Received from Olaf Evertse, Holland.

Cargoes, stations, destinations and Commodore's notes are not available.

For info, some of these ships had previously arrived with the westbound Convoy ON 20 (see also ON 15).
A few later returned with ON 36 on Nov. 13.

Notes:
* The handwritten document listing the ships is extremely hard to decipher in places (hence the question marks in my table above), but it does look like this is spelt Alchiba. There was a Dutch Alchiba; the document states this illegible ship was American. However, Dominique Lemaire, a visitor to my site, has told me that the American Mormacdove was taken over by the US Navy as USS Alchiba (AK 23) at some point in 1941. This is confirmed by R. W. Jordan's "The Worlds' Merchant Fleets 1939" which adds she was used as a USN stores ship, later as AKA 6 from 1943 (became Dutch Tjipanas in 1948).

3 of the ships were bound for Iceland.

Escorts (as per original convoy documents):
Western Local: Senior Officer's vessel is given as Broom (should this be USS Broome? - however, see notes attached to links below), USS Niblack, USS Hilary P. Jones, USS Reuben James*, USS Tarbell.
Ocean: HMS Broke (S.O.), HMS Wolverine, HMS Buxton, HMS Larkspur, Camelia(?), HMCS Moosejaw, HNoMS Montbretia, HMS Begonia, HNoMS Eglantine, and 2 unnamed trawlers.

I've been told that USS Benson was S. O. of the escort for this convoy - again, see also external links below. This ship is not mentioned in the convoy documents.

* Reuben James was sunk on Oct. 31-1941 by U-552, with the loss of 115 men.

Related external links:
Other eastbound North Atlantic convoys in 1941

Empire Ships

The loss of Reuben James - Note that USS Broome is not mentioned among the escorts here, so the name in the original convoy document might be an error.

USS Benson - The site includes a page about Convoy HX 156 and the sinking of Reuben James. More on this page, showing that she was indeed escort for this convoy (joining from Argentia, N.F.).

Back to Convoy Index