Convoy HX 163 - warsailors.com (original) (raw)

Convoy HX 163 Cruising Order
departed Halifax on Dec. 3-1941 and arrived Liverpool on the 19th (Arnold Hague's "The Allied Convoy System" gives 43 ships).

Received from Ted Agar (His source: A diary. Although the information is usually incomplete, I consider this diary valuable and important in and of itself and, therefore, I've transcribed it and kept it "as is" on this website, and have added further details and/or corrections from other sources separately, rather than within the form itself [except for cargoes], as seen below).

Please note that not all the ships have been given a convoy station in the diary, but more names can be found further down on this page.

Cargoes have been extracted from a document received from D. Kindell, based on the late Arnold Hague's database - see his listing for HX 163 at Ships in all HX convoys.

For info, some of the ships in this convoy had previously arrived with the westbound Convoy ON 32.
See also ON 34 and subsequent ON convoys.

Br=British, Du=Dutch, Norw=Norwegian, Fr=French, Pa=Panamanian, Ca=Canadian, Da=Danish, Ice=Icelandic.

11
Lombardy
sugar - general
4 passengers
(Br)

21
Kafiristan
grain
CAM ship
(Br)

31
Myrmidon
general
134 passengers
(Br)

41
Ceramic
refrig. - general
(Br)

51
Greystoke
Castle*
lead - sugar
60 mails
11 passengers
(Br)

61
James J. Maguire
paraffin - petrol
(Br)

71
Charles F. Meyer
paraffin - petrol
(Br)

81
Helencrest
grain
CAM ship
(Br)

91
Atlantic City*
general
(Br)

22
Luculus
petrol
(Br)

Hopemount

FFO
(Br)
Se Notes below

52
San Cipriano
aviation gas
(Br)

62
Movrinn*
(Br)

82
Lucellum
petrol
(Br)

92
Bretwalda
general
(Br)
Se Notes below

13
Tudor Prince
general
(Br)

33
Thorshøvdi
dieso
(Norw)

43
Saint Bertrand
general
(Fr/Br)

53
Donax
petrol
(Br)

63
Asbjørn
general
(Ca [ex Da])

83
Ranja
paraffin
(Norw)

93
Ørnefjell
general
(Norw)

14
Atlantian
general
(Br)

24
Haakon Hauan
paraffin
(Norw)

34
British Diligence
paraffin - petrol
(Br)

44
Empire Diamond
petrol
(Br)

64
Empire Coral
petrol - paraffin
(Br)

74*
Pan Aruba
paraffin - petrol
(Norw)

84
Høegh Giant
dieso
(Norw)

94
Harpefjell
general
(Norw)

35
Fjallfoss*
(Ice)

55
Stad Vlaardingen
general
(Du)

65
H. M. Flagler
petrol
(Pa)

85
Beth
FFO
(Norw)
Se Notes below

95
Gyda
general
(Br, ex Da)

56
Collegian
general
(Br)

According to a note for the slow Convoy SC 58, Earlston, sailing in that convoy, originally came from HX 163.

*When comparing the above with Arnold Hague's listing for Convoy HX 163 at Ships in all HX convoys, we find that he has the British Athelprincess in station 54, cargo of molasses.
In station 25 he has the Panamanian El Coston, general cargo, for Iceland.
Empire Jet is in station 72, cargo of aviation gas
The ship in station 62 is listed as Moveria, general cargo,
In station 23 he has the Panamanian Norvinn, FFO (from HX 162),
In station 45 the Norwegian Nyholt, FFO, for Reykjavik
In station 12 the Norwegian Topdalsfjord, general cargo
The Norwegian Pan Aruba has been given station 73, while the Norwegian Ringstad is listed in station 74, refrig, general, 6 passengers
He says Fjallfoss detached to Iceland on Dec. 15, but no station number is given - instead he has the Icelandic Selfoss in station 35, general cargo, for Iceland.
Some of the above are included in the diary (but station numbers were not known - ref. Notes below) others are not mentioned at all.

Notes:
* The ship in station 51 is incorrectly listed as Graystone Castle in the original diary. Also, the text in the list of ships says "Atlantic City or Atlanta City" for the ship in station 91. Atlanta City was American, Atlantic City British.

There's a Norwegian Donat listed, but there was no such Norwegian ship; this should be Donax (British).

2 ships were cancelled; Audacious and British Statesman. Audacious is listed in the next convoy, HX 164, while British Statesman is listed in SC 60 (it looks like she had also been scheduled from HX 164).

Beth had returned to port when in the previous convoy HX 162. Bretwalda and Norvinn had been cancelled from that convoy. Note that in his listing for Convoy SC 58 at ships in all SC convoys, A. Hague states that Bretwalda joined up with that convoy.

Hopemount returned to port, then joined the next convoy.

The ships left port in the following order, according to the diary:
The first ship to leave at 09:40 was the British Luculus, followed by the British Myrmidon, Ceramic (with a note that says "she is taking enemy aliens from the East, overseas), Greystoke Castle, Helencrest (Hurricane LUU), Atlantic City or Atlanta City, Empire Coral. Then there's a Norwegian Donat which, as mentioned, should be the British Donax. Then comes the Panamanian H. M. Flagler, Dutch Stad Vlaardingen, British Kafiristan (Hurricane XSU) and Hopemount, Norwegian Andrea Brøvig, British Atlantian and British Diligence, Norwegian Beth and Ringstad (no pendant No. given), British Tudor Prince and St. Bertrand (French flag on mainmast, British flag on stern), Lombardy, Norwegian Høegh Giant, British Movrinn (should probably be Moveria), Asbjørn (Danish, Canadian Government from 1940), Lucellum, unnamed British tanker, Norwegian Ørnefjell, Ranja, Haakon Hauan and Pan Aruba, British Charles F. Meyer, Empire Diamond, James J. Maguire (this ship is also listed as Panamanian in R. W. Jordan's book. In the British section he has a note that says Oriental Tankers Ltd., Hong Kong, who owned this ship was a subsidiary of Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey), Bretwalda (had been scheduled for the previous convoy HX 162, but cancelled), Norwegian Thorshøvdi, British Gyda (Danish, under MoWT) San Cipriano, Icelandic Fjallfoss (with a note saying she had Fjallfoss Island painted on her side the day before, but has been painted over - Island in this case simply means Iceland), British Collegian and Norwegian Harpefjell as the last ship to leave at 13:40.

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):
Arabis - From 15/12/41 to 18/12/41
Begonia - From 15/12/41 to 19/12/41
Broke - From 16/12/41 to 18/12/41
Camellia - From 15/12/41 to 18/12/41
Dahlia - From 15/12/41 to 18/12/41
Hamilton - From 03/12/41 to 05/12/41
Kamloops - From 03/12/41 to 05/12/41
Saskatoon - From 03/12/41 to 05/12/41
USS Benson - From 05/12/41 to 15/12/41
USS Edison - From 05/12/41 to 13/12/41
USS Hilary P. Jones - From 05/12/41 to 15/12/41
USS Niblack - From 05/12/41 to 15/12/41
USS Tarbell - From 05/12/41 to 15/12/41
Watchman - From 16/12/41 to 19/12/41

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To the next HX convoy in my list HX 164