Convoy SC 1 - warsailors.com

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CONVOY SC 1
Departed Sydney, C.B. on Aug. 15-1940 and arrived Liverpool on the 29th.
Arnold Hague gives 40 ships in this convoy.

The SC convoy series was started in order to accommodate the slower ships that could not keep up with the HX convoys (which required a minimum speed of 9 knots).

Transcribed from original Advance Sailing Telegram received from Tony Cooper - His source: Public Records Office, Kew. The station numbers and names of escorts have been extracted from documents recived from Don Kindell, based on Arnold Hague's database - see ships in all SC convoys. Further details have been added with the help of: "Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two", Jürgen Rohwer "The Allied Convoy System", Arnold Hague "The World's Merchant Fleets 1939". R. W. Jordan "Lloyd's War Losses", Vol I.
Ship	Nationality	Cargo	Station	Destination	Remarks
Keila	Estonian	lumber	52	Glasgow	From HX 63
Seringa	British	steel - scrap iron	21	Grangemouth	–
Marcrest	"	iron ore	71	Grangemouth	–
Fylingdale	"	grain	41	Belfast	–
Koumoundouros	Greek	pit props	14	Garston	From HX 63
Drakepool	British	pit props	31	West Hartlepool	Vice Commodore
Westcliffe Hall	"	lumber	45	London	–
~~Keynor~~*	"	lumber	35	Garston	Listed in SC 2
*This ship is crossed out on the Advance Sailing Telegram, with the word "NOT" next to her name - A. Hague indicates she joined but returned.
Blairmore	"	pit props	11	Tyne	From HX 64 Sunk - See Notes
Kingsborough	"	pit props	12	West Hartlepool	–
Joannis	Greek	pit props	13	Garston	–
Thyra	Swedish	pit props	22	Cardiff	–
Emmy	Greek	lumber	23	Garston	–
Helena Margareta	British	steel - scrap	24	Newcastle	–
Birgitte	" (ex Danish)	lumber	32	Boston	–
Bussum	Dutch	pit props	33	Tyne	–
Kronprinsessan Margareta	Swedish	nitrates	34	Newport	–
Becheville	British	steel - scrap	42	Middlesbrough	From HX 65
Dux	Norwegian	pulp wood	43	Belfast	–
Knowlton	British	lumber	44	Newport	–
Tintern Abbey	"	lumber	51	London	Commodore
Stolwijk	Dutch	iron ore	53	Birkenhead	–
Chr. Knudsen	Norwegian	scrap iron	54	Swansea	From HX 64
Easton*	British	lumber	55	Preston	–
* According to Arnold Hague, Easton returned (note that this is not mentioned in the original Advance Sailing Telegram). She is, however, listed in Convoy WN 19 from Clyde on Sept. 29 (external link), so must have proceeded to the U.K. at some point.
Philip T. Dodge	"	newsprint	61	Avonmouth	–
Maclaren	"	wood pulp	62	London	–
Eva	Norwegian	lumber	63	Sharpness	Sunk - See Notes
Anastassia	Greek	pit props	64	Garston	–
Anticosti	British	lumber	65	Belfast / Middlesbrough	–
Vespasian	Norwegian	pit props	72	Manchester	–
Iris	Swedish	lumber	73	Grimsby	–
Tennessee	British (ex Danish)	iron ore	74	Birkenhead	–
Macgregor	British	phosphates	81	Glasgow	From HX 64
Kolchis	Greek	grain	82	Cardiff	–
Athenic	British	steel - lumber	83	Cardiff	From HX 66
Elle	Finnish	pulpwood - lumber	84	Ardrossan	Sunk - See Notes
Rockpool	British	pit props	91	W. Hartlepool	–
Ulla	" (ex Danish)	lumber	92	Sunderland	From HX 63
Asgerd	Norwegian	lumber	93	Boness(?)	–
Askeladden	"	lumber	94	London	From HX 66

Notes:
Commodore was in Tintern Abbey, Vice Commodore in Drakepool.

Ships sunk:
Blairmore, on a voyage from Newcastle, N.B. for Tyne with a cargo of 1500 fathoms of pit props, was sunk by U-37 on Aug. 25. She had a crew of 34 - 4 of whom died (numbers vary according to source).

Eva was torpedoed by U-28 on Aug. 27 - see my page about Eva.

Elle, on a voyage from Campbellton, N.B. for Ardrossan with a cargo of pulpwood and lumber, was torpedoed on Aug. 28 by U-101. 2 died out of the 29 on board.

In addition to the above 3 merchant ships, HMS Penzance was also sunk - ref. external links below.

The convoy arrived rendezvous on Aug. 27.

Escorts (extracted from this list of SC convoy escorts, based on Arnold Hague's database, received from D. Kindell; dates are European style, day/month/year):
Clarkia - From 27/08/40 to 29/08/40
Havelock - From 27/08/40 to 29/08/40
Hurricane - From 27/08/40 to 29/08/40
Leith - From 27/08/40 to 30/08/40
Penzance - From 15/08/40 to 24/08/40
Reindeer - From 15/08/40 to 16/08/40

Related external links:
The attack on Blairmore
The attack on Elle
HMS Penzance

Back to Convoy Index

To the next SC convoy in my list SC 2

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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