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CONVOY HX 161
Departed Halifax on Nov. 21-1941 and arrived Liverpool on Dec. 6 (Arnold Hague's "The Allied Convoy System" gives 42 ships). |
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Received from Ted Agar (His source: A diary. Although the information is usually incomplete, I consider this diary valuable and important in and of itself and, therefore, I've transcribed it and kept it "as is" on this website, and have added further details and/or corrections from other sources separately, rather than within the form itself [except for cargoes], as seen below).
Cargoes have been extracted from a document received from D. Kindell, based on the late Arnold Hague's database - see his listing for HX 161 at Ships in all HX convoys. Br=British, Am=American, Bel=Belgian, Norw=Norwegian, Pa=Panamanian, Can=Canadian, Sw=Swedish. |
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11
Empire Lugard grain (Br) |
21
* |
31
British tanker |
41
Sicilian Prince general (Br) |
51
* |
61
British tanker |
71
Lochkatrine refrig. - general 12 passengers (Br) |
81
Pacific Pioneer general 4 passengers (Br) |
91
Gloucester refrig. - general 3120 mails (Br) |
12
British freighter (listing) |
32
* |
42
British tanker |
52
Emma Alexander* ballast (Br - Ex Am) |
62
Floristan general 1516 mails 4 passengers (Br) |
72
British tanker |
82
Carelia aviation gas (Br) |
92
Devis general 189 mails (Br) |
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13
Banffshire general (Br) |
23
* |
33 Havprins gas oil (Norw) |
43 British tanker |
53 Nueva Andalucia petrol (Norw) |
63 Solfonn gas oil (Norw) |
73
* |
83 British tanker |
93 British freighter |
14 Boringia general (Br) |
24 Norw. tanker |
34
* |
44 Norw. tanker |
54 Jean Jadot general (Bel) |
64 Norw. freighter |
74
* |
84 Havkong gas oil (Norw) |
94
* |
15 City of Bombay general 1439 mails (Br) |
25 Cold Harbor** general (Pa) |
35 Dramatist general (Br) |
45 Vav petrol (Norw) |
55 British freighter |
65
* |
75 Vaalaren general 12 passengers (Sw) |
85 Bic Island general (Can) |
95
* |
16 | 26 | 36 | 46 | 56 Athelchief petrol (Br) |
66 | 76 | 86 | 96 |
* Emma Alexander became the British Empire Woodlark shortly thereafter.
** Cold Harbor (from HX 160) returned to port, later joining the slow Convoy SC 57 on Nov. 28. The Rescue Vessel Copeland was also with this convoy for a while - see details further down on this page. Additionally, Ted's diary names the following, but pendant numbers not known at the time (they are given in A. Hague's database below): Comparing the above with Arnold Hague's information for HX 161 at Ships in all HX convoys, we find that the un-named ships in Ted's list were Otherwise, his information agrees on the whole with what can be found in Ted's list, but with the addition of several ships in stations where none are listed in Teds diary, namely |
The ships left port in the following order: The first ship to leave at 09:56 was the British Manchester Citizen, then British Prestige, Pacific Pioneer, Empire Lugard, Carelia, Gloucester, an unnamed British freighter, the Norwegian Stigstad, another unnamed British freighter (with the notation "lumber, listing to starboard"), the Norwegian Havprins and Solfonn, an unnamed British tanker, and unnamed Norwegian freighter followed by a British freighter, the British Empire Flamingo (see note in above table), an unnamed British tanker, the Norwegian Vav, British Dramatist, Belgian Jean Jadot, British Sicilian Prince, an unnamed freighter and 2 unnamed tankers (all British), Bic Island, Lochkatrine, the Norwegian Nueva Andalucia (had been scheduled for the previous convoy HX 160, but did not sail), an unnamed British tanker followed by an unnamed Norwegian tanker and another British tanker, Panamanian Cold Harbor (had also been scheduled for HX 160), 2 unnamed Norwegian tankers, the British Boringia (originally Danish, under Ministry of War Transport), Floristan, Swedish Vaalaren, Icelandic Godafoss, British Banffshire, unnamed British freighter, then Devis, American Emma Alexander (British flag), British City of Bombay, Athelchief (this was formerly the Norwegian Kongsten). The Norwegian Havkong was the last ship to leave at 14:45. Arnold Hague ("Convoy Rescue Ships 1940-1945") says the Rescue Vessel Copeland was with this convoy from Dec. 3 till Dec. 6-1941 (to Clyde). She had been with ON 39 from Clyde to detachment Nov. 22-29, on her 13th voyage as rescue vessel (having started her service as such on Jan. 31-1941, Convoy OB 280). NOTE: According to Robert Cressman's "The Official Chronology of the U.S. Navy in World War II", the American destroyer Du Pont (DD-152) was damaged in a collision with Thorshøvdi on Nov 24-1941, convoy HX 161 (scroll down to the relevant date at the link to "Hyperwar" below. I've been told that she was one of 5 ships in HX 161 that had their names removed from the convoy document; the others being the Norwegian Taborfjell and the British Clan Macilwraith, Empire Gem and Donacilla, but as can be seen above, they all appear to have joined). According to her Voyage Record for this period, Thorshøvdi put back to Halifax on Nov. 28, departing again already on Dec. 3; in fact, she's listed in Convoy HX 163. Thorshøvdi may have been repaired before joining HX 163. One piece of information that supports this to a certain extent, though the dates don't quite fit, is a report written by the captain of Daghild, saying that this ship took some cargo from Thorshøvdi because the latter had to go in for repairs after a collision in convoy - see my text for M/T Daghild. A. Hague names the following escorts (extracted from this list of HX convoy escorts, also received from D. Kindell; dates are European style, day/month/year): Related external link: To the next HX convoy in my list HX 162 |
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