Background

Krigsseilerregisteret’s Background

What is Krigsseilerregisteret?

Krigsseilerregisteret’s goal: To present a register over all the Norwegian men and women who sailed with neutral ships, for Nortraship, in the home fleet, the Norwegian navy, for Allied and neutral merchant ships, and in the Allied navy. Furthermore, Krigsseilerregisteret also aim to register foreign sailors who sailed for Nortraship and in the home fleet. All sailors recorded by Krigsseilerregisteret will also be given an individual website.

Who is responsible for the register?

ARKIVET Peace and Human Rights Centre is the owner and responsible for Krigsseilerregisteret. The founding of the register was done in collaboration with Samlerhuset Norge AS and Lillesand Sjømannsforening (Lillesand Seamen’s Association)/sjohistorie.no (with partners). Additionally, there are also many volunteers who contributes.

Who are the volunteers?

Thorbjørn Solberg Andersen in Lillesand Sjømannsforening (Lillesand Seamen’s Association) oversees the communication between all 42 seamen’s associations in Norway. Several of these societies have agreed to aid with documentation on war sailors and with the work of recording the war sailors. Many of the members in Lillesand Seamen’s Association had already done voluntary work over the span of 10 to 15 years by recording sailors and ships in the register that would, as the project was launched, become the primary source material for Krigsseilerregisteret.

Who made the initiative to create Krigsseilerregisteret?

Samlerhuset Norge made the initiative a few weeks after Jon Michelet went public on NRK Kveldsnytt and pointed to ARKIVET Peace and Human Rights Centre as the proper institution to receive the national responsibility to document the war sailor’s history. Samlerhuset was responsible for most of the financing of Krigsseilerregisteret in the beginning, both through own funds and through a fund-raising campaign among their patrons. Furthermore, ARKIVET Peace and Human Rights Centre also invested in the register with a substantial contribution from their own funds. As of 2016, the government contributed with the financing of two consecutive man-years at the Center for the History of Seafarers at War.

Why is the war sailors important?

The work the sailors did throughout World War 2 was of important significance to the military. However, the people who served in the merchant fleet were not soldiers or subject to a military command. They were only to perform the work they had always done as sailors, but now under more dangerous terms and partially under a different motivation. The Norwegian merchant fleet outside occupied Norway was organized into The Norwegian Shipping and Trade Mission (Nortraship), which became the world’s biggest shipping company. Its ships transporting war essential goods like weapons and fuel was essential to the Allied war effort. Nortraship’s business also helped secure Norway an income during the post-war rebuilding period.

But the war efforts took its toll. If we also take into consideration the losses suffered in the home fleet, thousands Norwegian sailors died in shipwrecks, and hundreds Norwegian ships were lost. Furthermore around a thousand foreign sailors died in shipwrecks as they served in the merchant fleet outside occupied Norway. Additionally, the Norwegian Navy lost almost thousand crewmembers. Half of all the Norwegian sailors experienced shipwreck during the war. Some as many as four times. This constant and unceasing risk of dying that the sailors continuously experienced was an extremely taxing tension, and this caused long-term repercussions for many of them.

The transition from war to peace would be difficult for many. Some war sailors became homeless with an alcohol abuse problem and received little aid from society. Others struggled with both physical and psychological injuries from the wartime, while there were also surprisingly many who managed the aftermath well.

Is there information about the war sailors you choose to exclude? Why is that?

We follow the rules of The Personal Data Act and thus we don’t register sensitive information about people’s health or personal details in Krigsseilerregisteret.

We are in close cooperation with the National Archives to ensure that the privacy is protected in the best way possible. Almost all the war sailor profiles in Krigsseilerregisteret will utilise archive material from the National Archives as the primary source. Based on this archive material, we can thus present reliable information about general biographical details, where the person mustered on and off, and awards rewarded. If further information about individual war sailors is of interest, one must contact the National Archives directly.

What is a war sailor, and how do you define this?

Historically speaking, which groups of seafarers that have been considered war sailors have varied. The term war sailor used today is normally applied when describing Norwegian sailors who sailed with the merchant fleet during World War 1 and World War 2. Krigsseilerregisteret is to be a register over sailors from World War Two to begin with. The register follows a relatively broad definition of the term war sailor, where the following groups of sailors are included: Those who sailed in the Norwegian merchant fleet from 1939-1945, and this also extend to when Norway was neutral in 1939-1940, those who sailed for Nortraship in the Norwegian merchant fleet abroad, and those who sailed in the home fleet for German-occupied Norway in 1940-1945. Furthermore, the Norwegians in the Norwegian and Allied navy are also included, as well as those who sailed on Allied and neutral merchant ships in the period 1939-1945. Foreign sailors who sailed for Nortraship and in the home fleet will also be recorded in the register.

What was the home fleet, the merchant fleet, Allied service and Nortraship?

Even though there were many sailors who had served on ships who never entered Norwegian ports, the distinction between the merchant fleet and the home fleet was less defined before the outbreak of war on April 9, 1940. With the German occupation came the separation that led to the vast majority of Norwegian sailors sailing on ships controlled by the London government and the Allies through the state-owned shipping company Nortraship. Nortraship managed the sizeable Norwegian merchant fleet outside of German-occupied areas. In 1940 Nortraship’s fleet consisted of approx. 1000 ships. Those who were hired on ships in German-controlled areas became part of the home fleet and sailed along the Norwegian coast or to the continent. This was a service that could be equally dangerous to the service of those who sailed with the merchant fleet. Many Norwegian sailors also sailed on foreign ships during the war, both for the Allies and neutral nations.