Posted: 15/04/2025
This year marks the bicentennial of the founding of heritage maritime law firm Thomas Cooper in 1825. To celebrate this occasion, lawyers from Penningtons Manches Cooper are, for each month of 2025, chronicling a different standout case conducted by Thomas Cooper across its two centuries of English legal practice.
The fourth instalment in this series focusses on the World War II case of the Josefina Thordén [1945] 78 Ll.L.Rep 197, which concerned the salvage of a Finnish tanker attacked by the Luftwaffe on 19 May 1941. The Thomas Cooper offices at 21 Leadenhall Street, London, which it had occupied since 1878, were also destroyed by enemy action that year. But the firm was keeping calm and carrying on from new premises at 71 St Mary Axe.
In August 1939, Germany and Russia signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact, including a secret agreement that neutral Finland was Russia’s for the taking. There followed the Winter War in which a tiny but fiercely patriotic Finnish military repelled the million-strong Red Army. Britain was a supporter of Finland and was planning a major operation to help, which could have dragged the Soviet Union into war with Britain. Instead, Stalin opted for peace in March 1940 on terms that involved Finland ceding 10% of its territory. To this end, Soviet fatalities had numbered 273,000, exceeding Finland’s losses by more than tenfold.
After Germany invaded Norway in April 1940, Finland was less able to trade with Britain and became commercially closer to Germany. By April 1941, the axis powers had conquered most of western Europe and were clearly winning, and Finland’s foreign policy had completely inverted. Desiring to recover its territory, Finland entered into talks with Germany over military aid, as it became apparent that the axis powers, emboldened by Russia’s lacklustre performance, were planning a surprise invasion of the Soviet Union.
At 128.82m length and 6,549grt, Josefina Thordén was Finland's first ocean-going tanker. On 28 April 1941, the vessel departed Texas with a cargo of 9,765 mt of petrol bound for Petsamo, which was then part of Finland. Large blue cross flags were painted on the ship’s deck and sides, and the vessel held access permissions with both axis and allied powers.
In the Atlantic, Josefina Thordén was intercepted by patrol vessel HMS Northern Chief and ordered to Thorshavn in the British-controlled Faroe Islands for inspection. While en route, the tanker was bombed by a German Focke-Wulf aircraft and set afire amidships. The crew abandoned ship, following which the plane fired on the lifeboats, killing 15 men. The remaining 18 crew members, some with severe burns, were rescued by HMS Northern Chief.
The ship was towed to Kirkwall by Admiralty tugs, where she arrived on 3 June. Patrols were maintained around her due to her dangerous condition. Then, on 11 June, the British agents for the ship and cargo were notified that the Admiralty was bringing a salvage claim and was seeking £60,000 security.
From 12 June, ships were no longer permitted to sail from British ports to Petsamo. Then on 22 June, Operation Barbarossa commenced with the axis powers invading the Soviet Union, including German troops stationed in Finnish Lapland. The UK government gave instructions that all Finnish ships intercepted at sea must be sent to British ports and Finnish ships in UK-controlled ports should not be permitted to sail. Finland declared war on the Soviet Union on 25 June following a Soviet air raid on Finnish cities.
At Kirkwall, discharge of the petrol from Josefina Thordén was completed by 29 June but the Admiralty gave instructions that the vessel should be held until security was given. In early July, the agents sold the cargo to the UK Petroleum Board for £51,929 7s. 8d. They then put up £51,925 security in the form of a Barclays bank guarantee on 11 July 1941 and agreed to arbitration.
The owners asked the Ministry of War Transport to charter Josefina Thordén for the duration of the war, to take the vessel to the UK for repairs, and deduct the repair cost from the charter hire. They also asked for a guarantee that the vessel would not be seized in prize and was informed the matter would be given consideration. The Admiralty began putting Josefina Thordén into a seaworthy condition for towage.
The owners repeated their request on 18 July. No fixture was made, but it was agreed the vessel would be towed to Newcastle-upon-Tyne for repairs. They were informed that it was impossible to guarantee that the vessel would not be taken as prize.
An Admiralty requisition order was made for Josefina Thordén on 23 July, but was released on 2 August when the UK government declared that Finland must be regarded as enemy-occupied territory and instructed UK Customs Officers to seize all Finnish ships.
Josefina Thordén left Kirkwall for the Tyne on 8 August in tow of Admiralty tugs and arrived on 10 August. She was seized in prize on 12 August and repaired thereafter.
The arbitrator awarded the sum of £30,000 on ship and cargo, having found that the services rendered in bringing the ship and cargo into Kirkwall constituted salvage for the benefit of the ship and cargo owners. Furthermore, the bank guarantee took the place of the salved property so as to form a fund out of which the salvage services could be remunerated.
The arbitrator also found that the Admiralty had taken possession of the ship and cargo as a derelict and had not asserted any right of possession contrary to the lawful owners.
The shipowners disputed the portion of the award attributable to the ship on grounds that they had acquired no benefit from the services rendered.
Mr Justice Atkinson upheld the arbitrator’s award. As the salvor of a derelict, abandoned by her crew, the Admiralty had acquired a possessory lien over Josefina Thorden, which could be enforced by proceedings in rem against the vessel.
The Admiralty would also acquire a right of action in personam against the owners, provided some property or interest was saved for their benefit. Aggrieved that the salvors and prize takers were one and the same, the shipowners claimed to have not benefitted at all; ‘[s]o far as they are concerned, they say that the ship might just as well have been allowed to become a total loss and have gone to the bottom.’
The judge observed that a claim in rem arises where the property in question has benefitted, i.e. is worth more as a result of the services performed, whereas a claim in personam arises once the property is back in the possession of its owners.
In either case, the shipowners had put up security to procure the release of the vessel and this security took the place of the ship. From 11 July 1941, the owners were in control of the vessel, they had an insurable interest, and were negotiating for its future use. Simply, ‘[i]f a shipowner gets his ship released by paying security to meet a claim for salvage services, all risks attaching to the ship are his. The salvor’s rights against the ship are exchanged for their rights against the security.’
Thereafter, it was not possible for the salvage claim to be defeated by anything that happened to the ship. The seizure in prize was irrelevant, just as the claims would have been unaffected by any other war risk.
The judgment does not mention that the vessel had already suffered another war risk. On 6 April 1943, Admiralty transport vessel Josefina Thordén struck a British mine at the mouth of the River Thames and was a total loss, along with the lives of 15 merchant navy seamen.
The leading textbook Kennedy and Rose on the Law of Salvage, 10th Edition, cites the Josefina Thordén for the proposition that ‘it is not only the property salved which is chargeable with salvage, by an action in rem, but every person with an interest in that property whose interest is preserved by the salvage service is liable in personam to contribute.’
© 2025 Penningtons Manches Cooper LLP.
All rights reserved.
Website design by Frontmedia / Dynamic Pear
Penningtons Manches Cooper LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales with registered number OC311575 and is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under number 419867.
Return to news headlines 
