Transcribed from several documents received from Roger Griffiths - His source: Public Records Office, Kew.

Further details have been added with the help of:
"The Allied Convoy System" Arnold Hague
"Axis Submarine Successes of WW II", Jürgen Rohwer
"The World's Merchant Fleets", R. W. Jordan.

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.

For info, some of the ships in this convoy, including some of the escorts, returned with Convoy ON 145 the following month.

† = dead

MOWT = Ministry of War Transport

The following 2 ships are also listed, but I'm not sure which port they originated from (possibly New York City?)

Fairfax, Salinas, Dorchester, Zoella Lykes parted company for St. John's at 15:30 Oct. 21(?) in 47 30N 51 17W (the latter is listed in HX 213, joining from Argentia). The A 1 form gives the date as Oct. 23, while Commodore's notes gives date as Oct. 21 for all these ships - however, he gives the date as Oct. 23 in his log (Page 2).

Notes:
Commodore Vice Admiral W. de M. Egerton was in Jamaica Planter, Vice Commodore was the captain of Abraham Lincoln, Rear Commodore in Southern Princess.

The convoy had 45 ships, sailing in 4 rows, 12 columns, the Commodore saying that "the convoy was formed at my special request in 12 columns. I am firmly convinced that the safest formation for a convoy is when formed with a wide front, and thin in depth. Thus my arrangement for 36 ships would be in 18 columns of 2 each. No difficulty was found in manouvering the larger number of columns, and signals in practise pass outwards quicker than they do from front to rear, as the more ships in the column, the greater the distance between ships, owing to bad station keeping. Guides on the whole keep pretty good station. I would like my next convoy to try a wide front. It also has the advantage that stragglers can be seen at once from the Commodore's ship and checked.

Distance between columns: 700 yards.
Distance between ships in columns: 500 yards.
Average speed: 8.69 knots.

The Commodore adds:
Convoy HX 212 was either sailed from New York 12 hours too early or the rendezvous with Halifax ships was arranged too late. The Convoy's speed had to be reduced over practically the whole distance from New York to the rendezvous in order to avoid being early. It should have been possible for Halifax ships to have made contact on the evening of the 20th between 4 and 5 p.m. local time. I do not think it is a good principle for ships to be at sea longer than necessary in present conditions. I managed to get the original position of rendezvous, which was right off the route, altered, and the time advanced some 3 hours.

Helgøy could barely manage 9 1/2 knots.
Lancastrian Prince whilst a very good guide, should be told her officers must keep a better look out for signals.
Barrwhin stopped to pick up survivors from Frontenac, and I think that, under the conditions of weather prevailing and in view of the fact that a ship had been torpedoed near him in the next line, the conduct of the Master is deserving of the highest praise (Frontenac coninued on her way, but Barrwhin did pick up survivors from Kosmos II, many of whom died when Barrwhin was also lost - see my text for Kosmos II).

It would be a great improvement if a larger number of Masters were able to attend the conference for outward convoys. I would suggest Belfast Lough as a suitable assembly port for Bristol Channel, Liverpool and Clyde portions the conference being helt at Bangore. This would leave only the Loch Ewe portions unrepresented."

Escort Vessels (handwritten -hard to decipher)
Western Local South: HMS Walker, Colombia, Fennel(?) Buctouche, and 1 more illegible.
Western Local North: 44 24N 61 16W, at 09:30 Oct. 21 - Lincoln (S.O.), Digby, and 2 illegible.
Ocean Escort: 47 30N 51 17W, at 15:30 Oct. 21 - USS Campbell, USS Badger, HMS Dianthus, HMCS Rosthern, HMCS Ville de Quebec, HMCS Summerside, HMCS Trillium, HMCS Alberni.

External links related to the text on this page
HX-212, 26 - 29 Oct 1942
Allied ships hit by U-boats - Uboat.net's section for all torpedoed allied ships. Use the search features to find more details on the ships hit in HX 212.

The history of USS Campbell - Includes quite a bit of details on events in Convoy HX 212.

Norwegian casualties / Sourabaya - Commemorations at the Memorial for Seamen in Stavern, Norway, which says that Oskar Arnold Dalen died following a war related accident in Liverpool in Nov.-1940, while the other 2 died in a "war action". No date is given for their demise, but I believe they died when she was sunk. (Sourabaya was managed by Chr. Salvesen & Co., Edinburg).

Liberty Ships - Some of the American ships mentioned in this convoy (including some of the cancelled ones) were Liberty Ships, this website lists them all in alphabetical order.
Empire Ships - Also in alphabetical order
This site has more details on Ocean Courier and Fort a la Corne (a warning: lots of pop ups).

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