Convoy HX 208 - warsailors.com

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CONVOY HX 208
Departed New York City on Sept. 17-1942 and arrived Liverpool on Oct. 2.
Arnold Hague's "The Allied Convoy System" gives 59 ships in this convoy.

Up until this time, Halifax had been the western terminal for the HX convoys, but from HX 208 and onwards, the HX series started out from New York City.

The Commodore's report on passage is available on Page 2

Transcribed from several documents received from Roger Griffiths - His source: Public Records Office, Kew. The ships are listed in the order in which they appear on the various documents. ~~Crossed out~~ ships did not sail, underlined ships returned to port. A 1 form is not available to me and, therefore, I don't know the station numbers of these ships. Note that Halifax is listed as destination for some ships - however, I'm not sure whether this was their destination to start with, or whether they were just sent there due to inability to keep up with convoy speed. (See the report on Page 2). For info, some of the ships in this convoy had previously arrived the U.S. with the westbound Convoy ON 123, others with ON 125.
Ship	Nationality	Cargo	Destination	Remarks
Alexander Hamilton	American	steel - army stores	Liverpool	–
Metapan	"	steel - general	Immingham	–
Reinholt	Norwegian	steel - valuable food	Liverpool	–
Francis Scott Key	American	steel - general	Barry Dock	–
William M. Stewart	"	steel - tanks	Avonmouth	–
Pan Maine	"	Tanker B	Glasgow	–
Trontolite	British	Tanker W	Halifax	See report on Page 2
Ocean Vanquisher	"	steel - general	Immingham	–
Dalhanna	"	steel - general	London	–
~~Southern Empress~~	"	Tanker B	Clyde	Joined HX 209 Returned to port To SC 104 (Oct. 3) - sunk Oct. 13 (see text for Fagersten)
Fort Ellice	"	general	Swansea / Southampton	–
Cairnvalona	"	general	Glasgow	Commodore Vessel
Tetela	"	general	Avonmouth	–
Empire Silver	"	Tanker W	Stanlow	–
Kaimata	"	general	Avonmouth	–
Hilary	"	general	Liverpool	–
Egyptian Prince	"	explosives - general	Cardiff	–
Ocean Wayfarer	"	general	Avonmouth	Put into Halifax - see report Page 2 Sailed in HX 209
Dorcasia	"	Tanker W	Stanlow	–
Empire Garrick	"	Tanker W	Stanlow	–
Inverilen	"	Tanker W	Belfast / Heysham	–
Regent Panther	"	Tanker W	Milford Haven	–
Kaikoura	"	refrig. - wheat	Cardiff	–
Port Hugh	"	refrig. - general	Swansea	–
Sovac	"	Tanker B	Mersey	–
Athelprincess	"	Tanker molasses	Birkenhead	Returned to port (Halifax) - see report, Page 2 Joined SC 102 (see Ships in all SC convoys)
~~Empire Heywood~~	"	general	Milford Haven f. o.	Joined SC 102
Fort Amherst	"	general	Halifax	–
Ocean Vagabond	"	none given	Loch Ewe f. o.	Put into Halifax - see report Page 2 Sailed in HX 209 (torpedoed - damaged)
Peshawur	"	none given	Avonmouth
Norsol	Norwegian	Tanker W	Swansea	–
Anna Odland	"	ore - wheat	Swansea	–
~~Pan Delaware~~	American	Tanker B	Avonmouth
Esso Charleston	"	Tanker B	Clyde	–
Mobilgas	"	Tanker W	Avonmouth	–
~~Bernhard~~	Norwegian	none given	Newport	See Bernhard
Antietam	American	Tanker B	Scapa	–
Joining from Halifax?? (see notes below) - Sailed Sept. 20-1942
~~Potter~~	Panamanian	general	Liverpool	From HX 207 Joined HX 209 - returned to port Joined SC 103 (see Ships in all SC convoys)
Kaia Knudsen	Norwegian	Admiralty Tanker B	Rosyth	From HX 207
Stuart Prince	British	general	Liverpool	–
Tucurinca	"	general	Avonmouth	–
John A. Brown	"	Tanker W	Avonmouth	From HX 207 Fell astern, rejoined - See Page 2
Fort Chipewyan	"	grain - timber	Glasgow	From HX 207
Herbrand	Norwegian	Tanker B	Clyde	From HX 207
Cyrus Field	British	Cable Ship	Halifax?	Appears to have joined from New York, not Halifax(?) See report, Page 2
Parismina	American	none given	Reykjavik	Sent to join SC 101, Sept. 23 (Page 2)
Benledi	British	"	Liverpool	–
Seminole	American	"	Reykjavik	Sent to join SC 101, Sept. 23 (Page 2)
Waterland	Dutch	"	Liverpool	–
Fernmoor	Norwegian	"	Liverpool	Joined from New York See Fernmoor and her Voyage Record
Angelina	American	"	Liverpool	Lost touch - See Page 2
Vaalaren	Swedish	"	Liverpool	–
Temeraire	Norwegian	"	Liverpool	–
Pandorian	British	"	Manchester	–
Vestfold	Panamanian	"	Clyde	Norwegian managers Listed on V-page
Contessa	Honduran	"	Avonmouth	Lost touch - See Page 2
Mobile City	American	"	Liverpool
The following ships are listed on a separate document - sailing date and port not given:
Aruba	Swedish	no cargo given	Avonmouth	–
Abangarez	American	"	Clyde	–
James Monroe	"	"	Manchester	–
Maaskerk	Dutch	"	Liverpool	–
Thomas Stone	American	"	Belfast Dock	–
Jamaica Producer	British	"	Avonmouth	–
John Marshall	American	"	Liverpool	–

Notes:
The ships that I've listed as joining from Halifax are said to have sailed on Sept. 20 and have been given the designation HHX 208 in the Advance Sailing Telegram, which I understand to mean that they originated in Halifax. However, the commodore only mentions a few of them as joining from Halifax in his report, so I'm not entirely sure that they all originated there - see Page 2.

Information on escort vessels can also be found on Page 2.

Continue to the Commodore's report on Page 2
I've also added an interesting letter from a friend of the Commodore's,
a scathing (and amusing) attack on the "leaders" of the U.S. and England

Back to Convoy Index

To the next HX convoy in my list HX 209

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