Original Wartime Convoy Ship to Visit Newcastle

Some 1,000 Norwegian merchant navy ships sailed for the Allies during World War Two.

One of these is SS Hestmanden, a freighter built in Bergen in Norway in 1911.

Although relatively small, with a displacement of 979 tonnes, she sailed in the Atlantic convoys in 1940-45, and she is known to have visited the Tyne several times during that period.

Although Newcastle did not serve as a Norwegian official home town during the war, as it did for the Danes, as a major port it was frequently visited by Norwegian ships and we know that the Danes and  the Norwegian sailors met and socialised (read “drank”) together in the pubs.

The Norwegians – the Norwegian government-in-exile – were a great support to the Danes in their effort to become recognised as allies rather than just citizens of an occupied nation. Denmark owes them a great debt in that respect.

Since 2017, SS Hestmanden has been a museumship and its visit to the Tyne is a unique opportunity to see and even board the kind of ship the Danes also sailed on, on convoys along the coast of Great Britain and on all the world’s oceans.

Visit the ship if you can.

Nigel Westwood, the former Norwegian consul, reports that she will be at Spillers Wharf 31^st May - 5^th June.

Public access times are still to be confirmed, but wll most likely be during the daytime Mon 2^nd - Wed 4^th June.