Discover escape boat used in World War II

Seventy years after their father escaped the German occupation of Norway in a fisherman’s boat, crossing the North Sea to Scotland, his two sons find the boat intact.

The two brothers, Martin and Ole John Berthelsen, found the relatively small boat when they traveled to Aberdeenshire in Scotland last year to look for traces from their dad’s escape back in 1941. Surprisingly, they found the boat hidden underneath a piece of canvas in Johnshaven, a fishing town on the South Coast of Scotland.

Their father, Carl Berthelsen, had along with three of his buddies originally stolen the boat from a supporter of the Nazis. After three days on the North Sea they reached Scotland, but were first held in prison in Stonehaven before they were sent to and cleared in London.

Carl Berthelsen had gone back to Scotland to look for the boat in 1982, and was also reunited with one of the children that had seen the four Norwegians when they first arrived back in 1941. The two brothers, however, didn’t have high expectations of finding the boat this time, and definitely not in such good condition.

A local history club has cared for the boat for the past years, but are now thrilled that it is being returned it to where it belongs. "We haven’t been able to take proper care of it here. Now it’s returning to a place where they have the knowledge to preserve and restore the boat," Don Marr, a representative for the club, tells Aftenposten.

The boat is expected to return to Norway in February or March, according to Martin Berthelsen. Once home, it will be restored and then become part of an exhibition at Vest-Agder Museum, a coastal heritage center on the south coast of Norway.

(Aftenposten)

Julie Ryland

Wednesday, 01 February 2012 07:20

Written by Rolleiv Solholm

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