Barøy ~ 13 September 1941

The SS Barøy was a 424 ton steel-hulled steamship delivered from the Trondhjems mekaniske Værksted shipyard in Trondheim in 1929. She had been ordered by the Norwegian shipping company Ofotens Dampskibsselskab for the local route from the port city of Narvik to the smaller towns of Lødingen and Svolvær. After the company suffered ship losses in the 1940 Norwegian Campaign Barøy was put into Hurtigruten service on the Trondheim–Narvik route. 

After surviving the German invasion on April 9, 1940 and the 62-day long Norwegian Campaign that followed it, Barøy was set to assist in the transportation of released German prisoners of war from the Norwegian prisoner of war camp on the island of Skorpa in Kvænangen, Troms. Barøy carried out the mission together with Finnmark Fylkesrederi's steamer Tanahorn, the latter carrying some 200 Germans to Tromsø and Barøy taking the remaining 260 to the same port city. Barøy continued serving in Nordnorge's place during the German occupation of Norway, Nordnorge having been sunk by Royal Navy warships during the Norwegian Campaign after she had been pressed into service as a covert troopship by the invading German forces. Barøy was considered too small a vessel for the longer distances, such as the Hurtigruten route between Bergen and Narvik, and her prolonged service on the route was an emergency measure.

A year and a half after the German invasion Barøy was still sailing the Hurtigruten route as the fifth weekly northbound departure from Trondheim to Narvik. In the early hours of September 13, 1941 she was on her way northwards, and had recently called at Skutvik on her way to Tranøy on Hamarøy. On board the ship was a crew of 26, as well as 105 passengers, 37 of whom were German soldiers. The German troops on board were members of the 197th Infantry Division.

At 0350hrs on September 13 Barøy was struck by a torpedo some 2 nautical miles (3.7 km) west of Tranøy Lighthouse and sank within minutes. The torpedo ripped open the ship's hull, quickly flooding her with water, and immediately knocking out the electrical power on board. Due to the ship sinking so rapidly there was no time to lower the lifeboats, and the people on board had to jump into the water in order to survive. At the time of the sinking the water temperature was 7–8 °C. 

Nazi propaganda posters attempted
to link Norwegian King Haakon VII
to the sinking of civilian
Norwegian ships.

The torpedo that sank Barøy had been dropped by an 817 Squadron Fairey Albacore, one of seven that attacked shipping in the Vestfjorden area that morning. At the time of the attack Barøy had been sailing with full lighting due to work being carried out on the deck cargo. The wreck of the ship rests at depth of around 980 ft.

The first ship to discover the sinking of Barøy was the 762 ton Norwegian cargo ship SS Skjestad, which passed the scene of the sinking on her way southwards and rescued 19 survivors, as well as recovering 15 bodies. The survivors of the sinking were set ashore at Svolvær. Seventy-seven Norwegians died in the attack, including seven children and 21 women. Fifty-nine of the 68 Norwegian passengers were lost, while 18 of the 26 crew members died. Of the 37 German soldiers only two survived.

One of the consequences of the sinking of Barøy, together with the sinking of fellow Hurtigruten ship SS Richard With off Rolvsøy in Finnmark later the same day, was that the Hurtigruten ships would no longer sail further north than Tromsø. Between Tromsø and Hammerfest the route was taken over by smaller replacement ships.

The Nazi regime in Norway used the attack on Barøy, together with other attacks on civilian Norwegian shipping, in propaganda against the Allies. On May 20, 1944 the Nazi-controlled Norwegian Postal Service issued a series of postage stamps commemorating three of the most infamous cases of Norwegian ships sunk by Allied attacks. Barøy was the subject of the 10 øre stamp, while SS Sanct Svithun and SS Irma were depicted on the 15 øre and 20 øre stamps respectively. The shipwreck stamps were designed by German-born Norwegian Nazi propaganda artist and war reporter Harald Damsleth.