Ship Forum :  Warsailors.com Warsailors.com
 
Norwegian Merchant Fleet WW II | 100 Most Recent Ship Forum Postings | Forum Tips
 
HX-300 - missing ship 167 ships not 166
Posted by: Morley Eldridge (IP Logged)
Date: March 17, 2006 02:13PM

My mother Ros Eldridge has been very interested in finding out more about the convoys of WWII, especially HX-300 on which she sailed as a war-bride returning to England to rejoin her RAF husband, Fl. Lieut. George R. Eldridge, who had been posted back to England some time before.

This site, and several other sources, gives the total number of ships on this largest convoy ever, as 166 ships. This is one short, apparently the ship my mother sailed on, since it does not appear on the list on your website. This was the SS Curacao, a Dutch ship which was originally a German ship, commandeered in Curacao at the start of the war, from her memory. The ship joined the convoy from Sidney, after sailing from Montreal. The captain told the passengers after sailing that they would awake to a sight of more ships than anyone had ever seen before. No one took him seriously and assumed that it was a made-up story for security reasons. In the morning, though, there were ships as far as the eye could see in most directions. There was an aircraft carrier on their left with sailors playing hockey, and who sent up a plane to reconnoitre once they saw there were a number of young women on the Curacao! They dropped a large bouquet of vegetables as a present, but it missed the ship and was seen floating as they passed it. She also remembers them playing hockey on the deck (it was a Canadian ship, after all!)

She has menues from the Dinners on board, from July 27 and August 6, 1944. She also has newspaper clippings from London which also give the 167 number for the number of ships.

She is wondering how to correct the archival information the "166 ships" that seems to be repeated in numerous books/websites to include her ship. Anyone have an idea how this might be done? Anyone else with a memory of this convoy? She would be very glad to hear from someone else.



Subject Written By Posted
  HX-300 - missing ship 167 ships not 166 Morley Eldridge 03/17/2006 02:13PM
  Re: HX-300 - missing ship 167 ships not 166 Morley Eldridge 03/17/2006 02:20PM
  Re: HX-300 - missing ship 167 ships not 166 Siri 03/17/2006 02:35PM
  Re: HX-300 - missing ship 167 ships not 166 Morley Eldridge 03/17/2006 04:53PM
  Re: HX-300 - missing ship 167 ships not 166 Olaf Evertse 03/18/2006 08:13AM
  Re: HX-300 - missing ship 167 ships not 166 Siri 03/18/2006 08:39AM
  Re: HX-300 - missing ship 167 ships not 166 Olaf Evertse 03/18/2006 09:52AM
  Re: HX-300 - missing ship 167 ships not 166 Morley Eldridge 03/18/2006 10:22AM
  Re: HX-300 - missing ship 167 ships not 166 Siri 03/18/2006 11:32AM
  Re: HX-300 - missing ship 167 ships not 166 Siri 03/18/2006 11:57AM
  Re: HX-300 - missing ship 167 ships not 166 Morley Eldridge 03/21/2006 08:30AM
  Re: HX-300 - missing ship 167 ships not 166 Roger 03/18/2006 01:07PM
  Re: HX-300 - missing ship 167 ships not 166 Siri 03/18/2006 01:36PM
  Re: HX-300 - missing ship 167 ships not 166 Olaf Evertse 03/19/2006 02:18AM
  Re: HX-300 - missing ship 167 ships not 166 Roger 03/19/2006 12:14PM
  Re: HX-300 - missing ship 167 ships not 166 Siri 03/19/2006 12:27PM
  Re: HX-300 - missing ship 167 ships not 166 Morley Eldridge 03/19/2006 03:02PM


Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.
This forum powered by Phorum.