This ship was built in Sweden, but shortly after it was finished in 1925, it became a Norwegian ship under the name of Nordvard. It was used as a civilian ship for transporting goods all over the world.
In September 1940 Nordvard was captured by the German auxilary cruiser Pinguin in the Indian Ocean.
From the Indian Ocean she was sent to Bordeaux in France.
There she was put into German military service.
Those taken prisoners from Nordvard in September 1940, were on May 3rd 1941 sent back to Norway with the German ship Donau after several months in German prison camps.
According to a website for divers, after her capture in September 1940, Nordvard was pinpointed as an mother ship for the German S- R and E- boats, and was loaded with torpedoes and depth charges when she was sunk on December 28th 1944 in an allied bomb raid in part of Moss harbor.
Different sources give different numbers for the German soldiers killed on board Norvard, ranging from 37 to 116, without anybody being able to confirm the exact number.
The ship is now to be found on a depth between twenty five to forty five meters.
Imagine , a ship sunk in part of Moss harbor from 1940 to 2007.
Now, 63 years later, the rust has come so far, the ship is leaking.
175 tons of crude oil is estimated to be inside the ship.
Birds and other wildlife are endangered.
Those living down in the harbor area, say the stink is terrible.
I will check myself this weekend. (Result: From the Jeloy part of the harbor, I could not smell anything special. Perhaps I should walk along the new apartments on the mainland? )
What will be the solution?
This will be interesting to find out.
For those reading Norwegian, an article from Moss Avis may be of interest
The website for divers mentioned
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