RFA Briarleaf

Previous name:                        OLETTA
Subsequent name:                  LACUNA, DOVREFJELL, NAPTHA SHIPPER, ALTENGAMME

Official Number:                139176

Class:                                         Emergency Wartime Construction LEAF Group Freighting Tanker

Pennant No:                               Y7.151

Laid down:

Builder:                                       Readhead, South Shields
Launched:                                  September 1916

Into Service:                               December 1916

Out of service:                            1 August 1920
Fate:                                             Bombed and sunk 1945

Items of historic interest involving this ship: -

Background Data.   During WW1 18 vessels of varying types were acquired second hand and converted or purchased and converted while on the stocks, or in a few cases building as tankers. Some were converted after serving with the Dummy Battleship Squadron by the insertion of cylindrical tanks in their holds. All were originally intended to operate as RFA’s however owing to reasons of international law and the operation of the US Neutrality Act, these oilers became Mercantile Fleet Auxiliaries, being renamed with the LEAF nomenclature and placed under civilian management although operationally they remained under Admiralty control.

September 1916 launched by J. Redhead & Sons Ltd, South Shields as Yard Nr 451 named RFA OLETTA

December 1916 completed and placed under management of Lane & MacAndrew Ltd, London as an  oiler transport. and renamed BRIARLEAF Base port Devonport

25 March 1917 berthed at South Shields

18 October 1918 was attacked in the North Atlantic by a submarine - the torpedo exploded prematurely and a shot fired from the submarine's gun missed

15 May 1919 sailed Gravesend for Trinidad

2 July 1919 arrived at Falmouth from Trinidad

1 August 1920 sold to Anglo Saxon Petroleum Lrd.,London name unchanged

5 August 1920 sailed Tampico for Portsmouth

12 December 1921 arrived the Clyde from Tampico

1922 renamed LACUNA by her owners

9 January 1925 stood by the steamer Eda which had gone aground five miles north a half east magnetic Vlieland Light

30 May 1927 purchased  for £70,000 by A/S Dovrefjell ( Olsen & Ugelstad, Managers) Oslo and renamed J.J. LACUNA before again being renamed DOVREFJELL

RFA Briarleaf after her sale out of service and being renamed DOVREFJELL in 1927

January 1938 purchased for £51,000 by Naptha Tankers Ltd (S, Catsell & Co Ltd, Managers) London and renamed NAPTHA SHIPPER

28 August 1939 reported arrested for non-payment of debts while under repair at Hamburg and  management was allocated to Atlantic Rhederi F & W Joch, Hamburg

3 September 1939 taken over by German authorities.

7 October 1939 taken over by the German Kriegsmarine.

3 May 1940 renamed Altengamme. Was for some time in service at Kriegsmarinewerft Drontheim, Trondheim.

19 March 1943 confiscated by the Hamburg Prize Court

4 October 1944 she was in collision with the small Norwegian steamer ULV which sank in Aalesund Harbour but was raised after the end of the War.

4 May 1945 bombed by Russain aircarft and sunk at Neu Mukran, Rugen Island, Germany

1950 wreck partly raised and broken up

Notes: