The Arctic ship "Signalhorn" was built of wood at Hans Gravdal's boatyard in Opsanger in Sunnhordaland in 1914. The ship was named after a mountain in the home village of shipbuilder Peter S. Brandal.

When built, the ship had these dimensions: 86,6 feet long, 21 feet wide and 8,8 feet deep. A 2-cylinder compound engine of 74 indicated horsepower was installed, built by Brunholmen's mechanical workshop in Ålesund. "Signalhorn" was a typical representative of the many steam cutters for Arctic operations that were built during the First World War.

"Signalhorn" was at home in Brandal for around 65 years. Over the years, she belonged to several of the different ownership companies that the family business of Peter S. Brandal and Martin Karlsen managed. When the mark register for fishing vessels was introduced in 1920, "Signalhorn" was given the mark M 9 HD.

When Peter S. Brandal and his partners from Ålesund made the first trip to Kongsfjorden in Svalbard in 1916 to find out if the coal deposits there were worth mining, the "Signalhorn" was one of the vessels. The skipper was Johan P. Brandal. This trip helped lay the foundation for mining in Ny-Ålesund, or Brandal City, which was the first name for the place. Read more about this here: https://www.ishavsmuseet.no/fortellingar/brandal-city/

In 1926, "Signalhorn" was registered with 1018 animals, from Greenland.

In 1928, after catching in the Vesterisen and good catches also in the Danish Strait, the "Signalhorn" goes in search of Roald Amundsen at Franz Josef Land. Rolf Kvien is the skipper.

In 1931, the "Signalhorn" is on a scientific expedition to Greenland. The ship follows the assumed route that Norwegians used in historical times from Norway to Greenland and back, via Iceland and the Faroe Islands. Part of the expedition was to confirm the old names found in the sources. The skipper on the trip was Peter S. Brandal Jr., the first mate was Arctic skipper Sivert Engseth and engineer Olaf Henriksen. All confirmed a theory that in the clear, it was possible to see both Iceland and Greenland from the Greenland Strait. They had previously experienced this while hunting seals. On the same trip, there is also a 3-man wintering expedition led by Arctic skipper Ole Mortensen from Tromsø. The expedition was equipped in Sunnmøre. The expedition was put ashore at Lindenowfjorden

In 1934, Signalhorn went with the Oxford University expedition to Greenland. The expedition leader was Dr. Noel Humphreys, and one of Sir Ernst Shackleton's sons was also with them. They wintered and had research stations at Ellesmere and Grant Land.

"Signalhorn" underwent several major reconstructions during her long existence. In later years she had a swept bow, but still had a cutter stern. "Signalhorn" was relatively early in having her steam engine replaced. In 1934 it was replaced by a Wichmann semi-diesel of 150 hp. In 1952 the ship was fitted with a Crossley diesel of 450 hp, and in 1974 this was again replaced by a Wichmann diesel of 600 hp.

The ship was on annual fishing trips to the White Sea, the West Ice, and the Denmark Strait. In addition, there were the usual fisheries off the Norwegian coast and off Iceland.

Both in the interwar years and after World War II, the "Signalhorn" was used as an expedition ship for a number of different expeditions to the Arctic regions, including several British expeditions to Greenland and Jan Mayen. The ship was the main expedition ship for an expedition to Jan Mayen for the University of London in 1961. Skipper was Bjarte Brandal. Otherwise, the "Signalhorn" was on oil exploration in Svalbard for the oil company Caltex in both the 1960s and 1970s, among many other things.

For a ship that old, the list of skippers on board was quite long and contained many solid skipper names. Two of them are mentioned above. The skipper most closely associated with the "Signalhorn" was probably Johannes Aksnes, a Dalsfjord native who lived in Nordmøre. When the "Signalhorn" was condemned as an Arctic ship in 1979, she had these dimensions: 103,3 feet long, 21,6 wide, 10,5 deep and 133,3 gross tonnage. The ship was sold to interested parties in Risør, who were interested in the "new" main engine. After the engine and other equipment were removed, the "Signalhorn" was sunk near Risør.

“The worst sea trip”

On standby duty with “Signalhorn” in the winter of 1974.

By Johannes Alme

One early summer day in the early 1990s, I was with Angell Brandal, bringing the equipment ashore after another salmon fishing season. While we were on the quay bringing the equipment ashore, Odd Eiken came down, and the two guys started talking about what Odd called “The worst sea trip ever.”

Ten / fifteen years later, I spoke in more detail with these two about the trip, and here are the main highlights from the trip, given as soberly as I could write.

The year is 1974, and the shipping company Martin Karlsen AS has rented out the wooden ship “Signalhorn” via Skipsmeklar Misje in Bergen for stand-by (emergency) service in the North Sea. Both the shipping company and the crew who went on board thought that the assignment was in the North Sea. The crew mustered out on the fourth of January 1974. Skipper was Angell Brandal, Kristian Grimstad was mate, Asle Per Hareide was engineer, Johan Arild Skarbakk was engineman and Odd Eiken was sailor. Korkje Angell or Odd remember who the last sailor was.

“Signalhorn” was new in 1914, but rebuilt in 1934. In 1951 the ship was rebuilt again, where it now had a really neat ice bow. The stern was a cutter-type overhang. As I remember “Signalhorn”, it was low in the sea. Quite nice to look at from the side, with the round bow, and the low overhanging stern. The superstructure stood almost directly above the keel. The ship was painted white, with yellow masts and a yellow chimney.

“Signalhorn” had these goals in 1974:

Longest length 34,4 m, length between perpendiculars 30,3 m. Greatest width 6,6 m. Depth in section 3,30 m.

The main engine was a Crossley 52 mod, Diesel 2SC SA 6cy 265×345 – 450 hp, with fixed propeller. Later in 74 the engine and propeller system were replaced. A new engine from Wichmann came in, as in most of the other wooden ships.

The ship first went to Bergen. On the way south they had a westerly breeze, and a lot of sea. In Bergen they took on board some medical equipment, medicine, oxygen, stretchers, climbing nets, portable VHFs and other equipment for the month they would be out.

After the equipment was on board, but without any form of training or course, they went over to the Firth of Forth in Scotland. There the rig “Ocean Voyager” was lying there, getting ready for drilling. “Signalhorn” remained ashore for a few days while they waited for the rig to be ready. Several tugboats helped to take the rig out. “Signalhorn” went out with the tug. The field the rig was going to was about 60 nm plate carrier for Shetland. "Signalhorn" was in the area all the time while "Ocean Voyager" was anchored. For several days, the weather was such that the boats that anchored the platform were unable to work, so this part of the job also took time.

After the platform was anchored, “Signalhorn” was left alone to watch.

It was an ugly place to lie. One thing was the wind, which in my memory was never a gale, but the sea was always big and rough. Even on days when the wind wasn't so crazy, the sea could still be big and heavy, and mostly so that you didn't know how to manage.

On the website of Wetterzentrale you will find documentation of the weather in this area in January and February 1974. A rough interpretation of the map is that 10 hpa between Shetland and Bergen gives a wind speed of a stiff gale. After studying the map for the entire period, you can see that there was a lot of bad weather, and low pressure came one after another.

At the beginning of the period, “Signalhorn” managed quite well, but as time went on and the ship became more and more washed out, the trip became more and more unpleasant. The climbing net that was attached to the masthead at the front and the front galley deck support at the stern was lashed to the line. This was mostly under water, so in practice it would be impractical to release the net if necessary. The equipment that was placed below deck at the front was impossible to reach. And as Odd said,

"If we were to reach it, none of us would be able to handle this equipment, so it is completely incomprehensible today that we would have it with us."

The entire deck was under water for long periods. When the ship lay like this to watch the rigging, half speed was too much and half speed was too little, so the fixed propeller was not particularly suitable for this purpose. So they had to go past, and then back down again. When the stretchers lifted the ship on the bow, and there were big waves, the ship ran down the wave trough, so that the stern went into the next stretcher, and the deck was filled with sea both under the galley deck and partly on top of the galley deck when the stern lifted. The doors in the wheelhouse were ordinary teak doors, which cannot be compared to today's weatherproof or watertight, so the wheelhouse also got wet. The galley and mess on the main deck level were also wet, and the weather also meant that you couldn't have a fire in the galley yourself. The central fire didn't work either, in the humid environment. The low, flat stern of the "Signalhorn" took a lot of beating during those weeks. It was quite a few blows when the high seas broke in, remember Angell and Odd.

Everyone lived aft, the skipper had his cabin on the port side, the best man had it on the starboard side. In the four-man cabin aft lived the sailors and the two who were in the engine room. Since there was almost continuous water on the main deck, a good part of this water found its way down to the cabins aft. As Angell and Odd remember it, there was water on the floor in the cabins most of the time. "I remember that before I went on watch I used to put dry clothes in the top chest of drawers, it was somewhat safe there, so dry when I came off watch," Angell recalls. With so much sea coming in on deck, there were all sorts of possible holes to get down into. Besides, the whole ship was alive, so in a way all the places opened up, the two commented.

“Just having to change the watch was a C-moment,” said Odd. “There was no internal ladder from the wheelhouse down to the “Signalhorn,” so you had to go out onto the galley deck and down the external ladder before you could safely get down to the galley and further down to the cabin. Those of us who were up there had to first shout into the blowpipe that went down into the engine, so that they came up to main deck level and stood ready by a door. Then we had to watch the seas from above, and take the chance when it was there. Then it was about getting down or up as quickly as possible. The whole thing was more like the poem “Simon in the Barn and the Cat.”

The task of “Signalhorn” as a stand-by boat was to lie under the rigging, and be ready to pick up people if someone fell into the sea or something else happened. Communication was via VHF with the platform. According to Odd, the entire ship was full of ground faults, as a result of the humid climate, so when the antenna for the VHF that hung on the inside railing in the wheelhouse touched the railing, sparks flew!

When the rig had frogmen working, the “Signalhorn” was told that people were coming down, and that they had to get right up under the platform. “Once there had been a frogman working, we had been right up ahead, and had just received word from the platform manager that we were finished, so that we could tell a little further ahead. As I was turning the engine telegraph astern, I was left with the handle in my hand, says Angell. Fortunately, we were on our way astern, but there was still a lot of activity to get the engine telegraph in order. We were able to alert the engine people via the blowpipe about what had happened, and people got down into the galley and got to the pipe and now got hold of the ends and got the skid together and the leak to the telegraph itself. I can hardly imagine what could have happened if this had happened while we were lying down under the platform legs and maneuvering,” said Angell.

Things like cooking were always at a minimum, the weather was such that the galley was almost never lit, so we had to live on cold food.

“We just had to eat enough food to stay alive,”

Odd commented.

When leaving Brandal, it was said that this was a one-month mission. This was extended several times. “The weather was such at times that when we were down in the barrage valleys, we couldn’t see the platform. We actually had more than enough to save ourselves. As time went on, the leak also increased. Lately, all the pumps were running at full speed most of the time,” said Angell. In the end, he, as skipper, saw no other option than to break off. The Platform Manager was informed of this, Angell explained the situation and thanked the team.

When asked what they did next, Angell replied, "I'll tell you, we went into the north end of Shetland, found a little bay, lowered the ship and started drying up on board. Absolutely everything was wet. Then we got a fire in the galley, had a hot meal and not least a good night's sleep. Later we went to Bergen, where we met a very disgruntled representative of shipbroker Misje. He was very unhappy that we had broken off, but as things stood, we had no choice."

“Signalhorn” arrived in Hareid on February 24, 1974. After a workshop stay at Hjørungavåg Mechanical Workshop, “Signalhorn” went to Vesterisen in mid-March.

Today, almost 50 years later, this trip sounds almost unbelievable. But such was the creativity and possibilities in the early days of the oil age in the North Sea / North Sea area.

Both Angell and Odd had many trips on Arctic ships and fishing boats, but they had never come close to experiencing anything like this in terms of bad weather and rolling/stomping. “There could never have been anything less than a gale during those weeks,” said Odd. “The crossings to Newfoundland were tough, but the ships were bigger, so I don’t know of anything like this,” was Angell’s comment.

To conclude the article, I would like to include what Angell and Odd said after reading it. “You certainly haven’t exaggerated when it comes to the weather we had.”

Brandal 31.01.2003 / 26.03.2021

Johannes Alme

Sources:

Conversations with skipper Angell Brandal,

Conversations with sailor Odd Eiken,

Drawing of "Signalhorn" – From Ulstein Verft's archive.

Image of "Signalhorn" from the Ishavsmuseet archive.

Images from Wetterzentrale Karlsruhe's website, at the recommendation of Roar Hansen, and by agreement with Wetterzentrale.  http://www.wetterzentrale.de/topkarten/fsreaeur.html