Convoy HX 170 - warsailors.com (original) (raw)
CONVOY HX 170
| Convoy HX 170 Cruising Order Departed Halifax on Jan. 13-1942 and arrived Liverpool on the 28th (Arnold Hague's "The Allied Convoy System" gives 29 ships). | ||||||||
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| List received from Ted Agar (His source: A diary. Quite a few of the ships are unnamed. Although the information is 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, 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 170 at Ships in all HX convoys. Br=British, Norw=Norwegian, Sw=Swedish, Am=American, Du=Dutch. | ||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 11 Daghestangrain CAM ship (Br) | 21 Vocolub. oil (Br) | 31 freighter (Br) | 41 tanker | 51 Cristalesrefrig. - general (Br) | 61Peshawurrefrig. 300 mails (Br) | 71 * | 81 Clan Macphersongeneral (Br) | 91 Empire Spraygrain CAM ship (Br) |
| 12 Empire Shearwaterzinc (Br) | 22 tanker (Norw) | 32 Idefjord general (Norw) | 42 Kaaparengeneral (Sw) | 52 * | 62 * | 72 tanker (Br) | 82 tanker (Norw) | 92Ocean Vigil general (Br) |
| 13 | 23 | 33 tanker (Br) | 43 Hammarengeneral (Sw) | 53 tanker (Norw) | 63 tanker (Br) | 73 freighter (Norw) | 83 Eidanger petrol - paraffin (Norw) | 93 Ulyssesgeneral (Du) |
| 14 City of Flintgeneral (Am) | 24 Rapidanpetrol (Am) | 34 Sovaclub. oil (Br) | 44 Vaalarengeneral 12 passengers (Sw) | 54 | 64 | 74 Montevideo general (Norw) | 84* | 94 |
| Eidanger had originally been scheduled for Convoy HX 169.Comparing the above with what can be found in Arnold Hague's listing for HX 170 at Ships in all HX convoys, we learn that the above un-named ships were: In station 31 - The British Hindustan, general cargo In station 41 - The British Athelsultan, general cargo, but with a note saying "more likely FFO", to Scapa Flow, arrived Febr. 2 In station 22 - The Norwegian Anna Knudsen, FFO, detached for Iceland Jan. 22 Instead of the Norwegian Idefjord in station 32 he has the British Athelqueen, cargo of molasses (also from HX 169), while Idefjord is listed in station 23. In station 72 - the British Otina, cargo of aviation gas In station 82 - The Norwegian Nueva Granada, cargo of dieso He has City of Flint in station 13, instead of 14 He has the British Sovac, in station 33 instead of 34. In station 53 - The Norwegian Egda, cargo of petrol and paraffin (from HX 169) In station 63 - The British Empire Voice, general cargo (so probably not a tanker) In station 73 - The Norwegian Laurits Swenson, general cargo *Additionally, A. Hague has included some ships in stations where none are listed in the diary, as follows: In station 71 - The British Empire Steel, cargo of petrol In station 52 - The British Diloma, cargo of petrol, returned, joined HX 171. In station 62 - The British Amastra, petrol (appears to have been involved in a collision) In station 84 - The British Vimeira, cargo of paraffin He says Ocean Vigil returned to St. John's, N.F. with defects (listed in HX 171) Rapidan (USN tanker AO 18), detached for Iceland Jan. 22 |
The ships left port in the following sequence, according to the diary:
The first to leave was Cristales (flagship) at 09:47 and with a few minutes between each ship - Peshawur, Voco, a tanker, Eidanger, Hammaren, Clan Mcpherson, a Norwegian tanker followed by 2 British tankers, a Norwegian freighter and another British tanker, then Ocean Vigil (returned), Idefjord, Kaaparen (2 open decks under bridge), Ulysses, City of Flint (with a notation saying "this ship brought survivors of the Athenia into Halifax September 1939), 2 Norwegian tankers, Vaalaren, Empire Shearwater, Rapidan (US Navy tanker), Empire Spray (NJA on Hurricane, high metal tower), Montevideo, Sovac, Daghestan (LUS on her Hurricane, her whole bow is patched), then the last ship to leave was a British freighter at 14:24.
The American coast guard cutter Alexander Hamilton/WPG 34 (part of the screen for Convoy HX 170) was torpedoed by U-132 on Jan. 29. See external links below
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):
Arbutus - From 24/01/42 to 27/01/42
Broke - From 24/01/42 to 28/01/42
Camellia - From 24/01/42 to 27/01/42
Chelsea - From 24/01/42 to 28/01/42
Clayoquot - From 13/01/42 to 16/01/42
Columbine - From 24/01/42 to 27/01/42
Goderich - From 13/01/42 to 16/01/42
Pimpernel - From 24/01/42 to 27/01/42
Quinte - From 13/01/42 to 16/01/42
Rimouski - From 13/01/42 to 16/01/42
St. Laurent - From 13/01/42 to 16/01/42
USS Edison - From 16/01/42 to 24/01/42
USS Ellis - From 16/01/42 to 17/01/42
USS Greer - From 16/01/42 to 17/01/42
USS Hamilton - From 16/01/42 to 24/01/42
USS Niblack - From 16/01/42 to 24/01/42
USS Overton - From 16/01/42 to 24/01/42
USS Tarbell - From 16/01/42 to 22/01/42
Weyburn - From 13/01/42 to 16/01/42
As can be seen, A. Hague does not mention Alexander Hamilton.
Related external links:
The sinking of Alexander Hamilton - See also this page on the same site, which gives more info on the history of this cutter and also has more details on her loss, including the names of those who died. The gunboat St. Augustine is also mentioned among the escorts for HX 170 here.
To the next HX convoy in my list HX 171
| 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 |
