Coastlines 1/1250 CL-M527A Jan Wellem the German Navy Auxiliary Tanker at Narvik in 1940

Jan Wellem was a Whale Factory Ship which had been created in the mid-1930s from the German freighter Wurttemburg of 1922. The hull was extended upwards by another deck and the deeper hull was given a knuckle at the bow reminiscent of those on the hulls of British Cruisers of the time. There was a ramp at the stern leading to the flensing deck and a tunnel through the port side of the central superstructure and the hull contained the tanks for whale oil. In 1940 these tanks held fuel for the Destroyers boilers but the pumps to get the oil out of the tanks to the destroyers were not powerful enough to refuel the Destroyers quickly and after the long voyage up the Norwegian coast from Germany all of the warships were very short of oil and only two of the Destroyers had been refueled by the time that the four British H-class Destroyers under Warburton Lee attacked. Jan Wellem survived the First Battle of Narvil with relatively little damage and was moved to the quay under the iron ore hoppers behind a sunken merchant ship so that she was protected during the Second Battle of Narvik.

This model represents the Jan Wellem in 1940 on her way to Narvik and during both the naval battles.