Sigurd Wathne - Danygraig Cemetery

Sigurd Wathne

Sigurd Wathne born 12^th February 1898, Copenhagen, Denmark.  He was goalkeeper, for Norwegian football team, SK Brann.   He also played for the national football team.  The team also played during the 1920 Antwerp Olympics, the team reaching the quarter finals.  In the first round, Norway beat Great Britain 3-1, and the Quarter-finals, Norway was beaten by Czechoslovakia 4-0.  Belgian had won the Gold Medal.  It was the only time that an international final was abandoned.  Czechoslovakia walked off the field at the 40^th minute to protest the officiating the Belgium leading 2-0 after the Czech left back was ejected for assault. 

Wathne was capped 14 times.

During the Second World War, Wathne, severed as 1^st Engineer with the Norwegian Navy.  He sailed D/S Risoy




D/S Risøy

D/S Risøy the 823 grt cargo ship, was built 1918 by Cochrane & Sons Shipbuilders Ltd., Selby. 

March 1942, D/S Risøy, under the command of Captain Eldor Nordhus was on a voyage from Southampton to Swansea carrying a cargo of 450 tons of scrap iron, leaving Southampton on the 21^st.  She was in a coastal convoy escorted by a destroyer and 3 armed trawlers.  The first attack had taken place off Portland and a tanker had been hit and damaged. The captain's report says the convoy was north of Trevose Head that evening when another 3 planes came in low and were met by fire from all the ships. 1 aircraft was hit and landed in the sea near one of the escorts, while the other two took off, only to come back twice during the next half hour

D/S Risøy was hit by a bomb in No. 3 hold, blowing the hatches off. After having searched in vain for the missing 1^st Engineer Sigurd Wathne, the crew went in the port lifeboat and rowed over to the escorting trawler HMS Ruby (T 24) which picked them up. The trawler intended to attempt saving her, but she sank, stern first, before they could do so. It later turned out that the engineer had been blown overboard, picked up by the British S/S Dunrange and taken to a hospital in Swansea, where he died on 26^th March.

Having been transferred to another vessel, the survivors were landed in Swansea on 21^st March, where an inquiry was held on 1^st April 1942 with the captain, the 1^st and 2^nd mates, the 2^nd engineer, Able Seaman Gård (helmsman) and Ordinary Seaman Devold (lookout) appearing.
  

Sigurd Wathne grave
Danygraig Cemetery, St. Thomas, Swansea

Sigurd Wathne was buried at Danygraig Cemetery, St. Thomas, Swansea  31^st March 1942