For Labour Valour,U/N 1955,Senior Engineer,Rescue Of The Norwegian Tanker "Folga"

[GabrielMk3]

You're very welcome!

Smells like the Norwegian government wasn't too neutral after all...(?)

Oh, and Tartu is extremely difficult to find something on, I'm sorry.

After several rounds of HTML hacking and script-jerking, I finally tricked out a special file type that I converted and wondered with for about an hour, which resulted in the front page of the famous newspaper Aftenposten "Eveningpost" from Tuesday the 12th of October 1954.

All that I can possibly read from this scan (and therefore translate) is:

"Folga" in dock with a 15 metres hole in the hull.

Soviet Russian ship aided in the fire-extinguishing.

After from what I've made possible to read from the several excerpts of hacked scans, I've found out that they first believed Folga had hit a magnetic mine, but they later found out it suffered an explosion in the oiltank.

I also found an excerpt from the 22. of October (54) from the same newspaper that says: Soviet-sailors honoured after assisting "Folga"

I also found out that it wasn't only Tartu which came to help, but 17 other ships from mostly Holland and Belgium.

[RedMaestro2]

Originally Posted by GabrielMk3

After several rounds of HTML hacking and script-jerking, I finally tricked out a special file type that I converted and wondered with for about an hour, which resulted in the front page of the famous newspaper Aftenposten "Eveningpost" from Tuesday the 12th of October 1954.

All that I can possibly read from this scan (and therefore translate) is:

"Folga" in dock with a 15 metres hole in the hull.

Soviet Russian ship aided in the fire-extinguishing.

Thanks very much for your efforts, Gabriel! :thumbsup Much appreciated!

Originally Posted by GabrielMk3

After from what I've made possible to read from the several excerpts of hacked scans, I've found out that they first believed Folga had hit a magnetic mine, but they later found out it suffered an explosion in the oiltank.

I also found an excerpt from the 22. of October (54) from the same newspaper that says: Soviet-sailors honoured after assisting "Folga"

I also found out that it wasn't only Tartu which came to help, but 17 other ships from mostly Holland and Belgium.

Interesting clarification on the reason for the explosion. I forget if this is covered in the Soviet sources. The presence of other ships was noted somewhere (though not the exact number). I'm under the impression they mostly stood by while the Tartu did the riskiest work.


Could anyone recommend some major Soviet-Estonian newspapers to check for further information? I can't imagine any of them are digitized, but I might be able to obtain hard copies.

[Auke]

Originally Posted by RedMaestro2

Could anyone recommend some major Soviet-Estonian newspapers to check for further information? I can't imagine any of them are digitized, but I might be able to obtain hard copies.

I'm thinking of Rahva Hääl (Рахва хяэль / хяял), the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Estonia from 1940 to 1995. Some time ago I researched an OG3 to an Estonian, and according to the citation the deed was also described in Rahva Hääl. I would have loved to find that issue...

[RedMaestro2]

Originally Posted by Auke

I'm thinking of Rahva Hääl (Рахва хяэль / хяял), the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Estonia from 1940 to 1995. Some time ago I researched an OG3 to an Estonian, and according to the citation the deed was also described in Rahva Hääl. I would have loved to find that issue...

Thanks, Auke! :thumbsup

[GabrielMk3]

The other ships were small boats like trawlers and assisting towing-boats, yes.

I can pay to access the archives properly... But... :D

Just found out that EastView got a Pravda archive, so you'd probably be able to milk quite some information out of it, if you got the cash of course...

[RedMaestro2]

Originally Posted by GabrielMk3

Just found out that EastView got a Pravda archive, so you'd probably be able to milk quite some information out of it, if you got the cash of course...

Thanks. I've had the complete Eastview archive at hand for a while and listed the relevant sources in post 1.

In other news, I couldn't find anything about this incident in Vedomosti. But that is simply due to the way the gazette is composed/edited.

[GabrielMk3]

Of course! Would be interesting if you actually had the hard copy of the newspaper. I'm too old fashioned in the way I think, lol.

Well well. Some sunny day we'll probably get some more info about this, from the Soviet side.

[RedMaestro2]

Originally Posted by GabrielMk3

Of course! Would be interesting if you actually had the hard copy of the newspaper. I'm too old fashioned in the way I think, lol.

Well well. Some sunny day we'll probably get some more info about this, from the Soviet side.

Ah, gotcha, good idea! Any recommendations for a source?

[GabrielMk3]

Hm...

I think it'll be very difficult to get any online-sources... I believe the best way to find info, is to get someone in Russia to dig for us, like Marc for example, because of the lack of online digital archives.

[Keith]

Rahva Hääl is not digitized at all...go the the state library in Tallinn, and they have all the old issues bound. These make for very interesting reading if you have a free afternoon.

Keith