The Helmet I

The ship was designed by John Børve in Kristiansund. The name "Hjelmen" comes from a mountain at the bottom of the Åsgardsfjorden and is perhaps a somewhat unusual name for a boat, but it is no more than that when the ship was new the name was taken by another boat, and thus this ship was named "Hjelmen I".

"Hjelmen I" was used for fishing and freight transport, and for sealing from 1929.

After a seal hunt in the White Sea in 1929, they returned home with 1600 seals after a hard journey. Three times the crew had packed their things and prepared to go out onto the ice.

1931 is also a difficult ice year, and the ship is very stuck in the ice. Rescues the crew of the "Ishavet" which sinks on April 12th and gets aboard the "Hjelmen I" after 4 hours of walking across the ice.

In December 1931 the ship was sold to Ålesund and renamed "Veslemøy". Under this name the ship had a short life, it sank on 25 April 1932 in Kvitsjøen. Still with the name "Hjelmen I" on the wheelhouse, but with a new registration number on the ship's side. The crew was picked up by "Polarbjørn".

"Veslemøy" had problems in Kvitsjøen on April 22 and was stuck in the ice. The churning increased and the crew tried to use dynamite to loosen the ice along the ship's sides, but to no avail. At about 1:00 p.m. that same day, the ice broke holes in both sides of "Veslemøy", but they were barely able to keep the ship afloat with all available pumps. They had no Norwegian ships nearby, so they tried to plug the holes in the ship's sides. They cut away the trimmings and some of the frames to try to plug them with driftwood, tar and pieces of planking. But it didn't help much, the hole was large and the water was constantly pouring in. They cut holes in the water table in the deck to try to get down between the frames.

They try to push down fat skins, flour sacks, the steward's bread dough, and much more, but nothing really helps.

But in the afternoon the ice loosens enough that they can stroll slowly towards the ice edge in the hope of finding other ships. The crew continues to try to seal, and those who are not working on this are leaving. On the morning of April 23, they catch sight of the "Polarbjørn" and the distress signal is immediately raised. At nightfall the ice loosens even more and they slowly head in the direction of the "Polarbjørn". The leak suddenly gets worse and they have to put to bed. The skipper sends two men onto the ice to go over to the "Polarbjørn" and report the seriousness of the situation and ask for immediate help. On April 25, the wind freshens and the "Veslemøy" drifts towards Lutke Bank. The "Polarbjørn" heads as far as it can towards the wreck and by six in the morning they have come quite close. They are now also trying to salvage part of the catch of 1800 seals from the "Veslemøy" in addition to some provisions. The crew abandoned the wreck at 09 a.m., when the water was above the engine tops, and a couple of hours later the ship sank on the west side of Lutke Bank.

The casualties will remain aboard "Polarbjørn" until May 5th when "Furenak", which is on its way home, will arrive and take them home to Norway.