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

Crossed out ships did not sail, underlined ships returned to port.

As can be seen from the station numbers, this convoy had 13 columns and 7 rows.
By going to one of the convoys for which I have given a cruising order (for instance, SC 140, which had 16 columns) it's possible to see what this convoy looked like.
Also, a blank convoy form is available for download from Mike's Holdoway's website (just add 1 column).

For info, some of the ships in this convoy later returned to the U.S. with Convoy ON 202 / ONS 18 on Sept. 15.

MOWT=Ministry of War Transport

Notes:
Commodore was Captain S. N. White R.N.R. in Consuelo, Vice Commodore was the captain of Empire Heritage, Rear Commodore in British Patience. The Commodore judges his ship to be very suitable as Commodore's vessel, "in all matters of accomodation - signalling and navigational facilities - DF and Echo Sounder".

The convoy had 86 ships.
Average speed: 8.7 knots.

Daily positions of convoy are available on request via the address provided at the end of this page.

The Rescue Vessel Dundee was on her 1st voyage as such (requisitioned Apr. 18-1943), having started this voyage from Clyde with the westbound Convoy ON 196 on Aug. 9-1943 - to Halifax Aug. 20, then returned with HX 254 from Halifax Aug. 29, to Clyde Sept. 12.

The following ships left the convoy:
Kenmar left New York but did not form up with convoy - returned to New York with engine defect (listed in slow convoy SC 142 Sept. 15).
Esso Bayonne returned to New York with engine defect at 23:59Z on Aug. 28 in 40 8N 68 5W (listed in Halifax section of the next convoy).
Empire Bunting proceeded to St. John's at 18:00Z on Aug. 31 in 43 38N 56 10W, with engine defect causing reduced speed and very heavy smoke (oil fuel).
Orville Harden reduced to 6 knots on one engine at 11:15Z on Sept. 5, proceeding on stragglers route, escorted by trawler Grenadier, 51 22N 37 56W.
B. H. Latrobe was diverted to Belfast with defective degaussing at 16:00Z on Sept. 9, remaining with the main body of convoy instead of going to loch Ewe.

Ships in the convoy repeatedly complained about Belgian Captain for not repeating flag signals in spite of general signals made on two occasions stressing that all ships repeat all flag signals. Reprimanded by lamp. San Eliseo and G. Harrison Smith, however, were both "excellent signalling ships and kept exceptionally good station".

Mijdrecht collided with James I. McKay during the night of Sept. 8/9. The latter was damaged and proceeded to Clyde.

Escorts:
HMS Roxborough, HMCS Dunvegan, Saskatoon, Kenogami, Shediac
Ocean Escort: HMS Hotspur, Churchill, Nasturtium, Trillium, HMCS Collingwood, Orillia, HMS Grenadier, Bombardier.

Related external links:
Liberty Ships - Quite a few of the ships listed as American in the table above were Liberty Ships. This website lists them alphabetically. As will be seen, several of the Liberty Ships in this convoy had just recently been delivered, some that very month (Ezra Weston, James I. McKay), while others were "veterans" from the previous year.
Empire Ships listed in alphabetical order. The site also has a section listing the Liberty ships.
Eagle Oil Tankers - This site has info on the "San" ships, with an alphabetical list of casualties from the various "San" ships, as well as survivor reports. Additionally, the site has a lot of useful information on where the misc. Admiralty records are kept - they can be found on this page index.

Back to Convoy Index