Site Map | Search Warsailors.com |Merchant Fleet Main Page | Warsailors.com Home 

Available Discussion Forums

CONVOY HX 2

Convoy HX 2 Cruising Order
Departed Halifax on Sept. 23-1939 and arrived Liverpool on Oct. 10 (Arnold Hague agrees with 15 ships).
Transcribed from original documents received from Roger Griffiths (his source: Public Records Office, Kew).

Nationalities of the ships have been added with the help of "The World's Merchant Fleets 1939", R. W. Jordan.

Br=British, Fr=French
1
2
3
4
5
6
11
Corner Brook
newsprint
Liverpool
(Br)
21
Vandyck*
general - apples
Liverpool
(Br)
31
Manchester Port
general
Manchester
(Br)
41
San Mateo
wheat
Le Havre
(Fr**)
51
Beaverburn
general
London
(Br)
61
Comanchee
lub. oil
London
(Br)
12
Blairmore
lumber
Glasgow
(Br)
22
Wanderer
general - sugar
Liverpool
(Br)
32
Saltwick
wheat
Falmouth
(Br)
42
Charles L-D.
wheat
Falmouth
(Fr)
52
Languedoc
crude
Le Havre
(Fr)
62
Tower Field
newsprint
London
(Br)
13
23
New York City
metals - foods
Newport
(Br)
 33
Kurdistan
wheat
Falmouth
(Br)		 43
Mill Hill
coke
Rouen
(Br)		 53 63
* The name of the ship in station 21 is hard to desipher - looks like Van Dyck; probably a misspelling of the British Vandyck. According to A. Hague, she was requisitioned as ABV on arrival. See his listing for HX 2 on the page listing ships in all HX convoys.
** There was a French and 2 American ships by this name - I would imagine this would have been the French one.


Notes:
Commodore A. H. Walker was in Manchester Port, Vice Commodore W. Stanfield in Beaverburn, Rear Commodore in San Mateo.

Mill Hill broke down at 18:30 ADT on Sept. 24 and proceeded at 03:30 on Sept. 25, 1 TBD stood by her.

Blairmore left during the night of Oct. 1/2 in approximate position 50 03N 26 50W, reason unknown.

Commodore's comments on station keeping in convoy:
Fair, considering the lack of experience. Improved daily, but there was always a general tendency to open up at night. During the bad weather the smaller, low covered ships found much difficulty. S/S Saltwick was often unable to zig-zag continuously. Visual signalling also improved towards the end. The need of daylight flashing apparatus was very apparent. W/T signals made, but one ship's receiver oxcillated(? hard to desipher) frequently.

Comments on ability to keep speed:
For first 36 hours ships burning Sydney, Cape Breton coal were bad, Saltwick, Kurdistan and Mill Hill particularly.

Escorts: Saquenay, Fraser, St. Laurent, York (the latter parted company in 42 10N 54 55W).
Escorts on arrival: Versatile, Warwick, Jackal and 1 more.

According to A. Hague, the escorts were (received from D. Kindell; dates are European style, day/month/year).
Fraser - From 23/09/39 to 25/09/39
Skeena - From 23/09/39 to 25/09/39
St. Laurent - From 23/09/39 to 25/09/39
York - From 23/09/39 to 25/09/39

Related external link:
HX and HXF Convoys - In chronological order.

Back to Convoy Index

The next HX convoy to sail was HXF 2
To the next HX convoy HX 3 & HXS 3


   Be   
C
   D   
E
F
G
   He   
I
J
   K   
L
M
N
O
   PQ   
R
   So   
   To   
U
V
W
   Ø   

 Site Map | Search Warsailors.com |Merchant Fleet Main Page | Warsailors.com Home