Arne Kjode

The steel motor tanker Arne Kjode was launched from the yard of Deutche Werft AG, Betrieb Finkenwarder, Hamburg (Yard No 199) on 12th July 1938. She measured 508.1′ x 69.2′ x 36.5′ and her tonnage was 11019 gross tons, 6600 net tons. She was powered by a 7 cylinder 2 SCDA diesel engine by Maschinenfabrik Augsburg- Nurnburg (MAN) delivering 1360 nominal horse power. Built to the order of A/S Ingor (JacobKjode mgr) of Bergen she began operations a year before the outbreak of Word War Two making trips to Aruba to pick up cargoes of oil to be transported back to her home port of Bergen. On 9th October 1939 she set off again for Aruba arriving there later in the month before loading a full cargo of gas oil for Nyborg, Denmark. She set sail for Europe on 27th October.

She was commanded by Captain Bernt Ingebrigtsen who had a crew of thirty seven men aboard. The voyage went well until she approached the dangerous area west of Scotland which was heavily patrolled by the German U-boat wolfpacks intent on disrupting the flow essential wartime supplies to the ports of western Europe. Meanwhile the IX type boat U-41 was on her latest patrol west of the Hebrides under the command of Kapitanleutnant Gustav-Adolf Mugler. At 7:00am on 12th November Mugler stopped and sank the Fleetwood trawler Cresswell near the Flannan Isles before Mugler spotted the Arne Kjode on her north easterly course towards the Butt of Lewis. At 9.55am her fired single G7a torpedo hitting the tanker midships with devastating effect. Huge flames shot up from the ship and she was reported to break into two pieces within minutes of the explosion.

The crew managed to launch two lifeboats before she went down. The starboard boat capsized as it pulled away throwing ten men into the water but they were successfully pulled back aboard the boat which now had sixteen men aboard. The port lifeboat, with twenty two men aboard, took the other boat in tow (this boat had a compass installed) and set a course for the west coast of Lewis. As darkness fell the boats continued to steer east but, but next morning at around 10pm, the tow line parted and the two boats lost each other in the night. The next day around 11am, in deteriorating weather, the boat with the captain aboard capsized again throwing everyone into the sea. Some of the crew managed to scramble on top of the upturned lifeboat and finally right her but the captain, the steward, a cabin boy and two other crewmen were lost in this incident. At 1pm the boat was spotted by a patrolling aircraft and the destroyer HMS Isis raced to pick up the survivors. Isis then proceeded to the scene of the attack and found the stern section of Arne Kjode still afloat. The survivors reported the bow section had drifted off in an easterly direction soon after the attack. A boat with five men aboard reached the derelict and boarded allowing a tow line to be attached to first Isis and then HMS Guardian which had also arrived on the scene. However, the attempt to tow the stern section failed when the tow line snapped. Isis then received orders to sink the remains of the Arne Kjode before heading for Scapa Flow to offload the crewmen. The second lifeboat had faired better with all the men safe and picked up by the Grimsby trawler Night Hawk. Norwegian sources confirm five men lost their lives as a result of the sinking of the Arne Kjode.

Later, the attack on the Arne Kjode was reported in approximate position 58° 40’N, 07° 23’N. The positions where the two parts of the Arne Kjode sank have not been precisely established as both will be well to the east of the original attack position. The Hydrograhic Department suggests the a wreck in position 59° 05. 336’N, 05° 55.78’9W could be the fore section of the ship and certainly the direction of drift of the fore part of the vessel reported by the survivors would support this assertion. A 1939 report from a military aircraft indicated that she was spotted, still afloat, half a mile from Sula Sgier. The wreck was surveyed in 1981 and the report indicated a wreck oriented 160/340 degrees rising 9 metres from the 83 metre seabed. We have no reports of more recent exploration of this wreck but the position of the wreck would suggest that this could indeed be the forepart of the Arne Kjode. The position of the stern section is unknown with contemporary reports indicating it was sunk in approximate position 59° 26’N, 07° 10’W.