Sources
Sources are the essence of Krigsseilerregisteret. All information posted on this site is based on reliable sources. Our goal is to make details on the Norwegian seafarers, and the foreign seafarers in Norwegian ships during the Second World War available in one place. All the information posted on this site is quality-assured by professional historians.
We are mainly interested in the seafarer's biographical information and information about their services during the Second World War. We are selective about which information we choose to register, and everyone working with the sources has been trained in how to use them and has insight into source criticism.
The sources are split into different lists based on our interaction with the source material. Some sources have been through a systematic registration. This means that all the information relevant to the seafarers at war during the Second World War in the source is registered in Krigsseilerregisteret. We have also split the list based on language. The two first lists are sources available in English.
We have done a systematic registration of information from the following sources (available in English):
Carlett, R. J., Under Hazardous Circumstances: A register of awards of lloyd´s war medal for bravery at sea 1939-1945, Dallington, The Naval and Military Press, 1992. A book containing information about british decorations awarded to Norwegian war sailors.
Commonwealth War Graves. The website documents everyone who fought in the British Commonwealth and died during the First and Second World War.
Dickson, Bill Chatterton., Seedie's List of Awards to The Merchant Navy for World War II, Tisbury, Ripley registers, 1997. A book who contains british medals and others honors to Norwegian seafarers.
Dickson, Bill Chatterton., Seedie's list of coastal forces awards for World War II, Tisbury, Ripley registers, 1992. A book who contains british medals and others honors to Norwegian seafarers.
Duckers, Peter., British Gallantry Awards, 1855-2000, Oxford, Shire Publications, 2001. This book surveys the British decorations and medals from the origins in the Crimean War of 1854-56 up to the end of the twentieth century.
Minnehallen.no. The webiste is developed and maintained by the Centre for the History of Seafarers at War, at ARKIVET Peace and Human Rights Centre in Kristiansand and contains information about the seafarers listed in the Seamen's Memorial Hall in Stavern. The memorial's database contains nearly 5400 names and 1200 ships.
N.N., Military Awards: Army regulation 600-8-22, Washington, Department of the Army, 2006.
Rosendahl, Bjørn Tore (red.)., Foreign Seafarers remembered: Foregin seamen killed in service of the Norwegian merchant flet during Second World War, u.s., Stiftelsen Arkivet, 2015. The book os edited by historian Bjørn Tore Rosendahl at ARKIVET Peace and Human Rights Centre, and includes contributions by scholars from Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Great Britain. Together these studies provide a deeper understanding of the story of foreign nationals serving onboard Norwegian ships and how their service came to be forgotten after the war.
Warsailors.com. A website that primarily serves as a reference work for ships, mainly those connected to the Nortraship fleet. The content has been compiled by Siri Holm Lawson, with assistance from various sources and contributors. The site features digitized images of Nortraships posisjonslister from the National Archives of Norway. These images have been used to record voyages in the Krigsseilerregisteret. The casualty lists linked to ships on Warsailors.com are primarily based on information from Sjøforklaringer (Maritime Inquiries) from World War II (1940–1945).
The following sources (available in English) have been used in a significant volume without doing a systematic registration:
1939 Register of England & Wales. The 1939 Register of England and Wales was conducted on 29 September 1939. For each household member the register records name, gender, address, birth date, marital status, place of residence, and occupation. The collection contains information about approximately 42 million individuals. In the Krigsseilerregisteret, the collection has been used via MyHeritage.com to identify British sailors on Norwegian ships. The source is therefore sporadically used to supplement information on sailors where the information from Londonregisteret is incomplete.
Colledge, J. J., Ships of the Royal Navy, Bind 2 av 2, Annapolis, Naval Institute Press, 1989 (1. utgave 1970).
Convoyweb.uk.org. A website containing transcribed information about convoys during World War II. The information has been transcribed from various original sources (primarily from the UK National Archives and Lloyd's). Through the project Krigsseilernes reiser (The War Sailors' Voyages), we have obtained details about the voyages of certain selected ships from Convoyweb.uk.org. The site has also been used as one of several sources for the ongoing quality assurance of voyage information in the Krigsseilerregisteret.
Ellis Island. This collection contains records of individuals arriving at the port of Ellis Island between 1720 and 1957.
Ellis Island and Other New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957. This collection contains millions of records of individuals arriving at the port of New York between 1820 and 1957. Records in this collection come from National Archives (NARA) microfilm collections M237 (Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1820-1897) and T715 (Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957). The records are available on myheritage.com.
Loyd´s Regiser (1764 - today). This is one of our main sources to the regsterd ships.
Milner, Marc., The Battle of the Atlantic, u.s., History Press, 2003. The book has an overview of marine ships. We have used the Norwegian translation from 2015: Lindgjerdet, Frode., og Milner, Marc., Slaget om Atlanterhavet 1939-1945 og de norske krigsseilerne, Skallestad, u.u., 2015.
Uboat.net. On this site you will find all the German U-boats of both World Wars. For our mission this is interesting because it contains information about every Allied ship attack during the second world war.
We have done a systematic registration of information from the following sources:
ARKIVET Peace and Human Rights Centre register over seafarers at war from Agder 1939-1945. This register originally contained around 3500 war sailors and was quality-assured before being published in Krigsseilerregisteret. The register provided an overview of individuals who sailed in the domestic fleet, foreign fleet, and allied service with a home base in the counties of Agder in the years 1939-1945. The register was mainly compiled based on crewing protocols at the State Archives in Kristiansand and the multi-volume work Våre Falne (1949-51). The information was later supplemented with national overview books, regional and local yearbooks, newspaper articles, and websites such as Warsailors.com and Sjohistorie.no.
Austbø, Anne Tove., "Losing i krigstid 1939-1945", i Norsk loshistorie 1720-2020: Fra selvstendige næringsdrivende til statsansatte., redigert av Gurandsrud, Eirik og Teige, Ola., 147-196. Trondheim, Museumsforlaget, 2022.
Berg, Gabriel. et al., Norges skibsførere: Annen utgave 1935-1953, Stavanger, Paul T. Dreyers forlag, 1954. A book containing information about decorations awarded to Norwegian war sailors.
Berge, Kjell-Ragnar et al., Krigsseglarar, Førde, Selja forlag, 2008.
Eliassen, Peder., Thomassen, Ludvig., og Vikre, Thorbjørn., Evig heder: Krigsdeltakere fra sør- og vest-Karmøy 1939-1945, u.s., Lokalhistorisk stiftelse, 2000. Some individual profiles updated with a picture.
Ex gratia-arkivet and Londonregisteret. Our most important sources are found at the National Archives of Norway. Specifically, two archives have been crucial for us: the Ex gratia archive and Londonregisteret. In collaboration with the National Archives of Norway and voluntary contributors, we have contributed to digitizing these archives, which consist of approximately one million documents.
At the National Archives of Norway, we had a dedicated workspace where voluntary contributors worked on behalf of the ARKIVET Peace and Human Rights Centre to sort through the archival sources. Once the sources were prepared, they were scanned and indexed (and possibly published on a web server) by staff at the National Archives of Norway. After these sources were scanned, they were made available to us working on Krigsseilerregisteret, allowing us to transcribe information from the documents and register it in Krigsseilerregisteret. The sources contain confidential information and are not accessible to the public. However, there is a procedure where one can apply to the National Archives of Norway for access to the original sources through the Digital Archives. By clicking here, you will be directed to the page where such an application can be submitted.
Ex gratia-arkivet. S-3545 – Direktoratet for sjømenn, serie Gg – Søknader om Ex gratia-utbetaling, herunder avslag.
This is the archive containing all those who applied for Ex gratia payments from 1972 (when the Parliament allocated Ex gratia payments to the war sailors in connection with the Nortraship case). Those eligible to apply were those who had served in Nortraship during World War II. To meet the expectations that the war sailors had during the war and were bitterly disappointed to find unfulfilled at the war's end, they were to receive 180 NOK for each month of service (also for any descendants). A unanimous Parliament supported the proposal and allocated 50 million NOK and administrative expenses for this under a new chapter called "Nortraship Sailors." Perhaps most important was the symbolic significance. 23,000 applications were approved. The average payment was 6,600 NOK (37 months of service).
Therefore, almost all Norwegian seafarers who sailed for Nortraship are registered in this archive. War sailors or relatives of war sailors could apply for Ex gratia. Each war sailor's application was processed, and all information about awards and engagements on ships, torpedoing, captivity, and other personal information was examined and verified. Ex gratia war sailors had their so-called Londo- card transferred to the Ex gratia archive, and the information on the card was examined, among other things, to calculate service time against the amount of the Ex gratia payment.
The first box in the archive is called "L0001 Londonnr.. 1001-1054." The last box in the archive is called "L0661 Register til søknad om ex gratia – ordnet alfabetisk." The archive consists of 661 boxes.
Londonregisteret. S-2081 – Det norske innskudds- og trekkontor i Oslo, serie Fe – «Londonregisteret».
The archive mainly covers the period from 1940 to 1950, with some parts extending up to 1961. Much of the material originates from the deposit and withdrawal offices in London and New York and was continued by the Deposit and Withdrawal Office in Oslo, which was responsible for making a comprehensive financial settlement for each sailor.
In Londonregisteret, one finds concise records (individual files) containing very specific information about war sailors and others who sailed around the time of World War II. This series consists of 152 boxes, with each box containing approximately 900-1000 cards. We worked on Londonregisteret in the spring of 2015, and the register is now fully scanned. 152 boxes have been sorted, scanned, and digitized. This corresponds to around 240,000-250,000 images that we have studied via the internet. About 3/5 of these cards contain information relevant to Krigsseilerregisteret.
What sets the Ex gratia-arkivet and Londonregisteret apart is that the information in Londonregisteret was not double-checked. Therefore, Londonregisteret is not as reliable as Ex gratia-arkivet. Another difference is that in Ex gratia-arkivet, there are only Norwegian sailors, whereas in Londonregisteret, there are also 30 boxes containing records of foreign sailors. Each war sailor in the Ex gratia-arkivet has an application folder with documentation, and the contents of these folders can vary from a few A4 pages and London-cards to over 20 pages and London-cards. Each war sailor in Londonregisteret often has only one card associated with their person, with information on both the front and back of the card.
Forsvarets dekorasjonsregistre. RA/RAFA-5156: Forsvaret, Krigsdekorasjonskanselliet.
Click here to view the archive in Digitalarkivet.
The most important archive from forsvarets dekorasjonsregistre is "Dekorasjoner, Dekorasjoner generelt, Sjøforsvaret, Sjøtjeneste", L0001-L0004. "Sjøinnsats", L0001. and "Sjøforsvaret, Post mortem", L0001.
Forsvarsdepartementets krigsdekorasjonsprosjekt (2011–2016). The project has contributed information about decoration practices and individual awards.
Gjems-Onstad, Erik., Krigskorset og St. Olavsmedaljen med ekegren, Oslo, Grøndahl og Dreyers forlag, 1995.
Hallberg, Harald., Norske dekorasjoner: Tildelt med bånd til å bæres på uniform eller sivilt antrekk, u.s., Dreyer, 2015.
Hansen, Sverre., Nortrashipflåtens Skyttere 1941 til 1946, Skien, Rotatrykk, 1989. 1799 Norwegian gunners are registered in Krigsseilerregisteret from this book. We have registered all the gunners who came from the Norwegian Navy and who held positions as gunners in the merchant fleet. Around 200 officers and military and civilian personnel are also registered. Pictures from this book have also been included.
Lillesand sjømannsforening/«gamle» Sjøhistorie (Sjohistorie.no). From this database, around 4300 war sailors and 2300 ships were included. This formed the foundation of Krigsseilerregisteret when the project started. Around 1700 of the sailors were gunners, while the rest were mainly war sailors from the Agder counties. Sjøhistorie was a website with an associated database owned and administered by Lillesand sjømannsforening, and the National Archives of Norway had previously contributed personal information and service records for around 500 war sailors to this database. War sailors and ships have been imported in their entirety from Sjøhistorie to Krigsseilerregisteret. The sources for the content in the database of the "old" Sjohistorie.no varied greatly and have been quality assured against other sources by historians. During the development of Krigsseilerregisteret, a new version of Sjohistorie.no was developed. From the "old" Sjøhistorie, we have also imported a photo archive into Krigsseilerregisteret. Most of the ship photos come from Arne Gundersen, a former seaman. After his death, Lillesand sjømannsforening acquired all his historical material. Furthermore, some image rights were purchased from the Australian John MacMillan. Some ship photos also came from Lardex (shipping database) in Sandefjord.
Marinemuseet i Horten. The following collection of records is deposited (on loan from the National Archives of Norway) at Marinemuseet i Horten: "Sjøforsvarets londonarkiv" or "Londonarkivet", formally referenced as: Londonarkivet, Sjøforsvarets personell i Storbritannia 1940–45.
Krigsseilerregisteret has transcribed non-sensitive personal information about the war sailors from the archival material, while Marinemuseet manages the records and answers inquiries from the public about the material.
This archive contains approximately 8000 records.
Markhus, Jørgen., Kvinnheringar i krig 1940-1945, u.s., Kvinnherad Sogelag, 2006. Documentation and images added to individual profiles.
N.N., Heder og ære. Nasjonale og internasjonale dekorasjoner brukt i Norge. Attachment to Forsvarets forum, nr. 5, 2012, Oslo: Forsvarets forum/Forsvarets Veterantjeneste, 2012.
N.N., Krigsforliste norske skip: 3. september 1939 - 8. mai 1945, Oslo, Sjøfartskontoret, Grøndahl & søn, 1949. This overview has primarily been used for a specific purpose in Krigsseilerregisteret. Where the number of casualties in shipwrecks is provided, this is indicated in parentheses within the maritime inquiries of the vessels. This is because Krigsforliste norske skip contain more reliable information than maritime inquiries.
N.N., Tildeling av Britiske Campaign Stars and Medals, Oslo, Original-Trykk, 1956.
Ording, Arne., et al., Våre falne: 1939-1945, Den norske stat, bind 1-4, 1949-1951. In this four-volume work, almost all Norwegian casualties during World War II were listed with a brief biography. Typical information provided includes date of birth, birthplace, parents' names, date of death, cause of death, extraordinary events, position, place, and ship. The work has been made available as a searchable database in VG våre falne.
Sjøforklaringer fra 2. verdenskrig (1940-1945). We have conducted a direct transcription of the original maritime inquiries, which are stored at the National Archives of Norway. Many of these can also be found in a two-volume work published by the Norwegian Maritime Museum (Oslo 2003). This is a collection of around 500 maritime inquiries mainly from shipwrecks in the Nortraship fleet. Here, one can find witness statements (maritime inquiries), deck logs, crew lists, and information about the fate of each crew member. All the information in maritime inquiries that has been imported into Krigsseilerregisteret is a direct transcription from the source, Maritime Inquiries from World War II (1940 - 1945). The information here is thus from maritime inquiries held during and immediately after the war and may therefore differ somewhat from the other quality-assured information in Krigsseilerregisteret.
Sjøforklaringer Hjemmeflåten (1940-1945). Maritime inquiries related to the domestic fleet are not classified as confidential and can be found here: RA, Justisdepartementet, Politikontoret P, O/Ob/L0296: Sjøforklaringer, journalnr. 1476-6457/1940, 1940. Clicking the source link, you will find an updated list of all maritime inquiries that have been systematically registered in the database.
Sjøforklaringer norsk nøytral fart (1939-1940). Maritime inquiries related to neutral ships can be found here: RA, Justisdepartementet, Politikontoret P, O/Ob/L0296: Sjøforklaringer, journalnr. 1476-6457/1940, 1940. Clicking the source link, you will find an updated list of all maritime inquiries that have been systematically registered in the database.
Todnem, Brit Sissel (red.)., Riska i krig 1940-1945, Sandens, Commentum forlag, 2011. Digitalized documents from the book have been uploaded to some individual profiles.
Vesteraalens Damskipbsselskabs arkiv. A systematic registration has been carried out in the following selected part of the archive from Vesteraalens Dampskibsselskab archive: RA-PA-1189: Vesteraalens Dampskibsselskab. P/Pa/. This archive section contains information about mess crews. The archive is collected at the National Archives of Norway.
Vestfoldarkivet. A group within Slekt og Data Vestfold has been engaged in scanning and digitizing whaling expedition material at the Vestfoldarkivet. This material has been published on Slekt og Data's website. Crew cards (from shipping company archives) and crew lists associated with whaling expeditions from 1939-1940 have been used as sources, along with other archival materials, to document whalers in krigsseilerregisteret.
Wilhelmsen, Aage A., Sjømenn i krig: Krigsseilere forteller, u.s., Pegasus forlag, 2009. This book is about 29 war sailors. Digitalized documents from the book have been uploaded to individual profiles.
The following sources have been used in a significant volume without doing a systematic registration:
Albrigtsen, Roger., Krigsseilere fra nord: Finnmark, Lakselv, Forlaget Kristiansen, 2020.
Albrigtsen, Roger., Krigsseilere fra nord: Troms, Lakselv, Forlaget Kristiansen, 2021.
Albrigtsen, Roger., Krigsseilere fra Trøndelag, Lakselv, Forlaget Kristiansen, 2023.
Det norske Veritas register (1865-d.d.).
Døde 1951-2014.
«Evig takknemlig».
Folketellingen 1920.
Handelsflåten i krig bind 1-5. The main work on the Norwegian seafarers at war in five volumes.
Thowsen, Atle., Handelsflåten i krig 1939-1945: Nortraship, profitt og patriotisme, bind 1 av 5, Oslo, Grøndahl Dreyer, 1992
Basberg, Bjørn L., Handelsflåten i krig 1939-1945: Nortraship, Bind 2 av 5, Oslo, Grøndahl Dreyer, 1995.
Hjeltnes, Guri., Handelsflåten i krig 1939-1945: Sjømann, Bind 3 av 5, Oslo, Grøndahl Dreyer, 1995.
Hjeltnes, Guri., Handelsflåten i krig 1939-1945: Krigsseiler, Bind 4 av 5, Oslo, Grøndahl Dreyer, 1997.
Pettersen, Lauritz., Handelsflåten i krig 1939-1945: Hjemmeflåten, bind 5 av 5, Oslo, Grøndahl Dreyer, 1992.
Hansson, Per., Hver tiende mann måtte dø: Fra konvoifarten under siste krig, Oslo, Gyldendal, 1967.
Hartmann, Vera., og Hauge, Eiliv Odde., Flukten fra Dakar, Bergen, Eide, 1951.
Hegland, Jon Rusting., Nortraships flåte: Krigsseilasen under den allierte defensiv 1940-1941, Bind 1 av 2, Oslo, Dreyers forlag, 1976.
Hegland, Jon Rusting., Nortraships flåte: Krigsseilasen under den allierte offensiv 1942-1945, Bind 2 av 2, Oslo, Dreyers forlag, 1976.
Henriksen, Kjetil Erling., og Weber, Sindre., Dekorasjoner til personell i handelsflåten 1940-1945: Kriterier og praksis, u.s., Forsvarsdepartementet, 2015.
Håkon Larsson-Feddes fotosamling.
Jacobsen, Alf R., Farlig farvann: Hurtigruten i nord 1940-1945, Oslo, Vega forlag, 2019.
Krigsinvaliden.
Lillegaard, Leif B., Siste mann fra borde, Cappelen, Oslo, 1965.
Lindbæk, Lise., Tusen norske skip: En antologi over norske sjøfolks innsats i den andre verdenskrig, Oslo, Gyldendal, 1946.
Ljone, Oddmund., Livbåten: Kaptein Toralf Andersen og hans menn, Oslo, Ernst G. Mortensens forlag, 1982.
National Archives of Estonia.
Nb.no.
Nilsen, Peder Kristian., S/S "Ravnfjell": Skipet som ikke ville dø, Oslo, Gyldendal, 1973.
N.N., Fortegnelse over norske sjømenn som døde i utenriks fart 1940-1947., Oslo, Industri- Håndverk- og Skipsfartsdepartementet, 1950.
Nortraships New York-kort. S-2156 - Nortraship - diverse arkivmateriale. F - New York kort, fangeskapskort og "Bad elements". Fa - New York kort, fangeskapskort.
Description in Arkivportalen: "This unordered material, partially chaotic, covers the entire period from 1940 to 1958. It originates from various departments of Nortraship".
In Nortraship's New York cards, there are records for each war sailor. This material is less comprehensive than Londonregisteret but often provides more details about those who sailed to the USA. There are 44 boxes of archival material, containing between 2200-2500 pages per box. This archive may be the least reliable compared to Londonregisteret and Ex gratia-arkivet.
Nortraships posisjonslister, S-2164 – Nortraship Uordnet/uregistrert materiale, Riksarkivet.
Odd Bikrelands privat akriv.
Petterøe, Anders., Den glemte flotilje, Oslo, Schbsted, 2001.
Private archives sent to ARKIVET Peace and Human Rights Centre.
Rickhard, Berit. Fra sjømann til soldat: Krigen som aldri tok slutt, Tvedestrand, Bokbyen forlag, 2017.
Seattle, Washington Passenger Lists, 1890-1957. This collection contains passenger manifests of ships arriving in Seattle, Washington from 1890 to 1957. These have been digitized and are available on myheritage.com.
Sætra, Gustav., Himmel og Hav, Kristiansand, Arnt J. Mørland, 1991.
The John MacMillan Collection.
Tidsskriftet Krigsseileren.
Ueland, Asgeir., Shetlandsgjengen; Heltene i nordsjøen, Oslo, Kagge forlag, 2017.
Ulstein, Ragnar., Englandsfarten II: Søkelys mot Bergen, Oslo, Det norske samlaget, 1967.