Allied Warships

HMS Svana (FY 1707)

MS Whaler

NavyThe Royal Navy
TypeMS Whaler
Class[No specific class] 
PennantFY 1707 
Built bySmiths Dock Co., Ltd. (South Bank-on-Tees, U.K.) 
Ordered 
Laid down 
Launched30 Jul 1930 
CommissionedApr 1940 
Lost8 Apr 1942 
History

Whaler of South Georgia Co. Ltd. (Chr.Salvesen & Co., Leith, U.K.), taken over by the Admiralty in April 1940.
Displacement: 268 tons.

HMS Svana (T/Lt. John McDonald Ruttan, DSC, RCNVR) was bombed and sunk by aircraft off Alexandria, Egypt.

 

Commands listed for HMS Svana (FY 1707)

Please note that we're still working on this section
and that we only list Commanding Officers for the duration of the Second World War.

CommanderFromTo
1T/Skr. Lawrence Oliver, RNR17 Sep 19404 Sep 1941
2T/Lt. John McDonald Ruttan, RCNVR4 Sep 19418 Apr 1942

You can help improve our commands section
Click here to Submit events/comments/updates for this vessel.
Please use this if you spot mistakes or want to improve this ships page.

Notable events involving Svana include:


5 Jan 1941
At Lindi, the light cruiser HMS Ceres (Capt. E.G. Abbott, AM, RN) fuelled and stored four M/S whalers of the 142nd Minesweeping Group. These were the Sarna, Soika, Sotra and Svana.

All ships then departed Lindi later the same day. (1)

21 Feb 1942
HMS Svana (T/Lt. J.M. Ruttan, RCNVR) is docked in the Gabbari Dock at Alexandria.

[Date of undocking currently not known to us.] (2)

Sources

  1. ADM 53/113882
  2. ADM 53/116464

ADM numbers indicate documents at the British National Archives at Kew, London.


Return to the Allied Warships section