Sørsandfjord

Sørsandfjord August 2002
Copyright © 2002, Anne Olsen-Ryum

Sørsandfjord is a small and beautiful fjord situated on the outer side of Sørøya. At the mouth it's about 2 kilometres broad, it's about 1 km broad at the bottom and it's 1,5 kilometres long.

If you want to visit Sørsandfjord, drive from Hasvik past Breivikbotn to Breivik. Drive some metres past the crossroads to Breivik, and you will come to a parking place at the right side of the road. It's a marked path in a beautiful landscape over the mountain to Sørsandfjord.

Sørsandfjord was preserved as a sanctuary in 1991. The purpose with the preservation is to protect the very special dunes and the vegetation in the fjord. Because of this it's not allowed to build fires and collect wood in the dunes. Nor is it allowed using motorized vehicles, and new vegetation must not be planted.

This drama took place in Sørsandfjord in April 1942:

March 28. 1942 the M/S "Raceland" was sunk by the Germans at sea north of the county Finnmark. The boat was part of the Allies Murmansk-convoies and had a crew of 45 men. 30 of the men vanished without leaving a trace. The remaining 15 suffered in a lifeboat in rough weather for a week, before they drifted ashore in Sørsandfjord on the outer side of Sørøya.

They were found by Katrine and Adolf Olaussen from Breivik who were in Sørsandfjord one of the first days in April 1942 in order to fetch supplies of hay. Then 8 of the 15 men in the lifeboat were dead, and seven were only just alive. Two of the crew, a Dane and a Norwegian, were found in the hay. They had all along belived that they were on Russian soil, and at first they refused to belive that they were actually landed in a fjord at Sørøya in Finnmark. The two men were not alone. Six others were lying round a fire at the beach, one was dead and the five survivors were in a very bad state. One of them, The Norwegian Jens Jensen, had during the week on board the lifeboat frozen both feet. In his sleep at the beach he had put his numb feet into the fire, and both legs were like burnt-out coal.

The dead person lying by the fire, was a young man from Canada, and he was about 16 - 17 years old. He looked like he was sleeping, and the peaceful young face made a strong impression on everyone. It was said that this young boy had been an encouragement for the other men during the week on board the lifeboat. He had sung and been in a good mood till the last. He was alive when they reached Sørsandfjord, but he died by the fire after the fatiguing experiences.

Among the survivors in Sørsandfjord there were two Norwegians, two Danes, one Russian, one Spanish and one Estonian. It was Harry Dahl with his boat "Heimdal" from Sørvær, who fetched the survivors from Sørsandfjord. His crew was Konrad Dahl and Per Hustad. In Sørvær the survivors were carried ashore and placed on shakedowns on the floor in an empty house in the centre of Sørvær. People gave them bedclothes and food, and Magda Dahl who was a midwife, took care of medical first aid. After a few days a German ship came and fetched the seven survivors. The German marines gave them medical treatment on board; they got decent beds and were taken care of by German Medical Service. All of the survivors were sent to a prison camp in Tromsø.

The eight dead men from the lifeboat were fetched from Sørsandfjord a few days later. This time it was Trygve Pedersen with his boat "Liljen" from Sørvær, who took the trip to the fjord, and Per Hustad was his crew.

You can see more photos from Sørsandfjord here!

Source: The war at Sørøya 1940-45
(published by Hasvik Kommune in 1995)