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.

By looking at some of the convoys for which I have a cruising order, for instance HX 229, it should be possible to visualize what this convoy looked like.
Note that a couple of the ships in this convoy are also listed in the westbound ONS 7 (see also the westbound Convoy ON 181).

The stations in parenthesis show the stations of the ships that were later detached to proceed in a fast portion - see Notes.

Notes:
Rescue Vessel Perth was on her 20th voyage as such, having started this voyage from Clyde with the westbound Convoy ON 187 on June 1-1943 (to Halfiax June 13), returning to the U.K. with HX 245 from Halifax June 25, to Clyde July 6.

Commodore F.L. Hubbard R.N.R. was in Erin, Vice Commodore was G. R. Owen, captain of Trojan Star, Rear Commodore, captain of Laguna.

91 ships - Average speed: 9.9 knots.

The following ships dropped out:
Tide Water - left convoy in fog with engine room defects without permission at 06:00 on June 25 (40 41N 66 28W) and proceeded to Halifax.
Frederick Douglass - left for Halifax without orders with defects at 12:00 on June 26 (42 48N 60 48W), as the Halifax ships were taking their stations.
Roxane - Detached for Halifax with engine room defects at 17:00 on June 26 (42 50N 59 50W).
Joseph E. Johnston - detached for St. John's with leaking boiler tubes at 10:15 on June 28 (45 09N 50 56W).
Esso Bayonne - detached for St. John's with badly leaking boiler tubes at 15:30 on June 29 (47 27N 45 32W).
Bonaire - Dropped astern with engine room defects at 08:00 on July 1 in 53 23N 38 22W (Note that the Commodore gives the position as 52 23N 38 22W in his info about the escorts). Signal was later received from S.O.E. at 12:00 on July 2 that she had been ordered to stragglers' route.

The Commodore says
that station keeping was very good throughout with very little straggling and such as there was, was due to defect.

Smoke appears to have been a great problem, especially from Trojan Star who received a lot of complaints - Page 2 has misc. reports on this.

Weather was fine, with slight seas and little swell, though with the usual fog across the Newfoundland Banks. Aircraft carrier HMS Chaser and the M. A.C. Empire Macalpine were in company throughout the voyage, and daily patrols were carried out, the reports from HMS Chaser very helpful. It appears that the joining of this Empire ship (Halifax section) came as a complete surprise to the Commodore, as no instructions concerning her had been received upon departure New York. Shortly after she joined a signal was received from the senior officer of the escort saying she was fully operational, carrying Swordfish. Empire Macalpine acted under orders of Chaser for operational flights, and in other respects under Commodore's orders.

Collisions:
According to the Commodore, a collision took place between the ships in station 64 and 73 in dense fog during the night of June 27/28, in or near the 6th column. He does not mention the names of the ships, but unlesss stations had altered somewhat during passage, they were Clausina (64) and the Norwegian Skaraas (73). The Commodore adds that No 73 sustained damage to her port bow and lost an anchor, while 64's starboard quarter was damaged. Both ships were able to proceed at convoy speed, all damages being above the water line. However, Empire Ibex was not so fortunate; when she collided with Empire Macalpine as the latter was landing aircraft at 17:20 on July 1. The M.A.C. was damged, while Empire Ibex sank on July 3 (53 36N 36 16W), her entire crew having been transferred to Rescue Vessel Perth the day before. See report on this incidence on Page 2.

Commodore's suggestions:
"Fine weather was mainly experienced, but it was obvious that in bad weather signalling would become extremely difficult. There are long delays in getting signals answered from near ships of the outer columns, and unless the weather is very clear it is impossible for the Commodore to see if his signals are answered. I consider that in these large convoys there should be repeating ships say 34 and 94 in the 3rd and 9th columns with extra signalmen. Commodore would pass signals direct to these ships who would be responsible for a group of ships in the port and starboard quarters of the convoy. The worst periods is when passing changes of destination and re-grouping ships for detaching. It is a terribly long process at present." He considers that all ships should be fitted with R/T (radio telephone) and a constant watch kept when weather conditions are bad. However, he sees no extra difficulty with manoeuvrability in large convoys, but "I should always as far as possible make my alterations of course by pre-arranged signals and if the alteration is over 30° the wheel is carried out in 2 alterations".

Ships forming up HX 245F - Stations are indicated in parenthesis in the table above:
In accordance with C.-in-C. Western Approaches' orders, the following ships were detached as a fast section at 12 knots at 11:00 on July 4 in 56 58N 20 10W (note that the Commodore gives the position as 46 58N 20 10W in his info about the escorts below):
The Commodore's ship Erin, HMS Chaser, Empire Macalpine, Lochmonar, Ferncourt, Erria, Metapan, Curacao, Perth (R.V.), Roger Williams, Norvinn, Cepnee, Johan de Witt, George W. Campbell and Skjelbred.
However, 2 of the ships were ordered back to HX 245 that same day, being unable to keep up the new speed. They were Roger Williams, at 14:00 (she had a broken pump), and Norvinn at 16:30.
Vice Commodore for this fast portion was in Ferncourt, and Rear Commodore in Lochmonar (probably their captains), and they were escorted by Ottawa, Dianthus and Arrida.
The Clyde portion of HX 245F (Ferncourt, Perth, Johan de Witt and Skjelbred) was detached at 08:30 BST on July 6 in 55 06N 5 45W, while the Mersey portion (Lochmonar, Empire Macalpine, George W. Campbell) was detached at 14:45 BST on the same day at K1 buoy.

Escort Vessels:

Western local:
HMCS St. Clair (S.O.), Midland, Mulgrave joined at 17:30Q on June 23 in 40 05N 73 32W, and HMCS Transcona joined at 09:00 on June 24 in 39 53N 70 35W.
They all left at 08:15P on June 29 in 46 30N 46 27W.

Mid Ocean:
HMCS Snowberry joined at 23:00P on June 28 in 45 43N 48 06W
HMCS Kootenay (S.O.), Ottawa, Wetaskiwin, Dianthus, Kitchener all joined at 07:45P on June 29 in 46 26N 46 30W, and HMCS Arvida joined at 06:00P on July 1 in 52 09N 38 50W.
HMCS Kitchener detached to screen Bonaire at 08:00P on July 1 in 52 23N 38 22W - rejoined at 24:00 on July 2 in 56 22N 30 15W.
Dianthus, Ottawa and Arvida detached with HX 245F at 11:00N on July 4 in 46 58N 20 10W.
Dianthus and Arvida left HX 245F at 05:30 BST on July 6 in 55 25N 06 27W, while Ottawa remained until 10:00 BST and left in 54 52N 5 30W.

Support group (E.G. 5):
HMS Nene (S.O.), HMCS Port Arthur, HMS Tweed and HMCS Calgary joined at 15:15P on July 1 in 53 07N 36 57W.
The support group, and HMCS Snowberry, parted company at 15:45 on July 2 in 55 31N 32 02W.

HMS Chaser detached from convoy to fly off aircraft and then to proceed to Clyde at 06:00 BST on July 6 in 55 23N 06 20W. At 09:34 BST on July 6 Empire Macalpine flew off her aircraft.

Daily positions of convoy at 08:00 BDST available on request - my contact address is at the bottom of this page.

Related external links:
Liberty Ships - Some of the ships listed as American in the table above were Liberty ships. This website lists them alphabetically. (As will be seen, quite a few of them had just recently been delivered).
This site has more on the the "Fort" ships mentioned in this convoy (again, some of them had been delivered the month before).
Empire Ships listed in alphabetical order. The site also has a section listing the Liberty ships.

Back to Convoy Index