Daily Event for January 20, 2010

The Truro City was built in 1889 in Sunderland, England and over fifty years and a world war later she was still afloat. Now in a second world war she was owned by the Norwegians and named Bisp. In January 1940 Norway was still neutral and as such her ships should have been off limits, but this was not the case. It seems that many Norwegian and other neutral ships had been sunk in blatant disregard to international law.

On Jan. 17 SS Enid (Norway) was shelled and torpedoed by U-25 north of the Shetlands, two days later U-25 sank Swedish cargo ship Pajala west of the Orkneys, and on Jan, 22 the Norwegian cargo ship Songa in the far western approaches. Feb. 3 the Tempo, also Norwegian, was sunk by German aircraft 30 miles east of Grantshouse, Scotland. All these are known facts, however what happened to Bisp is not.

Ironically her last port of call was the port she was born in, Sunderland, she departed on Jan. 20, 1940 en route to Norway, but by mid February she was presumed lost with all hands. It is still not known for sure what happened to her, but it is assumed she was sunk by a U-boat, probably U-18 in the North Sea. The number of people on board is also unclear, depending on the source ten to sixteen men were on board.
© 2010 Michael W. Pocock
MaritimeQuest.com



Roll of Honor
Til minne om de falne mannskapet på SS Bisp
"In remembrance of the fallen crewmen of SS Bisp "

Name
Rate
Notes
Broholm, Ansgar M.
Sjømann
Hillestad, Ingvald O.
Maskinass
Høie, Martin L.
Styrmann
Johannesen, Erling
Fyrbøter
Johansen, Albert A
Fyrbøter
Kvilhaug, Rolf
Skipsfører
Master
Kvilhaug, Sverre
2 Styrmann
Mikkelborg, Aksel O.
Stuert
Pedersen, Leif A.
Maskinass
Spange, Willy
Lettmatros


This list contains the names of ten known casualties of SS Bisp, if you have information that can complete or confirm this list please email the webmaster.


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2005 Daily Event
2008 Daily Event
2009 Daily Event