Ships sailing from:
L=Liverpool, M=Milford, Bel=Belfast, G=Clyde, A=Aultbea, F=Fleetwood, O=Oban.

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

For info, some of the ships in this convoy had previously arrived U.K. with Convoy HX 150, others with HX 151 (see also HX 148 and HX 149).
A few of them later went back with HX 160 on Nov. 15 (compare these w/Arnold Hague's listings at Ships in all HX convoys).

Br=British, Norw=Norwegian, Du=Dutch, Po=Polish, Am=American, Pa=Panamanian, Ru=Russian, Sw=Swedish.
T=tanker, CAM=Catapult ships.

Cairnesk
Montreal
(Br)

Mirlo
New York?
(Norw)
See Notes

Bretwalda
Mobile
(Br)

Coimbra
Philadelphia
(Br)

Rowanoke**
(Br)
See also Notes

As mentioned the information in this table comes from original convoy documents from the Public Records Office. When comparing it with what can be found in the late Arnold Hague's listing for this convoy at Ships in all ON convoys (received from D. Kindell), it'll be noticed that he has several of the ships in other stations than what is given above. Also, according to him, Hel did sail, bound for Iceland, but he has not mentioned Finlande and Skjold - instead he has them both in Convoy ON 27. Finlande is said to be a British trawler.
Pacific Star's destination has been given as River Plate
Rowanoke is spelt Roanoke (and he has given her station 34, American), bound for Philadelphia
He says Tuscan Star was bound for Aruba
Stary Bolshevic is spelt Stary Bolshevik
He has also included Port Alma in this convoy (not included in the original document), but see Convoy ON 30.

The cancelled Empire Lugard is listed (by A. Hague) in Convoy ON 28, as is Langleecrag, but the latter returned to port. She shows up again in Convoy ON 31, together with Dean Emery.
Clearpool is listed in Convoy ON 27, while British Faith shows up again in ON 30 (link above), and City of Norwich in ON 32.

Zamalek was on her 12th voyage as Rescue Vessel, joining ON 26 from Clyde - detached off Iceland on Oct. 20, then returned to Clyde with the eastbound Convoy SC 49, Oct. 22–Oct. 27-1941 (this info from "Convoy Rescue Ships", Arnold Hague).

ON 26 had 37 ships, 29 of which were still present at disperal.

The Milford ships rendezvoused at 07:00 on Oct. 15, the Clyde ships at 07:45 that same morning, Pacific Star joined from Oban at 10:30, while the Aultbea ships joined the following day, Sept. 16 at 13:30.

Average speed: 7.73 knots. According to the Commodore's notes, the slow average speed was due to delay at Loch Ewe rendezvous, bad weather and further delay (ordered) owing to change of date in rendezvous off Iceland. Also, having to reduce every morning to allow stragglers to come up, and to wait for ships with temporary breakdowns "too numerous to mention".

(Please note that the document containing the Commodore's notes is handwritten and hard to decipher in places, so my transcription, especially of misc. numbers, may not be 100% accurate).

Empire Rowan lost touch on the night of Oct. 15/16 (according to Arnold Hague, she returned to port - shows up again in ON 36).
Tudor Prince returned to Loch Ewe at 18:20 Oct. 16 with a seriously injured man - listed in ON 28 (see ships in all ON convoys).
Atland lost touch in the night of Oct. 16/17 (according to A. Hague, she returned to port, joined ON 27).
Leiv Eiriksson proceeded to Iceland at 07:00 Oct. 20.
Northern Sword fell out with condenser trouble, 17:00 Oct. 21 in 58 15N 31 04?W.
Rowanoke lost touch in the night of Oct. 21/22 - rejoined at 11:45 Oct. 23.
Mirlo lost touch in fog on Oct. 24 (she arrived St. John's on Oct. 28; follow link to Mirlo).
Stary Bolshevic lost touch in the night of Oct. 24/25.

Pacific Star, British Valour and Leto left at 15:45 on Oct. 28? in 50 01N 44 30W by order.
Commodore's ship Manchester Merchant, Dorelian, Cairnesk and Nicoya (all bound for Montreal) left convoy at 16:00 Oct. 28 in 50 01N 44 32W, with destroyer Badger. Commodore's group was dispersed at 12:20 on Oct. 29, and Badger left.

The Commodore says
that Mirlo, with a speed of 10 knots, had problems maintaining convoy speed and straggled continuously at night. On Oct. 24, when fog came on she was observed to be dropping astern and would not answer signals to close up. She eventually lost touch and was not seen again. The Commodore adds, "In my opinion this was done deliberately probably from timidity. The master of Manchester Mercant informed me she did the same thing in the last convoy he was with her. I submit she is not fit to go in convoy until her master undertakes not to straggle and to keep a better look out for signals. She was a continual cause of anxiety to me".

Athelduchess and Norwich City (does he mean the escort?) also straggled a lot, and Meline and Bretwalda were bad station keepers, while Empire Tide was slow at repeating signals, keeping bad lookout.

Escorts:
HMS Arab, Lady Madeleine, Norwich City, Beagle, Salisbury, Narcissus, Lobelia, Heather.
US destroyers Mayo (S.O.), Broome, Schenck, Leary, Babbitt, Badger, joining from Reykjavik at 07:30 on Oct. 20 in 59 49N 23 00W. They (except Badger) left with convoy under Vice Commodore at 16:00 on Oct. 28 in 50 01N 44 30W. Badger left at 12:40 on Oct. 29 in 45 58N 53 10W.

Air escort:
Oct. 15 - 1 Hudson, 2 fighters(?)
Oct. 17 - 1 Sunderland and 1 Whitley.
Oct. 18 - 1 Whitley
Oct. 19 - 1 Wellington
Oct. 20 - 3 Catalinas, 1 Hudson.

An American aircraft unsuccessfully bombed a submarine at 16:20 on Oct. 28 (? - part of number missing, could be 23rd or 25th) in 51 14N 53 40?W, and Mayo contacted and attacked a submarine at 12:30 on... (unfortunately, the rest of the text on this document is missing).

A. Hague names the following escorts (extracted from this list of ON convoy escorts, received from D. Kindell; dates are European style, day/month/year):
Arab - From14/10/41 to 20/10/41
Beagle - From 14/10/41 to 20/10/41
Heather - From 14/10/41 to 20/10/41
Lady Madeleine - From 14/10/41 to 20/10/41
Narcissus - From 14/10/41 to 20/10/41
Norwich City - From 14/10/41 to 20/10/41
Salisbury - From 14/10/41 to 20/10/41
USS Babbitt - From 20/10/41 to 29/10/41
USS Badger - From 20/10/41 to 29/10/41
USS Broome - From 20/10/41 to 29/10/41
USS Leary - From 20/10/41 to 29/10/41
USS Mayo - From 20/10/41 to 29/10/41
USS Schenck - From 20/10/41 to 29/10/41

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