Richard With (ship, 1909)
 The Richard With in Svolvær Harbor (1910)
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The Richard With (I) was a passenger ship of the Norwegian shipping company Vesteraalens Dampskibsselskab, which transported passengers and cargo on the Hurtigruten along the Norwegian coast from 1909 to 1941 . On September 13, 1941, Richard With was sunk by the British submarine Tigris off Rolvsøy on the coast of the northern Norwegian province of Finnmark . 28 crew members and 71 passengers died.
The ship
The 905-ton steamer was at the shipyard Trondhjems Mekaniske Værksted (TMV) in Trondheim built and expired on 24 June 1909 from the stack . Its construction cost 398,000 Norwegian kroner in terms of its monetary value at the time . The keel was laid in 1907, but due to a strike , the ship was not completed until June 1909 and handed over to its owners. The steamer was 62.5 meters long and 8.8 meters wide and had a draft of 4.9 meters. The public spaces and passenger quarters were very comfortable; the ship had a dining room for 60 guests, a smoking room, a music room, a ladies' salon and a post office. The Richard With could carry a total of 300 passengers. Their triple expansion steam engine achieved an output of 1066 PSi and helped the ship to a maximum cruising speed of 13 knots.
She was built for the Norwegian shipping company Vesteraalens Dampskibsselskab, founded in 1881 by the captain and shipowner Richard With , which originally had its headquarters in Stokmarknes and operated shipping on the Hurtigruten . Stokmarknes was also the home port of Richard With . It was the first ship named after the founder of the shipping company. The Richard With was built for the Trondheim – Tromsø route to replace the older steamer Vesterålen . In 1911 she was placed on the Bergen - Vadsø route and in 1914 on the Bergen - Kirkenes route.
On February 23, 1913, the Richard With ran aground near Gibostad in Gisund on the coast of Troms , but was repaired again. On July 8, 1919, she ran into an archipelago off Austrheim and had to be towed by the rescue ship Jason . After the repair, she was back on the Hurtigruten. On August 18, 1938, the ship lost its propeller on the east coast of Finnmark and had to be towed from Honningsvåg to Trondheim.
The outbreak of World War II in September 1939 had a significant impact on Hurtigruten shipping. Among other things, the number of runs has been reduced. The Richard With was decommissioned in autumn 1939. After the German Wehrmacht invaded Norway in May 1940, all Hurtigruten departures were temporarily suspended. After a short time, however, traffic was resumed, albeit in a restricted form.
On May 5, 1940, the Richard With was under the command of Captain Olav Isachsen on the way to Harstad when she was attacked by German aircraft with bombs and machine guns . She stranded in the Solbergfjord near Sørreisa . All passengers and crew were rescued and picked up from the ships Bjarkov and Clio and brought ashore. The Clio , a 556 ton steamer owned by Det Bergenske Dampskibsselskab , then towed the Richard With to Finnsnes in Gisund. Since it was found that her machines were largely intact, she continued her journey to Tromsø on her own.
The ship was then occasionally used by the German Wehrmacht as a troop transport.
Sinking
On Saturday, September 13, 1941, the Richard With was on a south course between Honningsvåg and Hammerfest on the Finnmark coast. There were 87 passengers and 43 crew members on board, including two pilots and several postal workers. The 130 people on board were almost without exception Norwegian civilians. The ship was under the command of Captain Kristian Dahl Knudsen.
Off the island of Rolvsøy, about eleven nautical miles from Hammerfest, the ship was attacked at around 11 a.m. by the Tigris , a Triton- class submarine of the Royal Navy . The first torpedo missed its target, but the second hit Richard With amidships. The steamer was only 50 seconds position 70 ° 58 '7.6 " N , 23 ° 54' 39.8" O below.
The fishing cutter Skolpen saw the Richard With sink and arrived 15 minutes later at the scene of the accident. The Skolpen could only save 31 people. 28 crew members, including seven women, and 71 passengers were killed. (Due to differing sources, the figures in some reports differ.) In this disaster, most Norwegian civilians were killed when a ship was sunk on the Norwegian coast during World War II.
literature
- Dag Bakka Jr .: Hurtigruten. Sjøveien mot north. Revised utgave. Seagull Publishing, Bergen 2003, ISBN 82-91258-17-1
- Mike Bent: Coastal Express. The Ferry to the Top of the World. Conway Maritime Press Limited, London 1987, ISBN 0-85177-446-6 .
Web links
- Some basic data of Richard With (with picture)
- The Richard With in a listing of Norwegian merchant ships in World War II (with further links)
- The Richard With in an online museum for Hurtigruten ships (with pictures)
- The Richard With on wrecksite.eu