The Goðafoss was a steam-powered cargo ship commissioned in 1921 by the shipping company Eimskipafélag Íslands (today Eimskip under the umbrella company Hf. Eimskipafélag Íslands ).
Story
The Goðafoss was built for the Icelandic Steamship Company ( Eimskipafélag Íslands ) at Frederikshavns Vaerft & Flydedok shipyard in Frederikshavn . It was launched in July 1921. The combined cargo/passenger ship had cabins for 76 passengers and, before World War II, primarily sailed routes to Denmark, England, and Germany. After the outbreak of war, its capacity was reduced to a maximum of 40 passengers, and it was painted in a grey camouflage scheme.
downfall
On November 10, 1944, with land already in sight and the journey to the port of Reykjavík still about two hours away, an explosion occurred. At 1:36 p.m., the British tanker Shirvan [ 1 ] from Convoy UR-142 was torpedoed by the German submarine U-300 [ 2 ] under the command of Lieutenant Commander Fritz Hein. Contrary to orders, the civilian passenger liner Goðafoss turned and attempted to rescue survivors from the Shirvan who had jumped from the burning tanker into the cold North Atlantic. Because the Goðafoss was camouflaged at the time, the commander of U-300 could not clearly identify it as a civilian passenger ship. At 1:59 p.m., a torpedo fired from the submarine struck the Goðafoss waterfall at the level of the engine room , leaving a large hole in the hull. The vessel sank within eight minutes in the southernmost part of Faxaflói Bay . Twenty-four people lost their lives in the sinking, including three children. Nineteen people, eighteen Icelanders and one Briton, survived.
The wreck
The wreck of the Goðafoss was apparently found in 2016 off the coast near Gardur at a depth of about 40 meters under a layer of sand. After several attempts by the Icelandic Coast Guard to locate it using multibeam sonar, a private German-Icelandic expedition team led by Thomas Weyer attempted to pinpoint the wreck.
