Inner Herøy Church
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Not many people know that the Norwegian Seaman’s Mission, or the Norwegian Church abroad, began its work in Tjørvåg in Herøy in Sunnmøre. Sevrine Klungsøyr visited Bergen in the summer of 1864 and discovered that there was a need for a Norwegian Seaman’s Mission. Sevrine was quick to act, and when she returned home, women gathered for the very first meeting of the Norwegian Seaman’s Mission, before the organisation was officially founded. With her husband and five sons at sea, Sevrine knew all about what it meant to have her loved ones absent – and what it meant to lose them. Three of her sons died at sea. Outside Inner Herøy Church is a memorial to Sevrine Klungsøyr. Another memorial has been erected to commemorate the sea as a hard master and the tragedy in the Arctic Ocean. 79 people from Troms and Sunnmøre died when seven fishing ships sunk in Vestisen in a violent hurricane in 1952. One of the ships was MS Pels from Tjørvåg. The ships went down, and the entire crew disappeared. The church also has a monument dedicated to those who gave their lives for their country in World War II.