1,800 tons of herring . The ship was under the command of Captain Sofus Strømberg. In the early evening of February 13, the Irma was in Hustadvika Bay off Kristiansund when she was shaken by a severe explosion in the bow area in front of the Hestskjær lighthouse at 6:37 p.m. Shortly after this first explosion, which caused great damage on board, a second followed amidships. The ship immediately began to sink. The explosions turned out to be a torpedo hit . In addition, massive machine gun fire fell on the Irma .
Shortly afterwards, the 628 GRT Norwegian freighter Henry of the Gothenburg shipping company Ångfartygs-A / B Nornan was sunk in the same area . Before the Henry sank, lifeboats could be lowered into the water, with which the majority of the own crew and later some of their survivors were rescued at the sinking site of the Irma . The tug Hopplafjord and the fishing cutter Sveggøy rescued other castaways. Sixty-one people died on the Irma and four on the Henry . The sinking of the Irma was the last major loss of a Hurtigruten ship during World War II . Since the German invasion in May 1940, numerous Norwegian passenger and cargo ships had fallen victim to sea mines , air raids and submarines .
The wreck of the Irma was found on November 3, 1999 by a research ship at a depth of about 200 m.
Reactions and controversy
The sinking of the Irma , an unarmed, unescorted merchant ship, was another tool used in Nazi propaganda against the Allies. A public statement by the Norwegian fascist party Nasjonal Samling on February 15, 1944 was the first official response to the event. In their newspaper Fritt Folk , the party described the incident as skjendselsdåd (German: Schandtat). A day later, Fritt Folk stated that the Royal Navy motor torpedo boats were responsible for the loss of the Irma and the Henry .
Only after the end of the war it became known that these were motor torpedo boats from Sjøforsvaret, the Norwegian Navy . The speedboat MTB 627 had sunk the Irma and the MTB 653 the Henry . A few days before the incident, the two boats had been brought from the Shetland Islands by the whaler Molde, who had been converted into an auxiliary cruiser , to the bay of Hustadvika to attack German-controlled shipping.
The sinking of the two ships is still controversial today. All Allied forces had strict orders not to attack any Norwegian steamers traveling alone on the Norwegian coast. The Norwegian Navy insists, however, that the Irma and the Henry drove darkened and without national flags and were also accompanied as a convoy by a German warship. Survivors of both ships contradict this vehemently. The crews of the torpedo boats also claimed that the Henry had made an evasive maneuver after the attack on the Irma . However, the Henry only stopped to launch lifeboats. The claim that a German warship was nearby has been investigated several times. One possible explanation could be the presence of the tug Hopplafjord , which, due to its size and profile, may have been mistaken for an armed cutter by the crews of the torpedo boats.
Commemoration
On May 20, 1944, the Norwegian postal authority Posten Norge , which is still controlled by the Germans, published a series of stamps designed by Harald Damsleth commemorating three of the most serious attacks on Norwegian civilian ships by the Allies. The ten Øre stamps recalled the sinking of the Barøy on September 13, 1941 in the Vestfjord (112 dead), the 15 Øre stamps of the Sanct Svithun off Stadlandet on September 30, 1943 (47 deaths), and the 20 -Øre stamps to the Irma in front of Kristiansund on February 13, 1944 (61 dead). For each stamp ten more Øre were asked, which were donated to the survivors and bereaved.
On September 16, 2002, a memorial service for the victims of the two ships was held in the church of Bremnes with the participation of the Norwegian King Harald V and the Bishop of the Diocese of Møre, Odd Bondevik. A memorial was then unveiled in Røeggen, Averøy Municipality , showing the names of the 65 Norwegians killed that day.
Then the king asked 180 guests to board the Hurtigruten ship Midnatsol , which brought the company to the sinking site. A memorial ceremony was held there in memory of the victims. Two Norwegian Navy motor torpedo boats also took part in the ceremony, from which a wreath of flowers was lowered into the water.
Literature (Norwegian)
- Dag Bakka jr .: Skipene som tied together . Hurtigruten gjennom hundre år. Rhema, Bergen 1993 (The Norwegian book documents all Hurtigruten ships from 1893 to 1980).
- Odd G. Engdal: Norsk marinehistorisk atlas 900–2005 . Vigmostad & Bjørke, Bergen 2006, ISBN 978-82-419-0454-7 (Norwegian).
- Jon Rustung Hegland: Angrep i skjærgården . Norske motortorpedobåters operasjoner fra Shetland 1941–1945. Dreyers, Oslo 1989, ISBN 82-09-10533-7 (Norwegian).
- Svein Carl Sivertsen (Ed.): Sjøforsvaret dag for dag 1814-2000 . Sjømilitære Samfund ved Norsk Tidsskrift for Sjøvesen, Hundvåg 2001, ISBN 82-92217-03-7 (Norwegian).
- Per Voksø: Krigens Dagbok - Norge 1940–1945 . Det Beste, Oslo 1994, ISBN 82-7010-166-4 (Norwegian).
Web links
- Entry in the ship directory Miramar Ship Index
- Technical and historical data about the Irma
- Technical and historical data about the Irma
- The Irma in a listing of Norwegian merchant ships in World War II (with pictures and lists of names)
- The Irma in an illustrated, detailed list of crashed Hurtigruten ships (PDF, 388 KiB)
- Commemoration of the sinking of the Irma on February 13, 1944 (online article)