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CONVOY HX 122 - Page 2

Back to Page 1 - Advance Sailing Telegram

Convoy HX 122 Cruising Order
Departed Halifax on Apr. 20-1941 and arrived Liverpool on May 8 (Arnold Hague says 27 ships).
Received, with thanks, from Roger Griffiths (his source: Public Records Office, Kew).

Nationalities have been added with the help of "The World's Merchant Fleets", R. W. Jordan.

Br=British, Norw=Norwegian, Sw=Swedish, Da=Danish, Du=Dutch, Pa=Panamanian

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
11
Saganaga
steel - lumber
London
(Br)
21
Antigone
steel
Clyde
(Br)
31
Athelregent
molasses
Greenock
(Br)
41
Tortuguero
general
Liverpool
(Br)
51
Pacific Exporter
grain - general
Liverpool
(Br)
61
Hopepeak
lumber
Mersey
(Br)
71
G. S. Walden
gasoline
Barry Roads
(Br)
81
James J. Maguire
gas - kerosene
Barry Roads
(Br)
91
Moorby
grain
Barry Roads
(Br)
12
Sama
bacon
Loch Ewe
(Norw)
22
Empire Silver
gasoline
Loch Ewe
(Br)
32
Strinda
fuel oil
Clyde
(Norw)
42
Salamis
benzine
Manchester
(Norw)
52
San Delfino
gasoline
Manchester
(Br)
62
Inversuir
gasoline
Manchester
(Br)
72
Saint Gobain *
crude oil
Swansea
(Sw)
82
Strix
benzine
Barry Roads
(Norw)
92
Michalis
wheat
Barry Roads
13
Bornholm
paper - steel
Loch Ewe
(Da)
23
Sveve
fuel oil
Clyde
(Norw)
33
Amberton
grain
(Br)
43
Helgøy
Empire Gannet
sulphur
Liverpool
(Br)
53
Baltrover
Capira *
general
Liverpool
(Pa)
63
Empire Hail *
steel
Liverpool
(Br)
73
Stiklestad
crude oil
Swansea
(Norw)
83
Empire Cheetah
steel
Barry Roads
(Br)
93
Yselhaven
sugar
Belfast
(Du)
14 24 34 44 54 64 74
Brant County
general
Barry Roads
(Norw)
84
Torvanger
grain
Barry
(Norw)
94

Notes:
Commodore P. E. Parker was in Pacific Exporter, Vice Commodore was the captain of Athelregent.
Bristol Channel Commodore: In G.S. Walden.
Loch Ewe Commodore: In Saganaga.

* Operated by a French company.

The Norwegian Helgøy, general cargo for Liverpool, is crossed out from station 43 (sailed in the next convoy, HX 123) and replaced by Empire Gannet, originally in station 42. The latter was replaced by Salamis in station 42.
Baltrover, crossed out from station 53 was bound for Liverpool with a general cargo, replaced by Capira, which was originally in station 52.
Amberton (which is not mentioned in the Advance Sailing Telegram for HX 122) is also mentioned in HX 123, but is crossed out on the form, with a note saying she returned to Halifax.

Note that several other ships were scheduled for this convoy, as can be seen from the Advance Sailing Telegram on Page 1. That page also gives the ships' final destinations, which in some cases are different from those given above.

The convoy had 28 ships, sailing at an average speed of 7.45 knots.

* Empire Hail left at 17:00 on Apr. 25 (45 20N 44 45W) for St. John's, Newfoundland, with fractured main discharge pipe (shows up again in HX 125).
Capira left for St. John's at 12:00 on Apr. 26 with "breakdowns one after another".

Sveve to proceed to Reykjavik at 05:00 on May 4 (62 25N 19 36W).

S.S. Diana and M.V. Ronan joined at 19:00 (zone time) on May 3 for protection on passage from Iceland to England.

When ships started dispersing for ports in the U.K. there were:
1 for Scrabster, 5 for Loch Ewe, 3 for Clyde, 1 for Belfast, 8 for Liverpool and Manchester, and 10 for Barry Roads.

Commodore's comments on station keeping and signalling:
Station keeping "on the whole good. Hopepeak was very erratic as leader of a column (No. 61) but she improved when moved back to No. 62. James J. Maguire (81) and Moorby (91) were also somewhat erratic as leaders of columns, but it was very often difficult for ships to keep down to the low speed the convoy was going when keeping 20 miles ahead of Slow Convoy No. 29. Ships in column were always more than 8 cables apart.
Signalling "on the whole satisfactory. Visual inclined to be slow. Hopepeak was always slow".

On May 6 Strix had difficulty in keeping up a speed of 9 knots, when lying No. 7 in the Barry Roads column, but she kept up all right at 8.8 knots. Convoy also had too ease down for 6 hours on May 5(?) while Empire Gannet made good a boiler room fan defect.

Pacific Exporter (E. O. Evans) proved a very good Commodore's ship in every way, and the captain and officers have been very helpful.
San Delfino and Inversuir (Captain Loraine) were excellent at both station keeping and signalling. Hopepeak (G. Grindrod) was poor at both, being very slow at repeating signals.

Escort Vessels:
HMS Ramillies, from Halifax - left at 19:30 on Apr. 23 in 49 21N(? hard to decipher) 50 40W.
HMAMC Alaunia - left at 11:20 on May 4 - latitude illegible, Long 17 48W.
HMS Bulldog, illegible (possibly Amazon), HMS Broadway, HMS Chesterfield, HMS Hollyhock, illegible (looks like Nigelia), HMS Picotee, HMS Aubretia, HMS Daneman, HMS St. Apollo, HMS Walker, HMS Caldwell, HMS Ramsey, HMS Hydrangea, HMS Honeysuckle, HMS Candytuft, HMS Electra, HMS Escapade.

Iceland escorts* were met at 07:00 May 1 - parted company at 11:20 May 4, 62 29N 17 48W when relieved by Western Approaches Escort. This should, originally, have been (? text missing) but time of R/V was altered, after convoy left Halifax, to 12:00.

* This is typed in red, as are Bulldog, the illegible vessel, Broadway, Chesterfield, Hollyhock, Nigelia, Picotee, Aubretia, Daneman, and St. Apollo, which leads me to believe that these were the Iceland escorts(?).

Air Escort: First aircraft encountered was a Sunderland flying boat, at 07:45 May 2 in - latitude missing - Long. 30 36W and aircraft of different types were in attendance on and off at intervals, during the remainder of the voyage.

More details on all the Norwegian ships named in this table can be found in the alphabetical ship lists of this website.

Related external link:
Empire Ships - Alphabetical list of Empire ships (also, list of ship builders).

Back to Convoy Index

To the next HX convoy in my list HX 123


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