M/S "BRANDAL" from wreck to newbuilding.

By Havtor Hofseth (2013)

"Brandal" is the ship that has been home to the Arctic village of Brandal the longest. She first went on a seal hunt in 1911, and her last trip was in 1979.

The ship was requisitioned by the Germans during the last world war. Under German command, she ran aground at Sandnessjøen in Nordland. After lying on the bottom for a long time, the ship arrived at the Hatlø shipyard as a wreck. She was in poor condition, overgrown with seaweed and kelp. Work began in the spring of 1944. The ship was scuttled, rinsed and cleaned, and cut into two parts to be lengthened. The Germans did not like this. They thought that the ship could not remain in the slipway for so long. They needed the slipways for "their" ships. But the shipyard management had them moored so that the renovation could begin.

There were shortages of everything during the war, so work went a bit in fits and starts.

They demolished a bit and built a new one. They had to wait. Because if the ship was finished before the war ended, the Germans would requisition her. So there were many considerations to take. The work didn't really get going until February 1946.

Timber was difficult to obtain, but the fisherman Martin Karlsen supposedly had herring meal in stock that he could exchange for timber. They used mostly pine, but also oak and ash which were used in the bow and stern and as keel. The ice skin was made of greenhard and oak. The pine timber came mostly from Skodje. They got the ash from the rectory garden in Borgund. Then they used "Gunnhild" as a tugboat. She pulled the logs out to sea and towed them to Ulsteinvik. There are also those who believe that some of the timber came from the fine ash avenue that led to the old rectory in Dimnasund.

But we are not sure whether this timber was for "Fangstmand" which got a new stern around the same time, or whether it was for "Brandal". But in any case the timber was felled and dragged down to the sea by horse. Then it was towed to the shipyard with the slipway - it was a rowboat. The shipyard also had a workboat with a motor, called "Kobben". It was also used as a tugboat when they had fuel. Since they did not have cranes, they had to take the logs out on a slipway and in this way drag the logs ashore.

After the timber had arrived on land, it was necessary to go loose with a two-man handsaw and then cut the stems according to the drawings. In the carpentry workshop there was only a small band saw, driven by a pulley from the machine workshop. Otherwise, it was the scraping ax that was used a lot. They called it dixle when they cut to skin and timber. Hand power and hoists were used when they had to clear the heavy beams.

Installing the ice skin was also a painstaking job. The greenhard was so hard and the wood so full of sand that there were hardly any tools that would bite into it. The greenhard was so heavy that it did not float in the sea. Where there was a curvature in the ship's side, each individual plank had to be hammered to soften it up.

But it wasn't just carpentry work on an Arctic ship. There was also a lot of blacksmithing to make fittings, bolts and hooks of all kinds. And the bow cleats were especially a lot of blacksmithing. Then they took the aces down to the slip to heat the cleats until they were glowing. Then they had to forge them to fit the bow profile.

There was of course also some plumbing and mechanical work.

"Brandal" was in many ways a ship with many new and groundbreaking features. For example, the wheelhouse was built in aluminum, which was new at the time. She was also the first ship with a steel mast and an aluminum barrel with heating in the bottom. It was an open barrel. It was supposedly Grepa in Ørsta that supplied the heating furnace. These aluminum barrels also became an export item. Many of the whaleboats from Sandefjord and Tønsberg had them installed and used them in the Southern Ocean. It was Johannes Sundgot – called Bryggen – who built all the wheelhouses and barrels in aluminum at the Hatlø workshop. There was central heating in all the cabins aft and in the wheelhouse. There was also a toilet and shower room on board. The ship was also equipped with a trim tab.

To raise the large mast with the barrel at the top, they had to tow the ship to Teigenebuda, where they used the winches and hoists to raise it. Martinus Larsen spliced ​​the wires and stays needed to hold the mast in place.

The ship was completely rebuilt in early March 1947. She was 112,2 feet long and 22,6 feet wide. Only one or two frames of the old ship remained. Otherwise, everything was new. The main engine, a 375 hp Crossley, was installed, which they took from an old English minesweeper. It was actually common at that time to buy decommissioned English minesweepers just to use the main engine. To get the main engine on board, the ship had to be towed to Flatholmen near Ålesund. There, Tafjord Kraft had a large crane that they used for transformer transport. Most shipyards on Møre used this crane for heavier lifting. This was also the case with "Brandal". The engine was lowered into the hold and then it was slid back to the engine room through a hatch in the hull.

The speed was 9,5 knots loaded.

The working hours at that time were from 0730 to 1700 with an hour for lunch. Many people went out to the shipyard with lunch for their families. On Saturdays, the working hours were from 0730 to 1300 with a short break in between. The vacation was one week a year. The hourly wage for a craftsman was NOK 1,00. Today it is about NOK 130,00. During the war, there were about 50 employees at the Hatlø workshop. Hallvard Barstad was involved in rebuilding the ship, and he was also involved in the first trip in the Vesterisen afterwards. At the shipyard he earned NOK 0,42 per hour.

In 1947, the first trip in the Vesterisen after the extension was made. It was a great trip and then "Brandal" was the last ship to reach the ice and the first to return home.

The last trip in the ice for "Brandal" was in 1979. The skipper was Bjarne Liavåg from Brandal. Then she came home with assistance and large leaks in the stern. She was condemned the same year and searched in Gangstøvika. The mast with barrel was rescued ashore and stands today at the school in Brandal.