Convoy HX 167 - warsailors.com (original) (raw)
CONVOY HX 167
| Convoy HX 167 Cruising Order Departed Halifax on Dec. 27-1941 and arrived Liverpool on Jan. 11-1942 (Arnold Hague's "The Allied Convoy System" gives 41 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, 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 167 at Ships in all HX convoys). Br=British, Norw=Norwegian, Sw=Swedish, Pa=Panamanian, Am=American, Bel=Belgian. | ||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 11British freighter | 21Lucernapetrol (Br) | 31 * | 41British freighter | 51Ville de Tamatavegeneral - 12 passengers (Br - ex Fr) | 61British freighter | 71 * | 81 Empire Sapphirepetrol (Br) | 91 Empire Rainbowgrain CAM ship (Br) |
| 12 City of Florencegeneral (Br) | 22Norw. freighter | 32Beaconhill* (Br) | 42 Suderøy FFO (Norw) | 52British tanker | 62 Abraham Lincoln general (Norw) | 72British tanker | 82 Sandanger petrol (Norw) | 92Dutch freighter |
| 13DeltaUSN storeship AK 29 Iceland (Am) | 23 El Isleogeneral (Pa) | 33 Norman Princegeneral (Br) | 43* | 53 O. A. Knudsen petrol (Norw) | 63* | 73Norw. tanker | 83CardiumFFO (Br) | 93British freighter |
| 14British freighter | 24Manus?* (Am) | 34 Noreg FFO Hvalfjord (Norw) | 44Thorshavn?* (Norw) | 54Dutch freighter | 64Limageneral (Sw) | 74 Bralanta dieso (Norw) | 84British tanker | 94Brabantgeneral (Bel) |
| 15 | 25freighter (no flag) | 35 | 45* | 55 Meline gas oil (Norw) | 65Norw. freighter | 75* | 85* | 95 |
| According to a note for the slow Convoy SC 63, Empire Cloud, sailing in that convoy, came from HX 167. The Panamanian Friar Rock, scheduled for SC 63, is also said to have come from HX 167. She later joined SC 64 (sunk).Comparing the above with Arnold Hague's information for HX 167 at Ships in all HX convoys, we find that he has listed the un-named ships in T. Agar's form as follows: Station 11 - British City of Eastbourne (general cargo) Station 14 - British Empire Masefield (grain) Station 22 - Norwegian Cetus (flour) Station 25 - Panamanian Stone Street (returned due to evaporator explosion, 1 died - see also HX 166). She does not show up again in an eastbound convoy until SC 67 on Jan. 30-1942. For info, she later joined Convoy PQ 12 to Murmansk (external link); see also Convoy QP 10 and QP 11. Station 41 - British Empire Falcon (general cargo) Station 52 - British British Resource (burning and vap. oils) Station 54 - Dutch Djambi (general cargo) Station 61 - British Orari (refrig., general, 1886 mails) Station 65 - Norwegian Bonneville (general cargo) Station 72 - British Regent Lion (petrol) Station 73 - Norwegian Herbrand (gas oil) Station 84 - British Beaconoil (cargo of dieso, straggled from Jan. 5-1942) Station 92 - Dutch Edam (general cargo, 26 passengers) Station 93 - British Trentbank (zinc, general) *Instead of Beaconhill in station 32, he has the British Athelnight, cargo of gas oil. Beaconhill is not included (she was in another part of the world at this time, on her way to Abadan from Beira), nor is an American ship named Manus, but he has listed the American USS Uranus in station 24, bound for Iceland. In station 44 he has the Norwegian Thorshavet (FFO for Hvalfjord) instead of Thorshavn. The latter is not listed at all, in fact, according to her Voyage Record for this period, she was on her way from Curacao to Table Bay at this time, while Thorshavet did indeed leave Halifax for Iceland on Dec. 27-1941 - see her Voyage Record. *He has also added some ships in stations where none are named in the diary, namely: In station 63 - Dutch Ceronia (dieso) In station 45 - British Darina (benzine - collided with Norwegian Meline Jan. 10-1942) In station 85 - British Gorjistan (general cargo) In station 75 - Panamanian Leonatus (general cargo) In station 31 - British Nea Hellas (general cargo, 821 mails - 30 days repair & docking) In station 43 - British British Valour (FFO, Londonderry) In station 71 - British Salacia (general cargo). The Rescue Vessel Rathlin was also with this convoy for a while, from joining to Clyde, Jan. 7 to Jan. 10-1942. She had been with ON 51 from Clyde to detachment to Iceland Dec. 28-Jan. 3, and was on her 4th voyage as Rescue Vessel, having been in her first convoy as such in Oct.-1941, ON 22. See ships in all ON convoys. ("Convoy Rescue Ships 1940-1945", Arnold Hague). For info, the Norwegian Noreg later joined Convoy PQ 9/ PQ 10 from Reykjavik to Murmansk on Febr. 1-1942, returning to Iceland with QP 8 on March 1. |
List of ships according to sequence of departure (as per the diary):
The first ship to leave at 10:00 was the British Ville de Tamatave (Commodore ship), then 2 unnamed British freighters, City of Florence, Norwegian whale factory Suderøy (large motor boats, 1 stack in center of ship, 2 red bands painted on it), an unnamed Dutch freighter, and a Norwegian tanker, an unnamed British tanker, Norwegian Thorshavn (as mentioned above, this should be Thorshavet), an unnamed Dutch tanker, Norwegian Bralanta, an unnamed British tanker, an unnamed Norwegian freighter, British Lucerna, an unnamed Dutch freighter (with a note saying "crew swabbing out gun at stern"), an unnamed freighter (ammunition, no flag), Panamanian El Isleo, an unnamed British freighter (with a note attached saying "fish for dinner, man on deck taking fish out of box), the Norwegian Meline, an unnamed British freighter, an unnamed, camouflaged British tanker (note says "probably Empire Sapphire"), followed by the British Norman Prince and Beaconhill (however, this should be Beaconoil or Athelknight), the American Manus (camouflaged. Note: this may be an error - see my notes in the above table), the Swedish Lima, an unnamed British tanker, Norwegian Noreg, another unnamed British tanker, Norwegian O. A. Knudsen and an unnamed Norwegian freighter, British Cardium, Belgian Brabant, American Delta (2 large motor transports on deck, marked "Air Corps-U.S. Army", naval officers on deck and 1 bomber), the Norwegian Abraham Lincoln, an unnamed British freighter (airplane crates on deck), the Norwegian Sandanger. The British Empire Rainbow was the last ship out at 12:58 (Hurricane XSY).
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):
Annapolis - From 27/12/41 to 29/12/41
Arabis - From 07/01/42 to 11/01/42
Dahlia - From 07/01/42 to 10/01/42
Kirkella - From 11/01/42 to 11/01/42
Monkshood - From 07/01/42 to 10/01/42
Saskatoon - From 27/12/41 to 29/12/41
_Snowflake_- From 07/01/42 to 10/01/42
The Pas - From 27/12/41 to 29/12/41
USS Babbitt - From 29/12/41 to 07/01/42
USS Leary - From 29/12/41 to 04/01/42
USS Mayo - From 29/12/41 to 07/01/42
USS Schenck - From 29/12/41 to 07/01/42
USS Simpson - From 29/12/41 to 07/01/42
Watchman - From 07/01/42 to 10/01/42
To the next HX convoy in my list HX 168
| Aa–Al | An–Ar | As–Av | Ba | Be | Bi–Bl | Bo | Br–Bu | C | D |
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| 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 |
