Transcribed from documents received from Tony Cooper - His source: Public Records Office, Kew.

The majority of these ships were between 10 000 gt and 20 000 gt or more (carrying troops/personnel).
(For info, there was also a slower convoy, MKS 26).

I had my 9th birthday in the Orduna, Commodore Ship of this convoy. My mother and I had boarded at 24 hrs notice in Durban on 7 Nov 43, whence we had been evacuated from the Middle East in Nov 40. My father joined the vessel in Port Said and I was boarded out with other families in their cabins! I did not see the reason for this.....  my brother was conceived somewhere near Sicily.

Our only stop was at Port Augusta in Sicily. No shore leave was given as the place was in ruins and typhus was rife (or so I believe; as a child I just picked up the gossip).

I remember standing between a RN officer, also a passenger, and my father, a serving major and listening and watching. The naval man was able to read the signals. Our attention was drawn to the Monarch of Bermuda close to us. She lost way and fell behind while the adults gave a shocked commentary of the event. The Monarch actually collided with another vessel and fell out of station and the convoy. I believe her steering failed. I think there was damage but few, if any casualties.

The interpretation of signals, as remembered by this then small boy, was that the vessel would limp back to Malta. I recollect my father saying something  like..."that is goodbye to their chance of Christmas in Blighty".

I hope this might be of some interest. I had only just begun to have a look at some of my childhood experiences to pass on to grandchildren when I ran across your piece. Sadly I am very bad at computer work and may have to write to the Imperial War Museun or maybe Greenwich?

Thank you for the work you have done and the interest you have generated.

Best  Wishes

Tom  Ridgway

Related external link:
SL, HG and MKS and MKF convoys - In Chronological order. The MKS and MKF convoys start on this page for 1942, while the 1943 convoys are listed on this page.

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