Ted's list only shows the ships that sailed from Halifax. Names of ships joining from St. John's, N.F. and Sydney, C.B. were found in a document received from Don Kindell, based on Arnold Hague's database. Cargoes have also been extracted from that document - see SC 136 at Ships in all SC convoys.

Some of these ships had been cancelled from the previous convoy, SC 135.

Crossed out ships did not sail, underlined returned.

Br=British, Norw=Norwegian, Da=Danish, Sw=Sedish, Fr=French, Yug=Yugoslavian, Am=American, Pa=Panamanian, Gr=Greek.

Langleebrook*
zinc concentrate
(Br)

Nordlys*
zinc concentrate
(Br)

Arnold Hague has listed Beaconoil as British (again, see SC 136 at Ships in all SC convoys). He says
*Dunav, Langleebrook, Maliakos and Nordlys joined from St. John's, N.F., and that
**Empire Usk and PLM 17 joined from Sydney, C.B
He has Empire Gareth in station 84, Fort McPherson in 103, Gateway City in 101, Norjerv in 83, Senga in 102. They were probably moved there after some ships, originally scheduled for these stations, had been cancelled.

Skotaas and Beaconoil had previously been cancelled from the fast Convoy HX 246.

From a visitor to my website, Kevin Murphy, I've received some more details about this convoy (his source: Public Records Office Kew). He says that the Senior Officer's narrative states that the convoy had 43 ships on departure, and that another 4 (plus escorts) joined from St. John's (agreeing with A. Hague's database), making the total 47.

Kevin's information also adds a ship named Caita (Navy special fuel) - not mentioned by A. Hague, nor in Ted's list.

The convoy encountered heavy fog for the first 4 days. The Senior Officer states "it was with great pleasure and admiration that we found all 47 ships present - most excellent station keeping after 4 days of continuos fog".

Escorts:
Highlander, Northern Gem, Cuckmere, Pennywort, Clover, Asphodel, Winchelsea, Northern Spray and Herschell.

The escorts refuelled on July 14 and 16, and also managed to resupply with depth charges on July 20.

A. Hague names the following 15 escorts (extracted from this list of SC convoy escorts, also received from D. Kindell; dates are European style, day/month/year):
Arrowhead - From 08/07/43 to 13/07/43
Asphodel - From 12/07/43 to 22/07/43
Bayntun - From 12/07/43 to 22/07/43
Caldwell - From 08/07/43 to 13/07/43
Clover - From 12/07/43 to 22/07/43
Cuckmere - From 13/07/43 to 22/07/43
Hastings - From 15/07/43 to 19/07/43
Highlander - From 12/07/43 to 22/07/43
Landguard - From 15/07/43 to 19/07/43
Oakville - From 08/07/43 to 13/07/43
Pennywort - From 12/07/43 to 22/07/43
Salisbury - From 08/07/43 to 13/07/43
USS Herschell
Waveney - From 15/07/43 to 19/07/43
Winchelsea - From 12/07/43 to 22/07/43

Related external link:
Eagle Oil Tankers - This site has info on the "San" ships, with an alphabetical list of casualties, as well as survivor reports. Additionally, the site has a lot of useful information on where the misc. Admiralty records are kept - they can be found on this index page.

Back to Convoy Index