62 / 160
60
vessel was bound for Australia, but WW2 began shortly after the
vessel had returned to Europe and was unloading its cargo of
wheat in Glasgow. Most of the crew was discharged in Stavan-
ger, Norway, and Laurids came home to Denmark.
Determined to qualify as an officer, Laurids signed on the S/S
“Helene” on December the 2
nd
1939, unaware that the ship was
bound for Finland, which had received a declaration of war from
the Soviet Union three days earlier. The Baltic Sea was warzone
and “Helene” was attacked in Finnish waters by Soviet bombers,
but was not hit. From Finland the ship took a cargo of paper
bound for Spain and Italy, but most of the crew was changed,
when the ship passed Copenhagen. Laurids stayed on board,
but on the voyage back to Denmark “Helene” was boarded by
the French Navy on April the 9th, on the day that Denmark was
occupied by Nazi Germany. Eleven weeks later “Helene” and
most of its crew fell into German hands, when France surren-
dered in June 1940.
Laurids Anthonius decided to sail for Britain, and signed on
the Danish S/S ”Margit” he escaped France and came to Eng-
land. The first months in England were disappointing to the
Danish seamen, because the British authorities regarded them
as “friendly enemies”, but Britain’s need of supplies from abroad
were so urgent, that the Danish ships and crews were used
anyhow. The German Navy and Air Force tried to block all ship-
ments to Britain, and the Merchant Navy carried heavy losses,
especially in 1942-43.
The North Atlantic convoys were of the greatest importance
to Britain, as they came with supplies from USA and Canada. A
transatlantic job meant weeks of repairs, preparations, loading
and 2-3 weeks of tense Atlantic sailing back and forth. Signed on
five different Danish ships Laurids was in Canada ten times from
September 1940 to August 1945.
Iceland and the Faroe Islands were occupied by British and US
forces during the war. Ships in convoys supplied the troops with
what they needed and brought fish back to Britain. Laurids An-
thonius was in Reykjavik three times in 1942-1944, signed on
three different Danish ships, and in 1944 he was on the S/S ”Stal”
in the Mediterranean Sea twice and in Freetown, Sierra Leone,
once.
Laurids Anthonius made it through the war without serious
physical wounds. He experienced a grounding on the coast of
Iceland and a collision with another ship in a coastal convoy in
Scottish waters, but many colleagues and five of his ships where
lost, after he had been discharged from them. Long term ten-
sion, nerves and stress caused periodic abuse of alcohol and
perhaps PTSD, but at his return to Denmark he was admitted to
the navigation school, and passed his officer’s examination in
1947. He sailed as an officer overseas, and died of a heart attack
shortly before his 35
th
birthday on board M/S “Ellen Mærsk” at
Surabaya, Java.
Modsatte side:
Flystøtte til en transatlantisk konvojsejlads under Anden Verdenskrig.
Foto: Library and Archives Canada.