HNoMS Thorodd
History | |
---|---|
France | |
Name | Fleurus |
Builder | Foundation Company of Savannah, Georgia |
In service | 1919 |
Out of service | September 1924 |
Norway | |
Name | Fleurus |
Acquired | September 1924 |
Renamed | Thorodd (1935) |
Reinstated | August 1945 |
Fate | Sank in a storm on 6 October 1955 |
Norway | |
Commissioned | 1939 |
Out of service | September 1944 |
Service record | |
Operations: |
Norwegian Campaign |
General characteristics | |
Tonnage | 406 gross register tons |
Length | 140.1 ft (42.70 m) |
Beam | 25.1 ft (7.65 m) |
Draft | 13 ft (3.96 m) |
Propulsion |
|
HNoMS Thorodd was a
Construction and early service
Fleurus was constructed by the Foundation Company
As built, Fleurus measured 406
Falkland Islands Dependencies
Fleurus was converted to carry mail and passengers, and then leased to the Falkland Islands Government, which used her as a mail ship in the
In 1927, Fleurus carried Arnold Hodson, Governor of the Falkland Islands, to South Georgia, where the governor inspected the whaling stations and the Discovery Investigations. This was the first time a Governor had visited the Dependencies. The following year, Fleurus took Hodson on a month-long tour further south, visiting the Palmer Archipelago of Graham Land in Antarctica proper, as well as the South Shetlands and South Orkneys. Such trips were not limited to dignitaries; Fleurus operated a commercial passenger service on the mail route, and advertised round-trip "tourist tickets" for the journeys to South Georgia and the South Shetlands, the first tourist cruises in Antarctica.[3]
In addition to her regular government duties, it was briefly suggested in 1928 that she be used to patrol territorial waters and prevent unlicensed whaling, but the political problems arising from a Norwegian whaling company's ship carrying out British license enforcement rendered this impractical. Fleurus was also contracted to support the Wilkins-Hearst Antarctic expedition in 1928-9.[3]
In 1933, Fleurus was sold to Einar Veim in
Following the Norwegian Campaign of April–June 1940, the surviving ships of the Royal Norwegian Navy were evacuated to the United Kingdom. Thorodd arrived on 17 June, and at the end of the month was sent to Rosyth Dockyard to be converted for use as a minesweeper. She was taken into the Royal Navy on 14 March 1941, manned by a Norwegian crew, as HMS Thorodd (FY-1905), operating with a group of North Sea minesweepers based in Dundee. She served for the next three and a half years, finally being taken out of service in September 1944 and laid up.[2]
While serving as a minesweeper, Thorodd gained a measure of fame for her captain's dog, a
Postwar
In August 1945, at the end of the war, Thorodd was formally returned to A/S Thorodd. She was later converted to a 600 b.h.p. engine before being laid up in Ålesund in 1951. The following year, she was sold to the fisheries company A/S Grindhaugs Fiskeriselskap, which converted her to a
Outside the fishing season, Thorodd transported cargo between ports. She was carrying a cargo of ore from Visnes to Tofte on 6 October 1955 when a storm caused the cargo to shift and she developed a severe list. The crew abandoned ship and Thorodd sank.[2]
Notes
- ^ Foundation Company, at www.shipbuildinghistory.com
- ^ a b c d e f g Lawson, Siri Holm. "Thorodd (Whale Catcher)". Warsailors.com. Retrieved 20 February 2014.
- ^ ISBN 0955292409.
- ^ "HMS Montrose Sailors Visit Montrose". Royal Navy. 27 June 2013. Retrieved 3 March 2014.