Hello.

This is a very interesting website, so I hope, that someone here can help me:

In my childhood I knew an old man, who served as a merchant marine in World War II in the american civil fleet.

He was a Danish citizen and was onboard a norwegian ship, when the war broke out.

Now I and his ancestors are trying to find out more about his whereabouts during the war.


We know, that he was onboard "Hanseat", when this ship was torpedoed in 1942 at a position close to Cuba.


We know, that he served at some of the the "Murmansk-convoys" and delivered oil from USA to USSR.


During the last convoy, his ship was torpedoed by a german submarine, and we are been told, that he was the only survivor. For having done 3 convoys, he was decorated by the Soviet Union.

The person, we are investigating is "Ludvig Islin Larsen", born May 28th 1914, deceased July 27th 1997.

We have found out, that he served on these ships: Josiah Macy, Aristides, Alcibiades, Kingman and Klipfontein, but none of these ships did Murmansk convoys.

We have contacted the US National Maritime Center, but the informations from them is not enough to locate more than the above mentioned.

What we are really interested in, is informations about crewlists in the Murmanskconvoys in the period late octobre 1942 to late february 1943.

There seems to be a "hole" in our informations about Ludvig Islin Larsens in this period.

Or perhaps anyone have informations of shipsinkings, where only one person survived. We know, that in the last sinking, Ludvig was rescued and brought to a hospital in London.

Best regards,
Claus Kvist Hansen, Denmark, CLKVHA@gmail.com