Convoy HX 70 - warsailors.com

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CONVOY HX 70
(Will be updated - please compare with A. Hague's listing for this convoy at ships in all HX convoys. See also HX escorts).

Departed Halifax on Sept. 1-1940 and arrived arrived Liverpool on the 16th.
Arnold Hague's "The Allied Convoy System" gives 42 ships in this convoy.

Transcribed from several documents received from Roger Griffiths (Advance Sailing Telegrams and A 1 forms) - His source: Public Records Office, Kew. The ships are listed in the order in which they appear on the various documents.
Ship	Nationality	Cargo	Station	Destination	Remarks
Bermuda Section (BHX 70) - Sailed Aug. 31
Cape of Good Hope	British	lead - lumber	–	Sharpness	From HX 69
Carelia	"	Tanker W	–	Clyde f. o.	–
Daytonian	"	steel - lumber - wood pulp - general	–	Liverpool?	–
Ensis	"	Tanker W	–	Milford Haven	–
Hird	Norwegian	general	–	Manchester	Sunk by U-65 on Sept. 15 See * in notes
Historian	British	general	–	Manchester	–
Hopetarn	"	lead - lumber - spelter	–	Cardiff	–
Kalypso Vergotti	Greek	phosphates	–	Garston	From HX 69
Regent Lion	British	Tanker W	–	Belfast / Avonmouth	–
~~Saltwick~~	"	sugar	–	Belfast f. o.	–
Theodoros Coumantaros	Greek	sugar	–	Liverpool / Clyde	–
Halifax Section
Bosworth	British	steel - scrap	22	Glasgow	From HX 69
~~Breedijk~~	Dutch	general	–	Glasgow	–
~~Hilda Knudsen~~	Norwegian	Adm. tanker B	–	Clyde	–
Hilary	British	general	51	Liverpool	–
Lorca	"	steel	32	Hull	–
Monkleigh	"	scrap iron	31	Liverpool	–
Silverelm	"	general	71	Liverpool	–
Royal Crown	"	steel	11	Belfast	–
Helle	Norwegian	pulp wood	42	Barrow	–
Trekieve	British	steel	81	Newport	–
West Harshaw	American / MOWT 1940 *	steel	91	Newport	* Became Empire Oryx later Empire Robin
~~Urla~~	British	steel - lumber	–	London	Listed in HX 72
Coryton	"	steel	12	Hull	–
Stigstad	Norwegian	Tanker B lube oil	72	Manchester	–
Kongsgaard *	"	Tanker B	–	–	* To be held at Halifax (Listed in HX 76)
Bente Mærsk	Danish / MOWT 1940	Tanker B crude oil	61	Manchester	From HX 69
~~Triton~~	Dutch	general	–	Liverpool	From HX 69
~~Empire Caribou~~	British	steel	–	Middlesbrough	From HX 69 To HX 71
Corbis	"	Tanker B fuel oil - diesel oil	41	Mersey	From HX 69
West Kedron	American / MOWT 1940 *	pig iron	82	Swansea	From HX 69 * Became Empire Eland
Topdalsfjord	Norwegian	phosphates	62	Garston	–
Additionally, the A 1 form lists the following ships (none of these ships are included in the Advance Sailing Telegram): Botavon (Br.) in station 21, cargo of steel for Glasgow. Cerinthus (Br.) in station 23, cargo of fuel oil. Falsterbo (Swedish) in station 52, wood pulp for Liverpool. Corvus (Norw.) in station 92, lumber for Newport.
Sydney Section - Sailed Sept. 1 (some names are hard to decipher - hence my question marks)
Arosa	Norwegian	pit props	A 61	–	–
Lechistan	Polish	pit props	A 62	Ardrossan
Alderamin	Dutch	general	A 81	Liverpool	–
Augvald	Norwegian	grain	A 52	Newcastle	–
Beaverford?	British	general	A 41	Cardiff	Vice Commodore
Bengore Head?	"	general - grain	A 91	Dublin	–
Europa	Danish / MOWT 1940	general	A 71	Liverpool	–
Rupert de Larrinaga	British	grain	A 51	Manchester	–
Additionally, the A 1 form lists the following ships, none of which are included in the Advance Sailing Telegram for the Sydney section: In station A 72 - looks like Manchester Division (Br.), general cargo for Manchester. In station A 92 - looks like Kalliopi S (Greek) with grain for Belfast - cancelled from Convoy SC 3. In station A 31 - looks like Danby or similar, steel and lumber for London.

Notes:
Commodore was in Hilary.
Commodore to Clyde: In Botavon.
Commodore to Milford Haven: In West Harshaw.

Ocean Escort: HMS Montclare.

* According to my information for Hird, she left Bermuda in convoy on Sept. 7 (not Aug. 31), but lost sight of the convoy due to a fire on board, and never rejoined. See text for Hird

Narrative of voyage by commanding officer of HMS Montclare, dated Sept. 5
Unfortunately the times in the narrative are illegible, so I've only included the details (wherever I've started a new line, a different time is given in the report):

Sept. 1
- Sailed.
- Rounded Red Buoy and set course 116 degrees, 12 knots.
- Cerinthus and Bente Mærsk (both delayed sailing) rounded Red Buoy.
- In station with convoy, speed 6 knots. All closed up except Cerinthus and Bente Mærsk both in sight astern.

Sept. 2
- Thick fog.
- Fog cleared. All ships present except Coryton. Convoy badly out of station. One ship (Corvus) of column 9 was in column 3 and several others two to four columns out. Consider fog signals not made sufficiently frequently.
- Thick fog. D. R. Noon position: 43 39N 60 45W.
- Visibility 3 miles; increased to 7 knots.
- Thick fog.
- Course was altered by sound signal 20 degrees to port in succession.
- Course altered 20 degrees to port by sound signal. Course signalled as 073 degrees (C O).

Sept. 3
- Fog cleared.
- Fog shut down again.
- Fog lifted.
- 8 knots.
- 8 1/2 knots.
- West Kedron and Cerinthus not with convoy.
- Position 17 miles astern of Position 4. Visibility 8 miles.
- Altered course 097 degrees.
- Speed 8 knots. Noon position: 44 01N 57 19W. Visibility 10 miles.
- Patches of fog started.

Sept. 4
- Patches of fog, thick at times.
- Fog cleared - proceeded at 14 knots to search north of convoy for SHX convoy (this was the Sydney section).
- No sign of SHX 70. Ordered Vice Commodore to make callsign at 13:00 (15:00?) GMT(?).
- Rejoined convoy.
- Unable to tell whether bearing 106(?) degrees or ? degrees. As Commodore is sure it was ? degrees, proceeded ahead of convoy at 14 knots. (Noon position is given, but unable to decipher).

The convoy arrived rendezvous on Sept. 13.

More details on all the Norwegian ships named in this convoy can be found in the alphabetical ship lists of this website.

Back to Convoy Index

To the next HX convoy in my list HX 71
(Reports only)

Aa–Al	An–Ar	As–Av	Ba	Be	Bi–Bl	Bo	Br–Bu	C	D
E	F	G	Ha	He	Hi–Hy	Hø	I	J	K
L	M	N	O	PQ	R	Sa–Sc	Se–Sj	Sk–Sn	So
Sp–St	Su–Sø	Ta–Te	Th–Ti	To	Tr–Tø	U	V	W	Ø

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