Første verdenskrigDS Vaaren
DS Vaaren ble 16. desember 1914 minesprengt utenfor Whitby. Skipet var på reise fra Tyne til Napoli med koks og kull. Baugen sank først og propellen som fortsette å gå drepte tre personer, i alt omkom 12 personer fra mannskapet og en britisk kystlos i forliset. 4 ble berget av et skotsk fiskefartøy. (Kilder: sjohistorie.no og Med norsk skib i verdenskrigen)
Sjøforklaring: Vaaren (Kilde: Sjøforklaringer over norske skibes krigsforlis, 1914-1918. B. 1 : 1914, 1915, 1916, via Nb.no)
Vraket av Vaaren ble oppdaget av medlemmer av Scarborough Sub Aqua Club. Skipets styrbord navigasjonslampe (se bilde) ble funnet og brakt opp av dykker Andy Jackson. Dette skjedde i forbindelse med et prosjekt av Scarborough Maritime Heritage Centre og the Scarborough Sub Aqua Club, ledet av historiker Dr. David Pendleton, som også har skrevet denne beskrivelsen av senkningen av Vaaren:
The brand new 1,090 ton Norwegian collier «Vaaren», was carrying coal and coke from Newcastle to the Sicilian capital Palermo, via Naples. She had left Newcastle at 13.30 on 16 December 1914 and had kept up a speed of between nine to ten knots.
In the pitch black the «Vaaren» struck a mine around four miles N by NE of Filey at around 20.30. Several of the crew were killed instantly by the explosion. The heavily laden collier went down rapidly and she disappeared beneath the waves within three minutes. The rapidity of a sinking prevented the launching of lifeboats.
In a frantic effort, one lifeboat was hacked free of its davits by the crew, but it overturned when it hit the water. Seven sailors scrambled on top of the upturned hull, but the lifeboat drifted beneath the still turning propellor of the sinking ship, killing three men. It was a horrific sight for the survivors, who now faced a fight for their lives in the dark cold waters.
Four survivors, three Norwegians and a Scotsman, clung to the upturned lifeboat for two hours. In an immense act of bravery, the Grimsby trawler Cleon searched the minefield for survivors. The four men were hauled aboard the trawler and were later landed at Grimsby. They were incredibly fortunate. Inside three minutes thirteen sailors, ten Norwegians, one Dane, one Greek and Tom Davison, a North Sea pilot from North Shields, had been killed in the sinking.
On 21 December 1914, a hearing into the loss of the Vaaren was held at the Norwegian vice-consulate at Grimsby. Peter Henrik Haagenson, the consul for Norway and Sweden, chaired the proceedings, assisted by Thorkild Johannesen, captain of the Norwegian vessel Asturias from Kristiania (Oslo), and Anton Engelbert Sandberg, captain of the Swedish vessel Nord from Stockholm. The loss of the «Vaaren» was detailed by her senior surviving officer, Magnus Kjelstup of Bergen.
Om DS Vaaren
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Nasjonalitet
Norge
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Bygd
1914
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Forlist
16.12.1914
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Rederi
Carl Traae, Bergen
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Tonnasje
1785 dvt
