Ingemar Lundgren
04-25-2006, 01:37 AM
Posting an old article about CF Liljevalch. This is my "house wreck" being located outside my home town and the wreck responsible for making me pursue Trimix diving. We where searching for two summers and finally found it in 1995 at 65m depth. After a couple of "interesting" air dives we quickly decided to seek out Trimix training with Jarrod Jablonsky in Florida. We regularly run charters on this wreck. It is a great dive with lots of interesting details. Keep in mind that some of the information in this article is out dated.
C F L I L J E V A L C H
Russian submarine sinks Swedish merchant ship, 33 dead
On August 14,1942 the Swedish merchant ship CF Liljevalch departed from the Swedish port Luleå heading for Germany loaded with 6000 tons of iron ore, vital to the German war machinery.
Russian submarines operated along the Swedish coast with the mission to intercept and cut the iron ore shipment to Germany.
http://www.ulfman.se/bstd/images/projects/ratten.JPG
CF Liljevalch was leading a convoy of 16 ships of Swedish, German, Finish, and Dutch nationality. The convoy was escorted by 3 Swedish destroyers and a patrol ship. At 14.50 on the 18th of august 1942 the convoy passed "Kungsgrundet" (a beacon far out in the open sea) outside the town of Västervik. They were well inside Swedish territorial waters.
Captain Bramfjord who had been a captain for 35 years was just about to be served tea in the saloon when suddenly the aft lookout, Nils Gustafsson reported "torpedo on port side!".
The pilot immediately ordered full starboard rudder, but it was to late, the ship was hit by two torpedoes. The first under the bridge and the second between the 3rd and 4th cargo space. The explosions did terrible damage on the ship. Iron ore and wood fragments shot to the sky and rained down on the ship and killed many. The steamer CF Liljevalch sunk in 30 seconds.
Only seven of the 40 men aboard could bee saved. Many had been dragged down by the powerful vortexes that appeared when the ship sank. Sailor Nils Gustafsson survived and could witness one of the worst ship catastrophe that had hit Sweden during the war. The escorting destroyers immediately ordered the convoy to halt and a smoke screen was laid around the ships. About 40 depth charges was droped in the area. The squadron leader stated in his report that he had sunk a submarine. But after researching Russian war archives that has been recently available it is evident that the Russian submarine L3, that claimed the sinking was in active service at many occasions later in the war.
CF liljevalch rests in 70 meters of water about a mile from where the Swedish ship SS Luleå was sunk only a month earlier. The Russians had at that time sunk a total of 4 ships claiming 69 casualties. At the end of the war the figure would rise to 203.
Swedish divers finds Liljevalch at 70 meters depth in the Baltic sea
A group of divers from Baltic Sea Technical Divers (BSTD) found the wreck of the Swedish merchant ship CF Liljevalch in the summer of 1996. The wreck stands upright at a depth of 70m about 3 miles south of "Kungsgrundet" outside the town of Västervik.
119
The search commenced the whole summer and with the help of a sidescan sonar they were at last able to locate the wreck. Several dives have already been made, with the purpose to explore and photograph the wreck. Nothing has been salvaged and there is no future plans on salvage either. She lies prettiest as she is, says one of the divers Sigmund Lundgren. The wreck will be used for technical diver training (Trimix). Trimix divers from abroad is invited to come dive this pristine and beautiful wreck next summer. "It felt awesome to reach the deck of Liljevalch after descending 65 meters trough the dark", says Richard Lundgren who was the first man on the wreck. "It's like a time machine, suddenly you are transported 50 years back in time, and you can feel that a terrible catastrophe has occurred here". One can clearly see the damage caused by the torpedoes, midships the iron plating is torn apart and the aft section is broken in two, rising up at an angle of 45 degrees from the bottom. Penetration has sofar been limited to the Captains saloon and a few cabins.
120
Because of the depth the ship lies in total darkness even during daytime. But with good lights the visibility is over 20m wich is considered good in the Baltic sea. There is a thin layer of very light silt on the wreck so it is vital to employ cave diving techniques if the visibility is to remain good. The wreck is remarkably intact inspite of over 50 years on the bottom, probably due to the depth and the constantly low water temperatures. The divers diving the wreck are trained in USA by IANTD instructors Jarrod Jablonski and Tom Mount. They are diving on mixed gas down to 100 meters in the Baltic sea. In warmer water with better visibility it is possible to reach even deeper depth with sustained safety, says one of the divers Ingemar Lundgren, but the conditions here is not comparable with for example Florida rather more like the Great Lakes.
118
Bottom times has typically been 30 min. with maximum depth between 50 and 60 meters. Decompression time is around an hour using oxygen and EAN50. Water temperature at depth is 3C, and the divers are therefore using Argon for suit inflation. "Right now we are video documenting the wreck wich takes a lot of time due to the relatively short bottom times and sometimes poor weather conditions", say the divers from BSTD.
Photos by Ingemar Lundgren
Text by Anders Jallai
C F L I L J E V A L C H
Russian submarine sinks Swedish merchant ship, 33 dead
On August 14,1942 the Swedish merchant ship CF Liljevalch departed from the Swedish port Luleå heading for Germany loaded with 6000 tons of iron ore, vital to the German war machinery.
Russian submarines operated along the Swedish coast with the mission to intercept and cut the iron ore shipment to Germany.
http://www.ulfman.se/bstd/images/projects/ratten.JPG
CF Liljevalch was leading a convoy of 16 ships of Swedish, German, Finish, and Dutch nationality. The convoy was escorted by 3 Swedish destroyers and a patrol ship. At 14.50 on the 18th of august 1942 the convoy passed "Kungsgrundet" (a beacon far out in the open sea) outside the town of Västervik. They were well inside Swedish territorial waters.
Captain Bramfjord who had been a captain for 35 years was just about to be served tea in the saloon when suddenly the aft lookout, Nils Gustafsson reported "torpedo on port side!".
The pilot immediately ordered full starboard rudder, but it was to late, the ship was hit by two torpedoes. The first under the bridge and the second between the 3rd and 4th cargo space. The explosions did terrible damage on the ship. Iron ore and wood fragments shot to the sky and rained down on the ship and killed many. The steamer CF Liljevalch sunk in 30 seconds.
Only seven of the 40 men aboard could bee saved. Many had been dragged down by the powerful vortexes that appeared when the ship sank. Sailor Nils Gustafsson survived and could witness one of the worst ship catastrophe that had hit Sweden during the war. The escorting destroyers immediately ordered the convoy to halt and a smoke screen was laid around the ships. About 40 depth charges was droped in the area. The squadron leader stated in his report that he had sunk a submarine. But after researching Russian war archives that has been recently available it is evident that the Russian submarine L3, that claimed the sinking was in active service at many occasions later in the war.
CF liljevalch rests in 70 meters of water about a mile from where the Swedish ship SS Luleå was sunk only a month earlier. The Russians had at that time sunk a total of 4 ships claiming 69 casualties. At the end of the war the figure would rise to 203.
Swedish divers finds Liljevalch at 70 meters depth in the Baltic sea
A group of divers from Baltic Sea Technical Divers (BSTD) found the wreck of the Swedish merchant ship CF Liljevalch in the summer of 1996. The wreck stands upright at a depth of 70m about 3 miles south of "Kungsgrundet" outside the town of Västervik.
119
The search commenced the whole summer and with the help of a sidescan sonar they were at last able to locate the wreck. Several dives have already been made, with the purpose to explore and photograph the wreck. Nothing has been salvaged and there is no future plans on salvage either. She lies prettiest as she is, says one of the divers Sigmund Lundgren. The wreck will be used for technical diver training (Trimix). Trimix divers from abroad is invited to come dive this pristine and beautiful wreck next summer. "It felt awesome to reach the deck of Liljevalch after descending 65 meters trough the dark", says Richard Lundgren who was the first man on the wreck. "It's like a time machine, suddenly you are transported 50 years back in time, and you can feel that a terrible catastrophe has occurred here". One can clearly see the damage caused by the torpedoes, midships the iron plating is torn apart and the aft section is broken in two, rising up at an angle of 45 degrees from the bottom. Penetration has sofar been limited to the Captains saloon and a few cabins.
120
Because of the depth the ship lies in total darkness even during daytime. But with good lights the visibility is over 20m wich is considered good in the Baltic sea. There is a thin layer of very light silt on the wreck so it is vital to employ cave diving techniques if the visibility is to remain good. The wreck is remarkably intact inspite of over 50 years on the bottom, probably due to the depth and the constantly low water temperatures. The divers diving the wreck are trained in USA by IANTD instructors Jarrod Jablonski and Tom Mount. They are diving on mixed gas down to 100 meters in the Baltic sea. In warmer water with better visibility it is possible to reach even deeper depth with sustained safety, says one of the divers Ingemar Lundgren, but the conditions here is not comparable with for example Florida rather more like the Great Lakes.
118
Bottom times has typically been 30 min. with maximum depth between 50 and 60 meters. Decompression time is around an hour using oxygen and EAN50. Water temperature at depth is 3C, and the divers are therefore using Argon for suit inflation. "Right now we are video documenting the wreck wich takes a lot of time due to the relatively short bottom times and sometimes poor weather conditions", say the divers from BSTD.
Photos by Ingemar Lundgren
Text by Anders Jallai