Kpl Karl Verner Jørgensen
(1923 - n.a. )
Profile
Karl Verner Jørgensen was one of the Danish merchant seamen who volunteered for military service during the war. He served in the Royal Norwegian Air Force from 1941 and until the end of the war.
Karl Verner Jørgensen was born on 13 February 1923 in Store Lindet, near Nakskov, the son of Sigvald Johannes and Sigrid Sofie Jørgensen (née Olsen).[1] He went to middleschool for one and a half years indicating that he left school before the exams and was a boy-scout for three years.[2]
War sailor
Jørgensen entered the marchant marine in 1938, and worked as a mess-boy and cooks’ mate the following years. He was engaged as a galley boy on the SS Silvaplana on 7 September 1940 in Singapore. Silvaplana was one of more than 800 Norwegian ships operated by the Norwegian Shipping and Trade Mission (Nortraship).[3] Jørgensen made three voyages on this vessel. From Singapore she sailed for Halifax, NS, via Columbia River, Balboa and Cristobal. The next voyage brought her to Santos in Brazil returning to New York on 30 December 1940.[4] Jørgensen’s final voyage on the Silvaplana brought him to the Far East—Surabaya, Singapore, Batavia (Jakarta), Samarang, and Thursday Island—before returning to New York on 21 May 1941 via the Panama Canal.[5] He was discharged in New York.[6] A few months later, in October 1941, the Silvaplana was captured by the German auxiliary cruiser HSK 2 Atlantis on 10 September 1941.[7] While Jørgensen was far away on the other side of the world, he was recorded in the Danish census in November 1941 as if he was still living with his family in Nakskov.[8]
Royal Norwegian Air Force service
Jørgensen crossed the border to Canada and, on 15 July 1941, he volunteered for the Royal Norwegian Air Force in camp Little Norway in Toronto. Following initial training at Lakeside Home, he seems to have been engaged in the mess kitchen at various locations in Canada throughout the war. For instance, he served in the kitchen at Muskoka from 14 May to 25 October 1942, at Little Norway from 26 October 1942 to 4 April 1943, before returning to Muskoka from 5 April to 25 May 1945. From 26 May 1943 to 7 July 1943 he served in the kitchen at Vesle Skaugum.
He was promoted to Corporal (korporal) on 1 January 1945, and discharged in July 1945.[9]
Jørgensen had married Coral Mae Sutton in July 1943 and, when discharged from the Norwegian Air Force, he applied for permission to stay in Canada.[10] He lived in Ontario after the war.[11]
Endnotes
[1] DNA: Parish register, Birket Sogn.
[2] DAHS: Service record (rulleblad).
[3] M/S Silvaplana, https://krigsseilerregisteret.no/no/skip/25896/ (accessed on 20 March 2021).
[4] Ancestry: New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957
[5] Record of the ship’s voyages from the Norwegian National Archives via https://www.warsailors.com (accessed on 30 March 2021).
[6] Ancestry: New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957.
[7] M/S Silvaplana, https://krigsseilerregisteret.no/no/skip/25896/ (accessed on 20 March 2021).
[8] DNA: 1940 Census of Denmark.
[9] DAHS: Service record (rulleblad).
[10] Ancestry: Canada, Immigrants Approved in Orders in Council, 1929-1960.
[11] Ancestry: Canada, Voters Lists, 1935-1980.