Uller (ship, 1943)

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The Uller ( IMO 5372458) was a Norwegian salvage tug that did service under different names from 1943 to 2008.

Construction, technical data and service in the Navy

The ship was in 1943 with the hull number 107 on the Moss shipyard in Moss (Norway) named Topdalsfjord II from the stack . Sister ship was the slightly larger Gulosenfjord . Both ships were originally planned as whalers for the Sobral shipping company, but construction dragged on because the shipyard had to arm whalers for the naval outposts and security flotillas as a matter of urgency . The ship was completed as a tug and on August 1, 1943, immediately after its completion, requisitioned by the German Navy and assigned to the marine equipment center (MAST) Kristiansand- Süd. It was 37.85 m long and 7.60 m wide, had a 3.63 m draft and was measured at 303 GRT and 95 NRT . The drive consisted of a 3-cylinder triple expansion - steam engine of 600 hp and a screw . The top speed was 11 knots .

Salvage tug Uller

After the war ended in May 1945, the ship was taken over by the Norwegian government as a former enemy property and in 1946 to the Norsk Bjergningskompagni in Bergen sold it after the Norse god of winter in Uller ( call sign renamed Llad) and 1949 for icebreaking offshore tugs had it rebuilt. Home port was Trondheim . The Uller was now 40.24 m long and 7.57 m wide, had a draft of 3.76 m and was measured at 319 GRT and 101 NRT. The Uller became known to the public when she towed the Hurtigruten ship Kong Harald, which ran aground near Heggebåen near Florø, and brought it to Trondheim. In 1960 the ship received new superstructures.

Wandering years

After almost 25 years of service as Uller with the Norsk Bjergningskompagni, the ship had a number of rapidly changing owners and frequently changing names in the following decades. In 1969 it was sold to Ivar & Kåre Refsnes in Stoksund on Stokksund . The new owners had the old steam engine taken out and had plans to convert the ship into a cargo ship, but then nothing more happened. In 1972 they sold the ship to Misje Mekaniske Verksted in Bergen, who renamed it Jomi , wanted to equip it as a weather ship and had a 780 HP diesel engine from Normo installed. When the Jomi was launched from the slipway at the Gravdal Skipsbyggeri shipyard near Bergen , she capsized , but was immediately lifted and towed to the Mjellem & Karlsen shipyard in Bergen, where the ship was then used again as a tug (276 GRT, 34 NRT) has been completed. The Normo engine was replaced by a 6-cylinder four-stroke diesel engine from Alco with 4140 hp, which enabled a speed of 12 knots. After completion of the conversion work, the ship was taken over by the parent company Kåre Misje & Co. in 1973 . In 1975 the ship was sold to K / S Jaki A / S in Bergen, but still managed by Kåre Misje. The machinery was replaced again in 1976; this time the ship received a 16-cylinder four-stroke diesel engine with 3560 hp, which enabled 15.5 knots. At the same time was Brunvoll - bow thruster fitted with 550 hp. From 1980 the Jomi was only a standby ship. In 1981 there was another renovation at Fitjar Mekaniske Verksted .

In July 1987 the ship was sold to the Polaris Towage Co. in Valletta ( Malta ) and was named Wilma . In July 1988, it was by Sweden at JTS Sjöfart in Varberg sold and again in Jomi renamed. When JTS Sjöfart went bankrupt in 1990 , the Jomi was acquired at the foreclosure auction in Gothenburg on May 10, 1990 by Eide Shipping A / S in Høylandsbygd near Bergen, which renamed it Eide Chief , but was soon transferred to Em. Z Svitser Bjergnings Entreprise in Copenhagen . In March 1993 the Taubåtskompaniet in Trondheim bought the now very dilapidated ship and named it Boa Chief . From June 2001 the ship sailed under the Honduran flag with the callsign HQVV7. In December 2003 it came to the Red Sea Shipping in Limassol ( Cyprus ), which renamed it Ocean Chief ; new callsign was P3SE9.

The End

In 2004 the ship was sold to Elenmar Maritime Ltd. sold in Limassol and renamed Ocean Lady , callsign HO4031. From September 2005 the Ocean Lady was registered in Panama for Elenmar Maritime. In the spring of 2007 she was confiscated by a court in the port of Ceuta and then abandoned by her owners and crew. Increasingly neglected, it was then used as accommodation by illegal immigrants who were hoping to cross over to Spain . When a fire broke out below deck in a room filled with garbage on January 3, 2008, the ship was towed out of the port, but sank about twelve kilometers outside the port in deep water at the eastern exit of the Strait of Gibraltar .

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ http://oceania.pbworks.com/w/page/25774889/Moss%20Vaerft
  2. ↑ In 1950 the former board members of the shipyard were accused by the Sobral in a court case of having failed to comply with their contractual obligations regarding the construction of the two ships. The process went through several instances until 1954. ("Erstatningskrav på 7 mill kroner mot Moss Værft & Dokk" (norw.), In Verdens Gang , February 20, 1950, p. 1; and "Millionsak i Lagmannsretten" (norw.) , in Verdens Gang , February 16, 1954, p. 10)
  3. ↑ Kåre Misje & Co was heavily involved in the weather and rescue service in the North Sea at that time ( History of Misje Shipping Company )
  4. ↑ http://www.micharms.de/Seeschiffe/sites/tugs/o/oceanlady2.html
  5. ↑ http://www.imcbrokers.com/blog/overview/p/detail/tug-ocean-lady-sinks-in-strait-of-gibraltar

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