SS Kommandøren was a steel-hulled passenger/cargo steamship built in Norway in 1891. She served as a communications link between the regional capital of Western Norway, Bergen, and the various communities of Sogn og Fjordane county.
Following the 9 April 1940 German invasion of Norway, she was requisitioned by the Norwegian authorities and carried troops for the Norwegian war effort until the forces in Western Norway ceased fighting on 2 May 1940.
After a brief stint in German service, she returned to her civilian duties later in 1940, and was accidentally torpedoed and sunk by a German E-boat in Bergen on 29 March 1945.
Construction and characteristics
Kommandøren was one of four passenger/cargo steamships built for Nordre Bergenhus Amts Dampskibe at Norwegian shipyards around the turn of the 20th century. The four ships were constructed to supplement four smaller vessels built decades earlier at British shipyards. In addition to Kommandøren, which was seen as the flagship of the company's fleet, Lærdal, Balder and Stavenes were built between 1876 and 1904. The company sailed on cargo/passenger routes in Western Norway. Kommandøren was the largest of the new-builds, and was considered the grandest of the company vessels.
Delivered on 30 June 1891, Kommandøren was yard number 132 at Akers Mekaniske Værksted in Kristiania (modern-day Oslo), Norway. The steel-hulled ship measured , had a length of , a beam of and a draught of . Her 600 indicated horsepower/116 nominal horsepower 3-cylinder triple expansion steam engine could propel the ship at . Kommandøren cost the company to build and could take up to 249 passengers.
Although much newer than the first ships operated by Nordre Bergenhus Amts Dampskibe, Kommandøren and the three other ships were only around faster than the mid-19th century vessels used by the company.
The new ship was named Kommandøren by Nordre Bergenhus amt county council, after the affectionate nickname of the county's shipping company's first executive director, Hugo Lous, who had held the rank of kommandørkaptein () in the Royal Norwegian Navy. To name the new ship after the executive director was an unusual decision, as most Norwegian ships of the era were named after place names, historical figures or royalty.
Built not only to carry people and cargo between the towns and villages of Western Norway, but also for the tourist trade, Kommandøren was fitted with a comparatively luxurious first class section. The 10-cabin, 36-bed, first class featured a smoking salon, a women's salon and a dining salon for the first class passengers and ship officers. A promenade deck gave views in all directions. The third class passengers had two salons, one on the main deck and one on the orlop (lowest) deck. On Kommandøren, the third class section was expanded and improved in comparison with earlier vessels, after complaints from passengers to the county council. The third class section of Kommandøren was described by the newspaper Sogns Tidende as "large, spacious and almost comfortably equipped. Kommandøren was home ported in Bergen. She had her maiden passenger voyage from Bergen to Sogn on 5 July 1891.
Passenger/cargo and tourist service
In the summer season, Kommandøren served the tourist trade in Sogn, while she sailed the regular passenger/cargo routes during the winter months. Kommandøren was generally used as an express route ship, often carrying patients on their way to treatment. Amongst the cargo carried by was often live animals, including horses, cattle and sheep. During one of her trips, Kommandøren ran aground on 20 October 1900 near Tjugum in Balestrand. The ship was also at times employed to transport important dignitaries in the region, like she did in September 1920, when she brought politicians to Vik to inspect the area for a proposed railway project. Shortly after delivery, in September 1892, Kommandøren provided transport support to a large-scale Norwegian Army field exercise in Western Norway. She was tasked with transporting troops from Gudvangen to Lærdalsøyri after the completion of the exercises.
In 1910, Kommandøren was modernized at Stavanger Støberi & Dok in Stavanger, gaining a new boiler for the steam engine and being painted white. In January the next year, she ran aground at Rongevær in the Fensfjord. She ran aground again in 1913, in Herdlefjorden.
A rebuild in 1922 saw the ship's well deck built over, creating a flush deck profile. In 1930 the ship was refurbished and modernized. By this time, Kommandøren measured and .