SS Stavangerfjord

Year Remarks 1917 May 21: Launched 1918 Apr. 29: sailed from Birkenhead on her maiden voyage to New York 1918 Laid up in New York until she sailed for Kristiania (Oslo) on Sept. 11 1918 Oct. 5: departed Kristiania for her fist voyage on the Kristiania – Bergen – New York service 1918 Kristiania – Kristiansand – Stavanger – Bergen – New York 1919 Kristiania – Kristiansand – Stavanger – Bergen – New York   1920 Kristiania – Kristiansand – Stavanger – Bergen – New York 1921 Kristiania – Kristiansand – Stavanger – Bergen – New York   1922 Kristiania – Kristiansand – Stavanger – Bergen – New York 1923 Kristiania – Kristiansand – Stavanger – Bergen – New York   1924 Converted from coal to oil fuel and her accommodation altered to carry cabin and 3rd class passengers only 1924 Kristiania – Kristiansand – Stavanger – Bergen – Halifax – New York 1925 Oslo – Stavanger – Bergen – Halifax – New York 1930 Refitted to 147-cabin, 207-tourist and 820-3rd class and her tonnage increased to 13,156 tons 1937 Modernized, fitted with shorter funnels 1939 Dec. 9: commenced her last crossing from New York to Bergen and Oslo, where she was laid up 1940 Sept. 20: Requisitioned by Deutche Kriegsmarine – became a troop depot ship until August 1945 1945 August: became a troopship, used between Norway and New York 1946 Refitted to accommodate 122-1st, 222-cabin and 335-tourist class passengers 1946 May 31: departed on her first sailing on the Oslo – Bergen – New York service after the WW2 1953 Dec. 9: rudder carried away in rough weather mid-Atlantic, escorted to Bergen, first by the NAL cargo ship Lyngenfjord which had to give up, then by British tug Turmoil, she was able to maneuver by the use of her twin screws 1956 Refitted to carry 66-1st, 184-cabin and 402-tourist class passengers and her tonnage increased to 14,015 tons 1963 Nov. 18: Last voyage in NAL service Oslo – Copenhagen – Stavanger – New York (dep 3rd Dec) – Bergen – Oslo 1964 Scrapped at Hong Kong by Patt, Manfield & Co. Ltd. The information listed above is not the complete record of the ship. The information was collected from a multitude of sources, and new information will be added as it emerges

The Stavangerfjord was 12 977 tons gross, 9 814 under deck and 7 527 net.
Details: Poop 21 feet long, Bridge and Forecastle on Shelter deck 464 feet long, two funnels, two masts, 2 steel decks & steel shelter deck sheathed in wood, 3rd deck in No. 1, 2 & 3 holds, cruiser stern, 10 cemented bulkheads, cellular double bottom 480 feet long, 1,580 tons, Deep Tank, aft 80 tons, Forward Peak Tank 179 tons, Aft Peak Tank 197 tons, flat keel. She was fitted with electric light & wireless.
Propulsion: quadruple expansion engines with 8 cylinders of 26 1/2, 37 1/2, 53 & 76 inches diameter each pair, stroke 54 inches, operating at 220 p.s.i.; 1 567 nominal horsepower, 8 single ended boilers, 32 corrugated furnaces, grate surface 630 sq. ft., heating surface 24 640 sq. ft., forced draught. Twin screws and a speed of 16 knots. The engine was built by the same company as the hull.
Master: Captain K.S. Irgens, appointed to the shipping line in 1913 and to the ship in 1918.
Call sign: MSJR. There was accommodation for 88-1st, 318-2nd and 820-3rd class passengers.

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The World’s Largest Fundraising

I’m not often proud of my countrymen, we’re a very rich country so as individuals we’re usually selfish and smug. But each autumn around now we arrange the world’s largest fundraising and this year the money goes The Norwegian Church Aid and their goal is to give 1.000.000 people in third world countries clean water close to their homes.

And when the 8 hour long TV broadcast closed tonight we had reached over NOK 234.000.000  that is about £22,320,000 and $35,800,2000. More will be added in the next two days as the fundraising telephone number will be kept open.

Not bad for a country with a population of slightly over 5 mill.

Some people throw coins into a well to make a wish. For a small community in Ethiopia, their wish came true with the well itself.

For girls like Tigist, the difference has been remarkable: because now she can attend school instead of carrying water for hours each day along paths dangerous for young girls.

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Vårt Brygg – Our Brew

With the crazy patterns and colours, platform shoes and ridiculous long shirt collars came another terrible seventies idea; the light beer. This add is from 1975 when Landsøl disappeared and Brigg was introduced in Norway.

I was 22 back then and when I hit town with my buddies I couldn’t care less for low calories or low alcohol percentage, I simply wanted to get drunk no matter how tough the Brigg drinking blokes in the ad looked – Ted

And come on, all three guys looks like someone pissed in their beer. Usually people smile when they drink good beer 😉

Image found at Sollie’s Krøniker

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Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson, Wallsend Shipyard, ca 1955 – Bergensfjord

From a Transport Age article on Tyneside a fine colour shot of the passenger steamship Bergensfjord, built for the Den Norske Amerikalinje A/S by Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson and launched, by H R H Princess Astrid of Norway in July 1955.The ship was 577-feet long and was notable, the caption informs, for its all-welded aluminium-alloy superstructure.

Many fine and famous ships came out of the Swan Hunter Wallsend yard. The company, usually known just as Swan Hunter, was responsible for the construction of some of the world’s most famous ships including the Mauritania and Carpathia. Building finally ceased here in 2006.

Anyhow, it is a cracking view of a traditional shipyard on one of the world’s busiest shipbuilding rivers, the River Tyne.

Image ans text from Adventures of the Blackgang

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Humorous Traffic Sign In Norway

Mayor of Marker Municipality, Kjersti Nythe Nilsen, is not going to remove the unorthodox pedestrian crossing signs. (Photo: Kreativiteket).

Most people are having a good laugh when they see the pedestrian crossing signs in the village of Ørje in Eastern Norway. Unfortunately, the Norwegian Public Roads Administration does not share the same form of humor and say they are going to remove them.

– If the Mayor does not take them down, we will remove them, says Head of Department Ivar Anton Christiansen to Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, NRK.

The Monty Phyton sketch “Ministry of Silly Walks” from 1970, where John Cleese plays a minister who is responsible for developing silly walks, is the inspiration behind the idea of a group who call themselves “Kreativiteket”. They say that there is no deeper meaning behind the pedestrian signs, it is just everyday humor.

– I think the signs should be allowed. They are not to any nuisance and are very similar to normal pedestrian crossing signs. In fact, no one has noticed that we have changed them, after all, they have been there a couple of months, says Mayor Kjersti Nythe Nilsen.

She has no plans to remove the signs and must therefore resort to civil disobedience.

– This is a storm in a teacup. I think that they should be allowed to be placed where they are right now, she says.

It remains to see whether the Norwegian Public Roads Administration actually will travel to Ørje and remove them.

Text, image and video found at ThorNews

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Futhark – The Nordic Runes

The word rune comes from the Norse rún which means mystery. No one knows exactly when, where or by whom the runes were invented. The only thing archaeologists can confirm is that the oldest runic inscriptions found are about 1700 years old. They were discovered in Denmark and Norway.

The runic alphabet was used within Germanic languages – but primarily in the Nordic countries. It was a writing system where each character marked a certain sound. The alphabet is called Futhark after the first six runes. (An observant reader count seven letters in the name: The reason is that th is a diphthong – the same sound as the English sound th in thing). The original name is spelled fuþark.

Text and image found at ThorNews

My full name written in futhark runes

Icelandic is the only Nordic language that still has the þ sound in daily speach and contrary to in English they write it þ and not th.

The first paragraph in this post translated to Icelandic:
Orðið Rune kemur frá norrænni hlaupa sem þýðir leyndardómur. Enginn veit nákvæmlega hvenær, hvar eða af hverjum rúnirnar voru fundin. Það eina sem fornleifafræðingar geta staðfest er að elstu rúnir áletranir fundust eru um 1700 ára gömul. Þeir fundust í Danmörku og Noregi. (Translated with Google Translator)

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More Old Norwegian Posters

Left: Hardanger cider – Right: Riganol toothpaste

Left:Kaba electric ovens – Right: Ata powder soap

From my own collections

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The First Norwegian Christmas Tree in Trafalgar Square

A tree has been given every year to Britain since 1947 by Norway in gratitude for Britain’s support for the country during the Second World War. Norway’s Government-in-Exile was based in Kensington while the country was under German occupation.

Text and image from The National Archives UK’s photostream on Flickr

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Ms Oslofjord

MS Oslofjord was a combined ocean liner/cruise ship built in 1949 by Netherlands Shipbuilding Company in Amsterdam, Netherlands for Norwegian America Line. As built she was 16,844 gross register tons, and could carry 620 passengers. In 1967—1968 she was chartered to Greek Line and from 1968 onwards to Costa Crociere, who renamed her MS Fulvia in 1969. Following an explosion in the engine room, the Fulvia caught fire near the Canary Isles on 19 July 1970, and had to be evacuated. She later sunk while being towed to Tenerife.

Text from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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A Study Of The Norwegian Nisse – Part 1

Back in 2010 I made a series of posts from the start of December through to the 24th called “A Study Of The Norwegian Nisse”. It was based on some background work I did for a series of Christmas cards I did donkey’s years ago. Since a lot of regular visitors have turned up on Retrorambling since then, here’s a quick reprise on the series – Ted

We have a strange lingual phenomena in Norway and that is that the fat sod you English speaking people call Santa we call a “nisse” and that would have posted no problem if it wasn’t for the fact that we already had a”nisse” long before St Nicolas started giving presents to poor children somewhere in Germany. It is all a linguistic mishap really, it is because the Swedes called Santa "Nisse" which is a nickname for Niklas and we here in Norway adopted it. The real nisse don’t like this at all. So in order to put things into prospective, I’m going to use December on this blog to let you all take part in my only scientific study “A Study Of The Norwegian Nisse”.

The Norwegian "Nisse" is a relative of the Brownie, the Pixie and the Leprechaun. He lives in rural districts and in the woods. In Norway we call Santa Clause "nisse" as well, but that fat, jolly, "Ho Ho" chanting lunatic that Coca Cola and other companies that think they have a claim on Christmas love so much must never ever be mistaken for the original. The original "Nisse" has been around for as long as there has been people here in Norway, and he is here all year round.

In the old days people believed that the "nisse" took care of their houses and animals and kept them out of harms way. In rural districts people used to put out porridge for the "nisse", a tradition that is still upheld round Christmas at many farms around the country. The "nisse" could be quite a prankster, so keeping him happy was important. It is a well known fact that if he didn’t get his porridge, he could hide things or rearrange whole rooms or even worse.

In our day and age, the "nisse" has become very shy, as all the products of the silly thing we call progress scares him. Very few people has seen a "nisse" these last hundred years, so as I am one of the few fortunate, I will share my knowledge with you. In "A Study of the Norwegian Nisse" you will meet two, they both live in the woods close to my cottage in Enebakk, some five metric miles from Oslo city. They have never been willing to divulge their names so in lack of better names, I’ve called them Prototype No 1 and Prototype No 2, No 1 and No 2 for short.

All my knowledge stems from these two individuals, so this study may not give a general picture of the "nisse" as such at all. They are after all great pranksters. Pulling your leg is among their favourite past times, so if the picture I’m painting here seems to vary from your opinion of what a "nisse" is and should be, what can I say.

A Study Of The Norwegian Nisse–Part 2
A Study Of The Norwegian Nisse–Part 3
A Study Of The Norwegian Nisse–Part 4
A Study Of The Norwegian Nisse–Part 5
A Study Of The Norwegian Nisse–Part 6
A Study Of The Norwegian Nisse–Part 7
A Study Of The Norwegian Nisse–Part 8
A Study Of The Norwegian Nisse–Part 9
A Study Of The Norwegian Nisse–Part 10
A Study Of The Norwegian Nisse–Part 11
A Study Of The Norwegian Nisse–Part 12
A Study Of The Norwegian Nisse–Part 13
A Study Of The Norwegian Nisse–Part 14
A Study Of The Norwegian Nisse–Part 15
A Study Of The Norwegian Nisse–Part 16
A Study Of The Norwegian Nisse–Part 17
A Study Of The Norwegian Nisse–Part 18
A Study Of The Norwegian Nisse–Part 19
A Study Of The Norwegian Nisse–Part 20
A Study Of The Norwegian Nisse–Part 21
A Study Of The Norwegian Nisse–Part 22
A Study Of The Norwegian Nisse–Part 23
A Study Of The Norwegian Nisse–Part 24

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The Norwegian Public Telephone Booth

These red telephone booths has become a landmark in Norway and has its own national conservation plan. It saw the light in 1933 after an architectural competition , which was won by architect Georg Fasting from Bergen. The first was set up at the America boat docks in Oslo. A restored version is currently set up at near it’s original place (see picture). Only after the war did they spread  to the rest of the country. The location of public telephone booths always took into account the public safety and should provide easy access to a doctor, midwife, police and fire departments. They were of course a natural among high rises in the 60’s satellite towns, railway stations and numerous ferry ports. The public telephone booths was primarily a service, and profitability was secondary. The last booth was produced in 1995. In total it has been produced about 6,000 of them, and many are still in use. The design has remained unchanged, except for the weight: The first booths weighed 800 kg , while later editions weighed less than half . As mentioned it has now been developed a special protection plan for these telephone booths.

Text (translated) and image (slightly coloured) from NostalgiSiden

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Norwegian Cigarette Ads

Norwegian cigarette ads from the fifties and sixties. Frisco is no longer with us, but Blue Master is, I even smoke them from time to time – Ted

From my  own collections – Ted

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The Kurér Turned 60 In 2010

The Kurér was the first reasonably small portable radio produced in Norway, it was introduced 24^th of April 1950 and it became an immediate success. In spite of the weight, a little over 7,5 kilo with the battery, we brought it everywhere, to our summerhouses, the beach and to the mountain. Here in Norway it has become a real fifties icon. Few Norwegians of a certain age are without a memory or two connected to the Kurér. I had a bluish grey one until my youngest daughter discovered it, now she has – Ted 😉

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May 17 – Norwegian Constitution Day

Norwegian Constitution Day is the National Day of Norway and is an official national holiday observed on May 17 each year. Among Norwegians, the day is referred to simply as syttende mai (meaning May Seventeenth), Nasjonaldagen (The National Day) or Grunnlovsdagen (The Constitution Day), although the latter is less frequent.

A noteworthy aspect of the Norwegian Constitution Day is its very non-military nature. All over Norway, children’s parades with an abundance of flags form the central elements of the celebration. Each elementary school district arranges its own parade with marching bands between schools. The parade takes the children through the community, often making stops at homes of senior citizens, war memorials, etc. The longest parade is in Oslo, where some 100,000 people travel to the city centre to participate in the main festivities. This is broadcast on TV every year, with comments on costumes, banners etc., together with local reports from celebrations around the country. The massive Oslo parade includes some 100 schools, marching bands, and passes the royal palace where the royal family greet the people from the main balcony.

Text from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Building Il Tempo Gigante

Il Tempo Gigante is a full-scale replica of the racing car featured in the Pinchcliffe Grand Prix movie by Ivo Caprino. The car measures 6.70 metres from cranking handle to exhaust pipe, and has a beam of 2.48 metres.

Visit http://www.caprino.no/pages/en/iltempo.asp for more information about the movie and car. A remote controlled version of Il Tempo Gigante is available at the site.
Movie uploaded on Youtube by mariocaprino

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Kari Knudsen – Norwegian Playboy Centerfold

Miss February 1962
Playboy Playmate Pic and Data Sheet
BIRTHPLACE: Romsdal, Norway
BUST: 36"
WAIST: 23"
HIPS: 35"
HEIGHT: 5′ 4"
WEIGHT: 117 lbs
AMBITIONS:
To be a very good actress.
TURN-ONS:
Modern jazz, flamenco, Latin music.
TURNOFFS:
Being called "honey" or "sweetheart" by people who don’t know me.
HOBBIES:
Knitting.
FAVORITE SPORTS:
Skiing, skating and horseback riding.
WHAT I LIKE IN MEN:
Strong personalities — that quality that demands respect.
WHAT I DISLIKE IN MEN:
Overbearing egos.
DID YOU KNOW?
I once worked in a traveling repertory theatre.

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Peeing Over The Side

“The trouble with having dames on board is you can’t
pee over the side.”
 Humphrey Bogart

Due to safety at sea campaigns death by drowning accidents has steadily decreased in my home country Norway which is a country of pleasure crafts and cottages by the sea. The death toll is stable in only one group, grown men found with their flys open and alcohol in their blood – Ted

Image and caption found at ”Sweet Nothing”

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Freia, A Little Piece Of Norway

Freia is a Norwegian chocolate candy manufacturing company. The company is famous for Freia Melkesjokolade and Kvikk Lunsj, as well as for other candy and dessert products.

Freia clock at Egertorget square in Oslo

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History
The company was founded in 1889, but real success was seen only in 1892, when Johan Throne Holst (1868–1946) took over management. Holst realized that there was a potential market for edible milk chocolate, in addition to the dark chocolate and other minor products Freia were producing at the time. Holst built up Freia to be Norway’s leading chocolate manufacturer. By the turn of the century, Freia was the leading Norwegian brand in sweets. Since its inception the factory has been in the Rodeløkka neighborhood in the borough of Grünerløkka in Oslo.

Based on the success in Norway, the Throne-Holst family in 1916 founded the chocolate factory Marabou in Upplands Väsby outside of Stockholm in Sweden. The name Freia (or Freja) could not be used due to a conflicting trademark in Sweden. The name Marabou was chosen instead from the Marabou Stork, the species of bird on the Freia logo.

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Later years
Freia was purchased in 1993 by Kraft Foods Nordic, for NOK 3 billion. The company’s flagship product has since then been the Milk Chocolate candy bar, Freia Melkesjokolade. On the basis of this famous product, Freia produces several other candy bars, with added nuts, raisins, cookies and Daim pieces. The brand has constantly been marketed in a national romantic spirit – as the essence of everything that is Norwegian. Their slogan is "A little piece of Norway" (Et lite stykke Norge).

Text from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

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Greta Nissen – Norwegian-born Hollywood Actress

Greta Nissen (30 January 1906 – 15 May 1988) was a Norwegian-born American film and stage actress.

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Stage and Screen
Born Grethe Rüzt-Nissen in Oslo, Norway, Nissen was originally a dancer. She debuted as a solo ballerina on the National Theatre in 1922. She toured in Norway and participated in several Danish films.

Nissen made her Broadway debut as a ballerina in 1924. She had studied ballet with Mikhail Fokine. In early 1924, she came as a member of a Danish ballet troupe to New York, where she was soon hired to do a larger dance numbers for George S. Kaufman in the musical Beggar on Horseback. Greta was discovered by film producer Jesse L. Lasky of Paramount Pictures, and would appear in more than twenty films.

She appeared in The Wanderer (1925, director Raoul Walsh). Among her other films were A Wife, The King on Main Street, The Love Thief, Ambassador Bill, The Lucky Lady, and Honours Easy. In 1932, she played in The Silent Witness with Weldon Heyburn, who became her first husband. Her film career ended in the mid-1930s after she had appeared in a few British films.

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Critical Acclaim
A 1925 New York Times review of the silent film A Norwegian Actress described Greta:

She was graceful in her movements and expressions, with a constantly changing gaze. The actress was attractive rather than beautiful. Her chin and nose were both somewhat pronounced. Greta’s personality was delightful and she never showed an awareness to the audience that she was conscious of being on camera. Her skin was fair and she possessed blonde hair. At different times her coiffure had a somewhat "wild" appearance.

The reviewer believed her hair was more effective when it was brushed down rather than when it was concealed by a small hat. As for her eyes, there was a close affinity in their appearance to those of Sarah Bernhardt. Mordaunt Hall commented on her acting, saying Miss Nissen gives a sincere and earnest portrayal, always obtaining excellent results with an originality rarely beheld on the screen.

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Missed Opportunity
Greta was the original choice for leading lady in Hell’s Angels (1930), an epic film made by Howard Hughes. She lost the part due to her strong Norwegian accent when the movie was remade to include sound. In 1933 she moved to England. In 1937 she retired from movie acting altogether.

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Death
In the autumn of 1941, she married industrialist Stuart D. Eckert. Nissen died at home in Montecito, California of Parkinson’s disease on May 15, 1988. Greta was 82. Her husband said she still received fan letters. Greta had one son, Tor Bruce Nissen Eckert, who in 2005 gave his large collection of Greta Nissen Memorabilia to the Norwegian Emigrant Museum which is located in Ottestad, county of Hedmark, Norway.

Text from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Mocca Coffee Set

Imagine what your morning coffee might taste like when you serve yourself from these beauties… Guttorm Gagnes (1906-64).  Mocca coffee set, guilded silver, mahogany and enamel, 1931.  Made for Norwegian company David-Andersen.

Text and image from:

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