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

Crossed out ships did not sail.

A 1 form is not available to me and, therefore, station numbers are not known.

Notes:
Commodore I. W. Whitehorn R.N.R. was in Abraham Lincoln, Vice Commodore was Captain W. H. P. Jackson of Mataroa. The Commodore says that his ship was "excellent in all respects".

According to the Commodore's notes for HX 255, this convoy had 42 ships from New York, 13 from Halifax, minus 1 straggler for a total of 54. The information in the table above was transcribed from the Advance Sailing Telegram (except for Lady Rodney and Melrose Abbey, which are not mentioend in the AST), and as can be seen the Halifax section has more than 13 ships, and the New York portion has less than 42.

Average speed: 9.47 knots. (Daily positions are available on request via contact address provided at the bottom of this page).

The Commodore states
that station keeping and signalling were "generally very good", with British Pride and Empire Waimana judged excellent at both, and Walter Hines Page excellent at keeping station.

Thick fog was encountered Oct. 3, 7, 9 and 10.

Lady Rodney parted company for her destination St. John's at 10:00Z Sept. 8 in 47 23N 48 00W, with escort.

Chatham C. Lyon proceeded by stragglers route at 21:00Z Sept. 11, 54 12N 29 45W.

At 18:00 on Sept. 12 in 54 31N 24 21W, the following 8 fast ships were sent on ahead (with Pictou and Erne):
Mataroa, Pacific Exporter, California Express, K. I. Luckenbach, Erria, HMS Engadine, Tortuguero, Leonardo da Vinci.

At 13:00 Sept. 14, in 55 15N 12 04?W Pan Maryland was detached on orders from C-in-C, W.A.

At 15:00 Sept. 14 in 55 17N 12 41W, the following ships proceeded to Loch Ewe (with Burnham):
British Pride, Dettifoss, Albert Gallatin, Henry Watterson, Richard Ewell, Empire Flint, Josiah Quincy, Stephen B. Elkins, Harry A. Garfield, Frank B. Kellogg.

Melrose Abbey was detached for Clyde at 10:40 Sept. 15 in 55 09N 05 49W. She was on her 9th voyage as Rescue Vessel, having started this voyage from Clyde on Aug. 14-1943 with the westbound convoy ON 197 to Halifax Aug. 25, returning with HX 255 from Halifax to Clyde Sept. 4 - Sept. 15-1943 ("Convoy Rescue Ships 1940-1945", Arnold Hague). Her 8th eastbound voyage had been with Convoy HX 247.

At 21:40 Sept. 15 in 53 44N 05 03W, the following ships proceeded to Mersey:
Agwidale, British Tradition, Empire Waimana, Dageid, Vav, Joseph Wheeler, John Bascom, Empire Cobbett, Esso Bayonne, Comanchee, Skaraas, Hubert Howe Bancroft, George Weems, Thomas B. Reed, Abner Doubleday, Empire Knight, Montevideo.

Escorts:
Western Local (from New York): HMCS Columbia (S.O.), HMCS Kamsack, HMCS Blairmore, HMCS Battleford - parted company at 10:00 Sept. 8 in 47 23N 48 00W.

Ocean Escort (C3 Group), joined on above date and position: HMCS Saskatchewan (S.O.), HMS Burnham, HMCS Skeena, HMS Erne, HMCS Pictou, HMCS Mayflower, HMCS Sorel, HMS Fusilier, HMS Bustler (rescue tug).
Erne and Pictou parted company with fast ships at 18:00 Sept. 12. in 54 31N 24 21W.
Burnham parted company with Loch Ewe section at 15:00 Sept. 14 in 55 17N 12 41W.
Saskatchewan, Skeena, Sorel, Mayflower and Bustler parted company at 06:00 Sept. 15 in 55 36N 07 09W.
PC 74 joined when the above escorts left at 06:00.
Fusilier parted company at 21:40 Sept. 15 in 53 44N 05 03W (presumably with Mersey section?).
Air escort during daylight from Oct. 2 to Oct. 9.

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.
Empire Ships listed in alphabetical order. The site also has a section listing the Liberty ships.

Just for info, I want to mention that some of the ships named in this convoy started to make voyages to Murmansk shortly afterwards. The Arctic convoys, which had been suspended since March-1943, started up again on Nov. 1 with RA 54A from Kola, consisting of ships that had spent the summer in Archangel, and/or had been employed in trade in the area or had otherwise been supporting Russian activities in the Northern seas. (Mike Holdoway's website about the Arctic Convoys has the names of the ships in this convoy. Escort vessels had previously gone to Russia between Oct. 20 and Oct. 28 in order to bring these merchant ships back to the U.K. - Operation FR). The first convoy from Loch Ewe to Murmansk in the 1943 winter season was JW 54A, which left Loch Ewe on Nov. 15, followed by JW 54B on Nov. 22 - again, see Mike's website. See also my own Arctic Convoys section; by studying the latter page, as well as my various HX convoy pages and Mike's site, more information on a specific ship's voyages can be derived.

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