Convoy HX 177 - warsailors.com (original) (raw)
Convoy HX 177 Cruising Order
Departed Halifax on Febr. 25-1942 and arrived Liverpool on March 9 (Arnold Hague's "The Allied Convoy System" gives 24 ships).
List received from Ted Agar (His source: A diary).
Cargoes have been extracted from a document received from D. Kindell, based on the late Arnold Hague's database - see his listing for HX 177 at Ships in all HX convoys.
Underlined ships returned to port (according to A. Hague), except those that are linked, which will automatically be underlined.
Br=British, Du=Dutch, Norw=Norwegian, Am=American.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
11
Debrett
general
(Br)
21
Argos Hill
general
(Br)
31
Tricula
FFO(?)
(Br)
41
Drupa
petrol
(Br)
51
Winnipeg II
general
(Br)
61
Empire Diamond
petrol
(Br)
71
Port Campbell
refrig. - general
240 mails
10 passengers
(Br)
81
Jamaica Planter
general
12 passengers
(Br)
12
Mormacrio*
general
(Am)
42
Southern Princess
fuel oil
(Br)
52
San Venancio
cargo unknown
(Br)
62
Waterland
general
(Du)
72
Empire Jet
petrol
(Br)
82
Hopecastle
general
(Br)
13
Mormacmar**
general
(Am)
23
Eastern
City
grain
(Br)
33
Salamis
dieso
(Norw)
43
Megara
dieso
(Br)
53
*
63
Empire Coral
petrol
(Br)
73
British Zeal
petrol
(Br)
83
Toltén
general
(Br)
14
24
34
44
*
54
Sourabaya
fuel oil
12 passengers
(Br)
64
74
84
Tricula had been cancelled from Convoy SC 71.
Megara had been cancelled from SC 69 and had returned to port from SC 70 and HX 176.
Argos Hill and San Venancio are listed in the next convoy, HX 178.
According to A. Hague, Mormacrio became a straggler on March 2, while Toltén straggled on March 4 (see also HX 161, HX 162 and HX 168).
*A. Hague has listed some ships in stations where none are mentioned in the diary, namely:
In station 53 - The Belgian Emile Francqui, general cargo
In station 44 - The Dutch Stad Vlaardingen, general cargo
Notes:
Winnipeg II was the French Winnipeg which had been taken over by Vichy France in 1940 but was captured by the Royal Navy in June-1941. Sailed under the Ministry of War Transport as Winnipeg II from 1942 - sunk later that year in Convoy ON 139. (Info from "The World's Merchant Fleets 1939", R.W. Jordan).
* See Convoy PQ 14 and QP 10
** See Convoy PQ 13 and QP 11.
The ships left Halifax in the following sequence (according to the diary):
The first ship to leave at 11:10 was Winnipeg II (Flagship - 4 masts), followed by Argos Hill 5 mins later, then Debrett (stack built into bridge, double doors on side of bridge, with curved tops over open doors), Tricula, Empire Diamond, Port Campbell, Jamaican Planter (2 decks, 1 mast, 1 low stack, broad narrow stack - GYVF), Drupa, Waterland (crated planes), Megara, Mormacmar, Thorshavet, San Venancio, British Zeal, Empire Coral, Empire Jet, Mormacrio, (with a notation saying "She has a lof of sand bags or other kind of bags on bridge, cylinder on top of house behind stack), Hopecastle, Southern Princess (whale oil factory, crated planes), Sourabaya (whale oil factory. Foremast and mainmast fairly close together, long opening in hull extending from foremast to mainmast, 1 stack with a small one alongside it in center of ship, 2 open decks under bridge, 2 posts in bow, 2 posts between bow and foremast, post behind mainmast and 2 posts towards stern), Catapult freighter Eastern City, Salamis, Stigstad and Toltén.
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):
Barrie - From 01/03/42 to 09/03/42
Bodo - From 09/03/42 to 09/03/42
Chambly - From 01/03/42 to 08/03/42
Chedabucto - From 25/02/42 to 01/03/42
Lunenburg - From 25/02/42 to 01/03/42
Mayflower - From 01/03/42 to 08/03/42
Minas - From 25/02/42 to 28/02/42
Niagara - From 25/02/42 to 01/03/42
Rosthern - From 01/03/42 to 08/03/42
The Pas - From 25/02/42 to 01/03/42
USCGC Ingham - From 01/03/42 to 08/03/42
USS Niblack - From 01/03/42 to 08/03/42
To the next HX convoy in my list HX 178