"Asbjørn" wrecked off Newfoundland 1970.

In 1970, 14 Norwegian ships set out to hunt in Newfoundland. "Veslekari", "Veslemari", "Polarhav", "Polarstar", "Polarbjørn", "Polaris", "Kvitungen", "Melshorn", "Heimen I", "Kvitbjørn", "Harmoni", "Norvarg", "Asbjørn" and "Lance II".

From “Melshorn”'s deck log, skipper Nils Pilskog: Wednesday 8 April there is a NW gale and a snow squall, in the evening at 21:00 pm a hole breaks in the ship's port side. Lay still and find that the feed spike is full of seawater, which is later drained out. The hole was about a meter long and 6-7 cm at its widest, two frames and a skerries were broken. The following night and morning they lay still and temporarily sealed the hole, later they went towards the "Kvitbjørn" which lay northeast of them. "Kvitbjørn" had plates that they were able to repair with. They were now lying east of Synste Gråøya. They lay still all that day and the following night to repair the frame and the skerries. "Fortunately we had two good welders with us", says skipper Nils Pilskog, they were Magnulf Bigset and Per Johan Waage. They worked in shifts, it was so cramped that there was no room for more than one man at a time. There was a lot of gas and smoke that they were bothered by while they were welding. We didn't feel that this was any drama, says Nils, but we had to seal the ship so that we could continue the hunt. Saturday, April 11, at 12 noon, they finished repairing the damage. The total catch to that point was 8915 animals. The next few days will be windy, swells and poor conditions for fishing. Later the weather will improve, but large and thick ice will make conditions difficult.

The Gratang ship “Asbjørn” had, like “Melshorn”, been fishing for capelin before going on a seal hunt, they left Tromsø on March 11th.

“Asbjørn”, was built at Kaarbø Mek. in Harstad in 1962 for Håkon Jensen and others, Foldvik in Gratangen. The ship had dimensions Loa 39,2 m, Lpp 33,8 m, Bspt 7,9 m, Driss 4,3 m., Brt 311 tons, Nrt 118 tons. When new it had a MAK engine that produced 900 hp, in 1966 a new MAK of 1200 hp was installed.

The skipper of “Asbjørn” was Bjarne Jenssen, who was also a co-owner of the ship. Like the other ships in the field, they had been plagued by bad ice, they had been stuck in the ice, so they had used dynamite to get free. They had caught somewhere between 3700 and 3800 animals, when they had problems with the turbo on the main engine, and had to go into St. John's to replace it. They left there on April 18 at 15 p.m. They headed north - in good weather, when they passed Funk on the morning of April 19 there was a slight breeze, light fog and moderate visibility. The weather worsened during the day, with increasing wind and snow flurries. They passed some strips of ice, some they cut through, while others they went around.

According to the Maritime Declaration, there is no collision with large flakes that could cause any leakage. At 21 pm in the evening they enter the ice and lie still. There was now a strong gale from the northeast, snow flurries and very low visibility. The weather forecast predicted a storm, and the skipper lay down in the saloon to relax a bit. The watchful fisherman checked that all hatches were closed. At 23 pm, the skipper was alerted by the watchful fisherman, who thought the ship had become very heavy. Upon closer inspection, they found that the feed spike was full of water, and there was also water in the freezer room and in the hold.

Skipper Bjarne Jenssen is on the radio at 23 pm (22 pm according to “Melshorn”’s diary) and reports that they are in difficulty. The Canadian ship “Theta” was in the vicinity of “Asbjørn”, in addition “Melshorn”, “Kvitungen” and “Polarstar” set course towards “Asbjørn”.

"Melshorn" had been laid up at 20 pm that day due to the bad weather. They were together with "Kvitungen" - skipper Per Bøe. "Kvitungen" was out on her first trip, and according to Nils Pilskog the ship proved to be a very good ship in the ice. The weather was stormy, with high seas and dangerous floes in the sea. "Kvitungen" which had less catch in it, and thus floated more easily than "Melshorn" went first, "Melshorn" right after. Given the weather, it was not safe to go like this, but if "Kvitungen" ran into a floe that stopped them, would we be able to maneuver away? says Nils Pilskog.

On board the "Asbjørn" all 21 men are at full capacity. Some started preparing the fishing boats, others checked the rafts, found emergency rockets, flares, and oil to use for flares, while the engine crew and some of the fishing crew concentrated on draining and checking the status of the tanks, the cargo hold and the freezer. The water in the freezer was mixed with oil, in the marine report one man estimated the amount to be the top 40 cm of the water in the freezer. It was further determined that this oil was fuel oil. The oil probably came from the bottom tanks under the freezer. The pumps that the "Asbjørn" has are unable to reduce the water level noticeably, so the engineer connects the cooling water pump on the main engine and to the bilge line, in an attempt to empty the freezer. In the hold, a blubber tank with 250 grey seal skins flattened in it came loose. Remains from the capelin fish help to clog the slats, so they must be cleaned and checked at regular intervals. At half past one in the morning, "Asbjørn" was noticeably heavier in the sea, and it listed to port, about 20 degrees. The wind was now coming in from the starboard side, a fishing boat and both of the two rafts that "Asbjørn" had were put down on the ice.

At 2:00 am the wind increased to a gale, the skipper wanted to take some of the equipment back on board, but when they were going to take it back on board the fishing boat sank the entire row of "Asbjørn" under water, so that attempt had to be given up. 8-10 men remained on the ice floe together with the fishing boat and the rafts. They sought shelter from the wind in one of the rafts, but even with all the men on board, the wind wanted to take the raft, so it had to be moored to the fishing boat.

At about 04 a.m. the ice floe with the people and equipment began to drift, at the same time as it began to break into smaller pieces. It was dramatic, but the people were rescued back on board, and the fishing boat was taken in tow. It looked as if less water was coming in, and that they were able to keep the ship on the pumps.

At about 07 a.m., "Melshorn", "Kvitungen", "Polarstar" and "Theta" arrived at "Asbjørn" at about the same time. The storm was still blowing, but according to the sea report, visibility was better - about a nautical mile.

In an attempt to bail out the ship, a bilge pump with a capacity of 1500 l/hour from the "Melshorn" was taken on board. "Melshorn" had direct current, while "Asbjørn" had alternating current, so a cable was stretched between the two ships to operate the pump. At first it looked as if this would go well, at 11:30 the water level in the cargo hold and in the freezer room was noticeably lower, but when checking half an hour later it was noted that it had risen, and that it was rising relatively quickly. The water rose all the way up to the hatch in the freezer room, so they closed this hatch. The reason for this may be that during the night ice slush had settled in the crack in the bow of the ship, and in this way helped to reduce the ingress of water. When the other ships arrived, and "Melshorn" lay directly in front of "Asbjørn" with its propeller water right in the bow of "Asbjørn", this may have helped to open the crack again. The engineer on "Asbjørn" – Frode Lalid – measured the water level in the hold every ten minutes, and in ten minutes the hold had now risen by half a meter.

"Asbjørn" was lying to port with the row so far down that the sea was hitting the hatch frame. The engineer tried to trim the ship with the engine tanks, but it didn't help. He (fortunately) didn't try to trim the bottom tanks. According to Chief Engineer Lalid, the ship was so crooked the last time he was down in the engine room that he had to walk on the back of the ladder.

In this situation, the skipper decided that the ship should be evacuated. At 13:00, the 16th man (19th according to chief engineer Frode Lalid) left "Asbjørn" and boarded "Melshorn". The way they did it was that they went down to the ice on the starboard side, and "Melshorn" picked them up from the ice. The remaining people on board, taking their certificates and diaries, decided to get down to a floe of ice after noticing that the ship was floating heavier and heavier in the sea. According to the engineer's explanation, no water had entered the engine room while they were on board the ship. "Asbjørn" was propelled with the engine running, and with about 10 degrees pitch on the propeller. The ship therefore slowly circled to port, after the crew had disembarked.

In conversation with skipper Nils Pilskog on the "Melshorn", he has particularly highlighted this episode as critical. It was not so easy to pick up the last of the crew, when the casualty was apparently on a collision course with both the ship they were on and with the "Melshorn" that was going to try to pick them up. But the people were picked up, and it all happened without major drama.

Chief Engineer Frode Lalid was the last to leave "Asbjørn" together with skipper Bjarne Jenssen. He says that he went on the starboard side of the ship down onto the ice floe. There was still some sea, and both the skipper and himself felt that the ship was unstable, and feared that it would capsize to starboard. They therefore agreed to give the propeller a little bit of a cut, so that the ship would not lie next to the floe on which they were to stand until they were picked up. What they did not expect was that "Asbjørn" would hit another ice floe and start going in a circle.

Shortly after the last of the crew had boarded the "Melshorn", the "Asbjørn" capsized to starboard and continued to circle around. At 15:10 the main and auxiliary engines of the "Asbjørn" stopped, and the ship then lay with its stern in the sea. Six minutes later the ship sank, stern first. Following the decca of the "Melshorn" in position N 50^o 37`, W 55<sup>o</sup> 14 `

There are now as many as forty men on board the "Melshorn". Skipper Nils Pilskog is in daily contact with shore to organise a pick-up. The crew from the "Asbjørn" will remain on board until 28 April. Then they will be placed on board the "Kvitfjell" which is on its way to shore.

They land in the town of Dildo, where they are dressed up. According to the story, there were some who were more interested in the tailor than the tailor, so during a stopover in Paris, a man is observed with two trouser legs that are far too long, while his friend has one ready-made, while the other is far down to his shoe!

At the end of the catch, "Melshorn" has 12069 animals on board, and the approximate amount of blubber is 270 tons. After sailing in a light breeze and breeze, and with some sea going through, they are in Ålesund as the first Sunnmøre ship on May 7th.

In the seal hunting report from 1970 we can read that a total of 119,527 animals were caught in the Newfoundland field. 115,200 harp seals, the amount of blubber that the Norwegian ships brought home was 2,361 tons. On average, each ship brought home 9194 animals. The length of each hunting trip was on average 61 days. The clearance value was on average 708,000 kroner.

And a ship sank.

Writing for the book "When the Great Storm Rages" Ishavsmuseet 2002, revised for the 50th anniversary in 2020.

Sources: -Sunnmørsposten March, April and May 1970

-"Melshorn"'s diary.

-The naval declaration after the sinking of the "Asbjørn".

-Annual report concerning Norwegian fisheries 1970 no. 10 Seal hunting 1970.

-We Men no. 18/92.

-Eivind H. Kristiansen – Arctic shipping for Ibestad and Gratangen.

-Conversation with skipper Nils Pilskog.

-Conversation with Chief Engineer Frode Lalid on "Asbjørn".

-Conversation with Mate Paul Stark on "Asbjørn".

-Conversation with former mate Åsmund Nordgård on "Asbjørn".

-Conversation with Arna Jenssen, widow of skipper Bjarne Jenssen on "Asbjørn".