The last voyage of the ‘Thistle’

With its blue-painted hull badly chipped and holed, the Thistle, a small fishing boat on the east coast of Scotland, has seen better days. But, says Frank Urquhart, plans are under way for one final journey home – to Norway to be fully restored in honour of its part in one of the most dramatic escape stories of the Second World War

IT LOOKS, for all the world, like any other ageing open-decked boat of the type that languish on the quaysides of countless fishing towns and villages dotted along Scotland’s east coast. For the past ten years, visitors to the small fishing village of Johnshaven on the rugged Kincardine coastline have barely given the 23ft, decaying remains of the Thistle a second glance.

Yet 71 years ago, the tiny craft was at the centre of one of the most dramatic escape stories of the Second World War, when the boat was used by four young Norwegians to flee their Nazi-occupied homeland on a hazardous voyage across the North Sea .

Today the Thistle, with its blue-painted hull badly chipped and holed, will begin a poignant journey back across the North Sea for the first time in more than seven decades to be fully restored before becoming a lasting memorial in Norway to the thousands of brave Norwegians who fled their native land before taking the fight back to their Nazi oppressors.

The remarkable story of the Thistle’s role in a story that has become legendary in Norway began on 24 July, 1941 – 16 months after Hitler’s forces had invaded and ruthlessly occupied a neutral Norway. The small vessel, originally carrying the registration number VA 92 L was an open-decked fishing boat being used by a Nazi collaborator. That night four Norwegians, desperate to escape the occupation, stole the boat from its moorings in the town of Mandal, at the southern tip of Norway.

The oldest of the escapees was Jacob Samuelsen, a master mariner. Also in the boat were three younger men from the area, Carl Berthelsen, Kare Kirkevåg and Kare Langefeldt Jensen .

They had already stolen some aviation fuel from a nearby Nazi airfield and were planning to use the fuel to power the engine of the small boat. Their original aim was to slip out of the harbour, concealing two of the men under canvas, and pose as just another local two-man fishing boat until they were safely beyond the reach of German air patrols.

Based on local intelligence, the four men had timed their departure to coincide with a time when German fighter aircraft were unlikely to be on patrol. But their information proved to be almost disastrously wrong.

Within minutes of leaving the coast their vessel was spotted by a German patrol plane, which swooped low over them before returning and firing a burst of machine gun fire across their bows as a clear warning to return to shore.

The four men headed back towards the Norwegian coast, expecting to be picked up at any moment by a Gestapo patrol. But somehow they managed to reach the safety of a secluded inlet, where they sheltered before resuming their hazardous voyage across the North Sea.

This time, however, they camouflaged their craft with tree branches in the hope that it would be mistaken from the air for a floating tree or a mass of seaweed. The ruse worked, but their journey was far from over.

Two of the men were seasick throughout the voyage. The aviation fuel they had stolen was virtually useless. Berthelsen’s hands were left raw and bleeding from his constant attempts to spark the engine into life and, eventually, they were forced to put up the sail of the VA 92L.

Their destination was Aberdeen. And remarkably, four days later – using only a small box compass – the tiny craft made landfall at old Portlethen, less than six miles down the coast from the Granite City.

Dr Andrew Orr, a retired GP, historian and writer, who has played a pivotal role in arranging for the Thistle’s historic return to Norway, says: “After the successful escape the boat was sold as a creel boat, renamed as Thistle, and worked out of Stonehaven for the next four decades.

“It passed through a number of different owners and eventually came down to Johnshaven – well past its sell-by date and leaking. One of the owners put a new engine in the boat and lowered the boat into the harbour… and it kept on going to the bottom. It was totally unseaworthy and they pulled it out and stuck it on the side of the harbour, where it has been for the past ten to 15 years, just quietly rotting away.”

The boat was eventually donated to the Johnhaven Heritage Society but they were unable to raise the funds to restore her.

Dr Orr, who had written a book on Bamse, the Montrose-based St Bernard dog that became a symbol of freedom and defiance for millions of Norwegians during the Second World War, was then approached and asked to use his contacts in Norway to help find a permanent home for the vessel.

Remarkably, on 28 July, 2011 – exactly 70 years to the day after the landing of VA 92L in Scotland – two Norwegians arrived in Johnshaven trying to find out what had happened to the boat. They were John and Martin Berthelsen, the sons of Carl Berthelsen.

Dr Orr says: “The Johnshaven Heritage Society generously decided to gift the boat to Norway. And arrangements have now been made for the boat to be returned to Norway where it will become a permanent memorial, at the Lista museum, to the extraordinary courage of all the men who escaped from Norway and then went back into occupied Norway to fight for their country.

“Jacob Samuelsen joined the Norwegian merchant fleet and was killed by enemy action in the Mediterranean. The three younger men, Carl Berthelsen, Kare Kirkevåg and Kare Langefeldt Jensen joined the Norwegian special forces [Kompanie Linge] and bravely went back into occupied Norway to fight. Of the three – Berthesen survived the war, Kirkevåg was injured but survived, and Jensen was killed in action at Spitsbergen.”

More than 3,600 Norwegians are estimated to have escaped by sea to Scotland during the Second World War, many of them taking central roles in the “Shetland Bus” which ferried agents and commandos into action in the war-torn country. At least 158 Norwegians were executed after being captured trying to escape.

Don Marr, of Johnshaven Heritage Society, says: “We are absolutely delighted to be able to return this historic boat to where she came from. We were just not able to preserve her here, and she now goes to a home where they have all the skills to restore and preserve her.”

And John Berthelsen says: “Discovering my father’s boat after 70 years was one of the most moving moments in my life. This boat is very significant not only to my family but also to the Norwegian people as a whole, as it is probably the only surviving example of the many small open boats that braved the North Sea crossing in the war.”