Capt. Knut O. Bringedal (right) – another shot of my favorite merchant skipper. His ship the O. A. Knudsen was the first ship sunk in the immediate Bahamas during World War II, on 6 March 1942.
Bringedal and his men – at great risk to their personal safety – returned to their stricken ship four times, the last time all of them were burned and injured, the Captain in the ribs, ankle, arms and face.
If there was one Allied skipper that I would have liked to have served under it would have been Bringedal. He was so ill on the return from Nassau on the Ena K. that he relegated his first mate, Jacob Tvedt, to be in charge of the men for the trip to Miami.
But that didn’t stop Bringedal from writing thank-you letters to the Duke of Windsor, the Nassau Hospital (Dr. John Merrill Cruikshank), the Trinity Methodist Church (Rev. Clarke), the Nassau Tribune, the Imperial Order of the Daughters of Empire (IODE) and others, thanking them for taking care of his men.
Photo courtesy of Kristian O. Bringedal of Uskedallen, Kvinnherad, Norway – direct relative of Capt. Bringedal’s.