Convoy SC 96 - warsailors.com (original) (raw)
CONVOY SC 96 (Will be updated - please compare with A. Hague's listing for this convoy at ships in all SC convoys. See also SC escorts).
Departed Halifax on Aug. 11-1942 and arrived Liverpool on the 27th
(Arnold Hague's "The Allied Convoy System" gives 27 ships)
Cruising Order - Halifax ships only Received from Ted Agar, England. His source: Halifax diary.
A couple of years ago, Ted Agar sent me 2 forms re. Convoy SC 96. At the time, it was believed that the ships in the second form below were part of this convoy, but as can be seen they are not mentioned in the Advance Sailing Telegram. This first form had a notation attached (written by the author of the diary, on which the information is based) saying the following "An earlier convoy sailed today as follows:"... then these ships were named. As can be seen, some (but not all) of these correspond to what can be found in the Advance Sailing Telegram, but at the time when Ted sent them to me, he thought perhaps they belonged to a southbound convoy, and not to SC 96. However, it now looks like they did indeed sail with SC 96, while the ships in the 2nd form did not. In fact, the latter group left port that day in order to join Convoy HS 40 for Sydney, C.B. (external link). The Norwegian Garnes is also included in that convoy.
This form shows the Halifax ships only, Sydney, C.B. and Newfoundland portions are not included.
Peleus and Hallfried are not mentioned and, therefore, station numbers are not known (or perhaps Abelous is a mis-spelling of Peleus, and Shalind a misinterpretation of the name Hallfried?).
These stations would have been the pendants flown on departure Halifax, and stations may have changed as the voyage progressed.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
11
Rinos
21
Daghild
31
Cities Service Fuel*
(Am)
41
Opalia
51
Empire Liberty
61
Lobos
71
Dunsley
91
Trompenberg
12
Garnes*
(Norw)
22
Selvik
32
Abelous
(? see note above)
42
H. M. Flagler
52
Glaisdale
62
Roxby
72
Shalind
(? see note above)
82
Don
92
13
23
33
Moyra**
(Br)
43
Sälen
53
63
73
83
93
* The AST lists a Cities Service Koolmotor, but no Cities Service Fuel.
* As mentioned, Garnes left port that day in order to join Convoy HS 40, not SC 96.
** Moyra is not included in the Advance Sailing Telegram for SC 96.
The fact that Sälen is included on this form, indicates that she joined from Halifax, and not from Sydney C.B. (Note that Sälen is listed as Mälaren - her previous name - in some earlier convoys on this website)
Notes for the above form:
* Tennessee is listed as Norwegian, but this ship could not have been in this convoy because she was lost in 1940. However, there was a Danish ship by this name which was taken over by MOWT in June-1940, torpedoed and sunk in Sept.-1942, having straggled from Convoy SC 100, which left Halifax on Sept. 12.
** Ragnhild is listed as a British freighter, formerly Danish, but I can't quite get this to fit. According to R. W. Jordan's "The World's Merchat Fleets 1939" the Danish Ragnhild became Panamanian Leonatus in 1941. There was a Norwegian Ragnhild (ex Empire Carey), but there's some confusion as to when this ship was completed and taken over by Nortraship, as will be seen when clicking on the link to my page about Ragnhild. This ship is listed in Convoy SC 98, leaving Halifax on Aug. 29.
The ships went out in the following order:
The first to leave at 14:10 was Ellenor, followed at 16:30 by Cantal, then with a few minutes between each ship, Fairfax, Timok, Kirsten B, Evelyn B, Narocz, Sarnolite, Argolikos, Empire Eve (Catapult freighter), Aeas, Point San Pedro, Bollsta, Ledaal, Canatco, Aikaterini T, Ragnhild, Tennessee, Selvistan, Euthalia, and Nadin as the last ship at 17:51.
To the next SC convoy in my list SC 97