The twin screw tanker whaler Svend Foyn is seen here entering the dock. The ship was built at Haverton Hill shipyard and owned by Hualfangerakstieselskapet. The keel was laid on 15th August 1930 and the ship was launched on 28th May 1931. 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
My grandfather served on this ship before the war.
I was aboard cutter ALGONQUIN the nite of the Svend Foyn rescue…and recently (3/09) sent a complete story of the rescue as seen by our crew to the Norwegian newspaper Nationen…would be happy to share the event with anyone writing me.
My father Bill Clements was on the Svend Foyn when it struck the iceberg. He was 17 years old at the time. He survived this ordeal and died 13 years ago. He mentioned on several occasions that he was picked up by a coast guard cutter but never mentioned the name. I would love to find out more about the incident and the people involved in the rescue.
I was gunner”s mate aboard CGC ALGONQUIN and was part of rescue of survivors of the Svend Foyn after she hit an iceberg off Greenland. I would dearly love to be in contact with the then 16 yr old who was aboard Svend Foyn….he will surely remember the rescue and the sea conditions at the time.
In 1939 my father (Robert Lie) was a 16 year old serving as a waiter to the officers on the Svend Foyn. They had a whaling station on South Georgia and at the outbreak of WW2.and subsequent invasion of Norway the ship docked in London where he joined the Norwgian Army and he was posted to Doune in Scotland where they trained for the invasion of Norway by the Allies.
This whaling tanker was named after Sven Foyn (1809-1894) the Norwegian sea captain who is viewed as the “father” of modern whaling. In the mid 19th century he was the first to use steam powered vessels as whale catchers, this enabled him to mount the powered harpoon on the bow of his ships. Whaling ceased during W.W.II and this vessel was assigned to convoy duties. She was sunk in the Atlantic in March 1943, not by a U-boat, but after hitting an iceberg whilst en route from New York to Liverpool.