Convoy HX 144 - warsailors.com (original) (raw)
CONVOY HX 144
| Convoy HX 144 Cruising Order Departed Halifax on Aug. 10-1941 and arrived Liverpool on the 30th (Arnold Hague's "The Allied Convoy System" says 60 ships). | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| List received from Ted Agar, England. (His source: A diary. Although the information is usually incomplete, as it appears to be in this case, I consider this diary valuable and important in and of itself and, therefore, I've chosen to transcribe it and keep it "as is" on this website, adding further details and/or corrections from other sources separately, rather than within the form itself [except for cargoes], as seen below). Cargoes have been extracted from a document received from D. Kindell, based on the late Arnold Hague's database - see his listing for HX 144 at Ships in all HX convoys. The stations shown are the stations on departure; these may have changed as the voyage progressed. Please note that not all the ships have been given a convoy station, but more ships are named at the end of this table. See also Convoy ON 13 and other ON convoys from the same time period. Br=British, Fr=French, Norw=Norwegian, Sw=Swedish, Yug=Yugoslavian, Pa=Panamanian. | |||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 11Port Halifaxgeneral (Br) | 21 Helenusgeneral 162 passengers (Br) | 31 * | 41Peshawurwool - refrig. (Br) | 51 ** | 61 Corner Brooksteel - paper (Br) | 71 Clan Farquharrefrig. (Br) | 81Silverwillowgeneral 8 passengers (Br) | 91Perseusgeneral 3 passengers (Br) | 101 City of Glasgow general (Br) |
| 12British freighter See below | 22San Adolfofuel oil (Br) | 32 San FlorentinoFFO 1 passenger (Br) | 42Navarinophosphates (Br) | 52British tanker See below | 62 | 72Artemisgeneral - mules 5 passengers (Br) | 82 Havprins gas oil (Norw) | 92 * | 102 Moveria? general (Br)Ettrickbank? zinc - dried fruit (Br) See below |
| 13 ** | 23 British Corporalbenzine (Br) | 33Roxanefuel oil (Fr) | 43 Bellerophongeneral - pig iron (Br) | 53 Hallanger fuel oil (Norw) | 63 Suderøy fuel oil 3 passengers (Norw) | 73 Grena petrol (Norw) | 83 Eidanger paraffin (Norw) | 93 Sommerstad lub. oil (Norw) | 103 Panamawheat - zinc 4 passengers (Br) |
| 14 City of Barodageneral 50 passengers (Br) | 24 Ancyluspetrol (Br) | 34El Grillofuel oil (Br) | 44Wanderergeneral (Br) | 54 Orwell FFO (Norw) | 64 OlynthusFFO (Br) | 74* | 84 Evanger general (Norw) | 94 | 104 Marija Petrinovicgeneral (Yug) |
| 15 Norse King timber (Norw) | 25 Magnewood pulp (Sw) | 35Kolsnarenphosphates (Sw) | 45** | 55* | 65 Chepogeneral (Pa) | 75 Henry Dundaspetrol (Br) | 85 | 95 Polartank crude oil (Norw) | 105** |
| 16Athelduchessmolasses (Br) | 26** | 36** | 46** | 56** | 66 Vinland general (Norw) | 76 Sarpedongeneral 129 passengers (Br) | 86** | 96 | 106 |
| Additionally, the Rescue Vessel Zamalek was with the convoy for a while, see the notes further down on this page.British Corporal had been in Convoy HX 141, but returned to port. Roxane had been cancelled from HX 138. *The diary also mentions Erria, Empire Franklin, Dunster Grange and Tilsington Court, but pendants not known. According to A. Hague, Erria had station 92, general cargo, 43 passengers. Empire Franklin had station 55, cargo of grain, CAM ship, transferred to Convoy SC 40 (see Ships in all SC convoys). Dunster Grange, refrig, 8 passengers, is listed in station 31 and Tilsington Court in station 74, general cargo. **When comparing this information with A. Hague's listing for HX 144 at Ships in all HX convoys, we see that he has also included some ships that are not mentioned in the diary, as follows: In station 51 - The British City of Hongkong, refrig, 100 passengers In station 13 - The british Lombardy, cargo of sugar, 4 passengers In station 45 - The British Empire Dell, cargo of grain, CAM ship, also transferred to Convoy SC 40. In station 105 - The Norwegian Ranja, cargo of petrol In station 26 - The British White Crest, cargo of flour In station 36 - The British Coronda, cargo of pool oil In station 46 - The Dutch Malvina, cargo of crude oil. For info, this ship had started out in Convoy HX 140 (having been cancelled from the previous convoy, HX 139), but had collided with an iceberg and returned to port. In station 56 - The British Port Fremantle, refrig, general In station 86 - The British Anglo African, general cargo In station 57 - The Dutch Colytto, cargo of grain (this gives the convoy 7 rows) In station 87 - The British Tetela, general cargo, 10 passengers In station 76 - The British Merchant Prince, general cargo and flour In station 95 - The Dutch Rotterdam, cargo of aviation gas (became a romper). Additionally, he has the British Empire Hail and the Greek Lily in this convoy, but no station numbers are given, nor does he name their cargoes. He also indicates that AMC escort Maloja sailed within the convoy itself. He says the unnamed British tanker in station 52 was D. L. Harper, cargo of fuel oil, and the unnamed British ship in station 12 was Queen City, cargo of phosphates. Instead of Sarpedon in station 76 he has the British Merchant Prince (not named in the diary), while Sarpedon is listed in station 75 (which is taken by Henry Dundas above). He has Evanger in station 85, Henry Dundas in station 84 (adding she became a romper), Ettrickbank in station 102, while Moveria has been given station 62 (these 2 ships have the same station number in the diary, hence my initial question marks). Polartank is listed in station 94, and station 95 has been given to the Dutch Rotterdam (ship not included in the diary). Roxane is listed as British (straggled), and for El Grillo, he has a note saying "with engine defects". |
The first ship to leave was Corner Brook at 11:00, and with a few minutes between each ship, the last to depart was Sommerstad at 3:20, I assume this means 15:20. The escorting HMS Maloja left Pier 23 at 2:55. Adding the latter, the names of 48 ships are given here. I've listed them according to nationality below, keeping the sequence of departure within each nationality.
The British ships left port in the following order:
The British Corner Brook British Corporal, Olynthus, Port Halifax, City of Glasgow, Ancylus, Erria (no pennant No. given - originally Danish, under Ministry of War Transport 1940), El Grillo, Panama (originally Danish, under Ministry of War Transport 1940), Wanderer, San Adolfo, Peshawur, Moveria, Ettrickbank, San Florentino, Dunster Grange, Silverwillow, Navarino, Clan Farquhar (Ford crates on deck), Tilsington Court (bombers), Helenus, Athelduchess, Bellerophon, Henry Dundas, Artemis (US Maritime Commission/transferred to MoWT 1940? If so, she became Empire Bittern), Sarpedon, City of Baroda, Perseus, Empire Franklin (Hurricane NJR) and 2 more, unnamed British vessels, in addition to the armed merchant cruiser HMS Maloja.
The Norwegian Suderøy, Polartank, Orwell, Hallanger, Eidanger, Havprins, Grena, Evanger, Norse King, Vinland (bombers) and Sommerstad.
The Yugoslavian Marija Petrinovic, the Swedish Kolsnaren and Magne, the Panamanian Chepo, and the French Roxane.
No ships are listed as sunk.
According to Arnold Hague's "Convoy Rescue Ships 1940-1945", the Rescue Vessel Zamalek was with this convoy from Aug. 22 till detached to Iceland Aug. 27, then joined Convoy HX 146 to Clyde, Sept. 1-Sept. 6-1941. She had started out with Convoy ON 7 from Clyde until detached, Aug. 16-Aug. 21, and was on her 10th voyage as Rescue Vessel (having been requisitioned as such in March.-1940, her first voyage was with Convoy OB 291).
A. Hague names the following escorts (extracted from this list of HX convoy escorts, also received from D. Kindell; dates are European style, day/month/year):
Amazon - From 22/08/41 28/08/41
Angle - 22/08/41
Annapolis - From 10/08/41 to 13/08/41
Aubretia - From 22/08/41 to 28/08/41
Belmont - From 22/08/41 to 27/08/41
Britomart - 22/08/41
Bulldog - From 22/08/41 to 28/08/41
Burnham - 24/08/41
Burwell - From 13/08/41 to 22/08/41
Cape Warwick - 22/08/41
Churchill - 24/08/41
Columbia - From 13/08/41 to 13/08/41
Daneman - 22/08/41
Dauphin - From 11/08/41 to 12/08/41
Dianthus - From 13/08/41 to 22/08/41
Georgetown - From 22/08/41 to 27/08/41
Heartsease - From 22/08/41 to 29/08/41
Honeysuckle - From 13/08/41 to 22/08/41
Maloja - From 10/08/41 to 22/08/41
Napanee - From 11/08/41 to 12/08/41
Nigella - From 23/08/41 to 29/08/41
Notts County - 22/08/41
Skate - 22/08/41
Snowberry - From 13/08/41 to 22/08/41
Westcott - 22/08/41
Whitehall - 22/08/41
Witch - From 22/08/41 to 22/08/41
To the next HX convoy in my list HX 145
| 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 |
