Cargoes have been extracted from a document received from D. Kindell, based on the late Arnold Hague's database - see his listing for HX 178 at Ships in all HX convoys.

Br=British, Fr=French, Am=American, Norw=Norwegian, Ru=Russian, Bel=Belgian.

†=dead

Argos Hill and San Venancio had returned to port from the previous convoy, HX 177.

A. Hague has Collamer in station 32 (instead of 33), again, see his listing for HX 178 at Ships in all HX convoys. Straggled March 3 - see also Notes below.
For Francis Scott Key he has a note saying "believed 1st Liberty on N. Atlantic run".

* Hegira, Ironclad and Francis Scott Key later joined Convoy PQ 14 at the end of March. The Russian icebreaker Krassin is also mentioned in the notes for that convoy (listed as sailing in PQ 15 in Arnold Hague's "Convoys to Russia 1941-1945"). See also QP 10, QP 12 and QP 13.

The American Collamer became a straggler and was torpedoed and sunk on March 5 by U 404 (44 19N 63 09W), 7 died, 31 survived ("The World's Merchant Fleets 1939", R. W. Jordan). Ref. external link at the end of this page for more details.

The ships left port in the following sequence:
The first ship to leave at 11:12 was the Russian ice breaker Krassin followed a few mintues later by Manchester Commerce (Flagship), then Baron Jedburgh, Taranaki, San Venancio, Salacia (crated planes), Polarsol, Empire Opal, Ville de Tamatave, Polartank, Emma Bakke (Admiralty flag, decks covered with crates, the ship is a mass of posts), Collamer, a Belgian freighter (Brabant), an American freighter (Hegira - crates with green diagonal stripes, sand bags ahead of super structure, doors, boards etc. flung all over the ship), Skiensfjord, Empire Airman, Francis Scott Key ("B" flag, 3 masts), a Norwegian tanker (Katy, 63 - white painted "V" over "C" on stack), Celtic Star, Bayano, Bello, Argos Hill and then Ironclad as the last ship to leave at 12:53.

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):
Algoma - From 06/03/42 to 16/03/42
Bittersweet - From 03/03/42 to 06/03/42
Calgary - From 03/03/42 to 04/03/42
Chilliwack - From 06/03/42 to 16/03/42
Drummondville - From 03/03/42 to 07/03/42
Narvik - From 17/03/42 to 17/03/42
Oakville - From 03/03/42 to 07/03/42
Shediac - From 06/03/42 to 17/03/42
USCGC Spencer - From 06/03/42 to 16/03/42
USS Gleaves - From 06/03/42 to 16/03/42
Walker - From 03/03/42 to 07/03/42
Witherington - From 03/03/42 to 07/03/42

Related external link:
The attack on Collamer

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