M/T Janus

M/T Janus  

Built at Öresundsvarvet as new construction, hull number 54 for Anders Jahre in Sandefjord, Norway. She was delivered in October of 1939, sunk in the North Atlantic at position N 56°30’ and W 15°00’ by a torpedo from a German submarine, killing 4 crewmembers.  She was on 15,380 Dw.tons and sailed at speed of 13 knots.  Janus was equipped with a Götaverken-B&W Diesel engine rated at 5,100 Indicated Horse Powers (ihp).  The first Commander of Janus was G. Larsson and the first Chief Engineer K.E. Eriksson.

 The information that Janus was sunk by the German submarine U-36 is erroneous as U-36 was itself sunk already on December 4, 1939, by a torpedo from the British  submarine HMS Salmon southwest of Kristiansand, Norway, at position N 57°00’ and E 02°47’ and all 40 onboard were killed.  However, Janus was sunk by the German submarine U-46 of type VIIB, built at Germaniawerft in Kiel and launched on November 2, 1938. Janus was sunk on October 20, 1940, at 3h25 AM when she sailed in convoy HX-79 together with 49 other ships. The convoy was escorted by two destroyers HMS Whitehall and HMS Sturdy, the corvettes HMS Hibiscus, HMS Heuotrope, HMS Coreopsis and HMS Arabis, the mine sweeper HMS Jason, the submarine O-21 and the trawlers HMS Lady Elsa, HMS Blackfly and HMS Angle. After convoy HX-79 had been sighted on October 19 by the German sub U-47, more subs, that had just completed the attack on convoy SC-7 where 21 ships had been sunk, were ordered to location.  U-47 maintained a position in the vicinity of the convoy until subs U-28, U-46, U-48 and U-100 caught up with the convoy.  The attack began on October 19 by sinking the ships Matheran UK, Uganda UK, Bilderdijk NL, Shirak UK, Wandby UK, and Ruperra UK.  The ships Caprella UK, Sitala UK, La Estancia UK, Whitford Point UK, Janus SW, and Loch Lomond BR were sunk on October 20.  The ship Athelmonarch UK was severely damaged at 02h 04’ AM on October 20 by a torpedo fired from U-47.