In 1895, Nordenfjeldske Dampskibsselskab got their first steamship built specifically for Coastal Express traffic. She was built at Trondhjem’s mechanical workshop and was named DS Erling Jarl after Erling Skakke (1115-1179), earl of Trondheim, and father of King Magnus Erlingsson (1156-1184).
SS Erling Jarl sailed under NFDS’s chimney mark until the ship ran aground and sank in Børøysundet while northbound in January 1941. One person died in the sinking.
After the sinking, it was decided that the ship should be raised, and the wreck was sold to Erling Sandnes in Bodø. The ship was repaired and given the new name SS Bodø. The year was now 1942 and there was a great shortage of Coastal Express ships, as a result of the ravages of war. Ofoten Dampskibsselskab did not own a single ship in Coastal Express traffic at this point. They chose to rent the SS Bodø from Erling Sandnes, staff her, decorate the chimney with their shipping company badge and put her back on the route. This gave the ship a renewed identity as a Coastal Express ship, and Ofoten Dampskibsselskab got on the lee despite the lack of ships.
During the war, the Norwegian money lottery was very popular. The lottery was established in 1912. For a long time it was the only legal way to gamble in Norway. You could buy lottery tickets in the store and draws were made every month in the capital. In the entire history of the Norwegian Gambling Lottery, as far as we know, there is only one time that the lottery could not be carried out, and that was in 1943. All the tickets from Northern Norway were loaded onto SS Bodø and placed in the safe in the mail cabin on board, southbound.
The tickets never made it to Oslo.
On 27 February 1943, SS Bodø ran aground, this time north of Børøysund, and sank in deep water. This time, the ship stayed at the bottom of the sea. It was not until 1960, 17 years later, that she was raised and scrapped.
In the postal safe they found the tickets from the Norwegian money lottery, almost entirely intact.
Sources:
Bakka, Dag Jr. Livslinje og eventyrreise Historien om hurtigruten. Bodoni. 2017
Mentzoni, Steinbjørn Krigen sett med barneøyne Oppvekst i Sandnessjøen 1940-1945 … og litt mer Gaveca 2018