Vesterålen (ship, 1891)
The Vesterålen near Bodø when commissioned as a coastal steamer in 1893
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The Vesterålen (also called Vesteraalen in old spelling ) was the first ship that was used in liner service on the Hurtigruten . The shipping company Vesteraalens Dampskibsselskab A / S (VDS) under the direction of the captain Richard With opened the regular liner service along the Norwegian west coast between Tromsø in the north and Bergen in the south with this ship from 1893 .
The ship, which was only two years old and then state-of-the-art, was acquired by the shipping company (VDS) in 1893 on the initiative of Richard With and converted into a combined cargo and passenger ship according to his precise specifications. After the conversion it was able to transport 200 passengers in three classes as well as freight. A special feature was the cold room, which allowed perishable goods such as fish and meat to be transported.
The maiden voyage on the Hurtigruten took place on July 2, 1893, when the ship left the port of Trondheim at 8:30 a.m. Until 1913 it was used on the line connection without any significant interruption. An accident in July 1913 necessitated a longer stay in the shipyard on the Akers mekaniske Verksted in Christiania , which was used for the comprehensive modernization of the ship. In the years that followed, it was increasingly used for freight transport and as a reserve ship, as more modern, more comfortable and faster ships were now in use.
On October 17, 1941, the ship was hit by a torpedo south of the island of Sørøy and sank on it. The torpedo probably came from the British submarine HMS Tigris . When the ship sank, 26 crew members and 71 passengers died.