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CONVOY HX 2

Convoy HX 2 Cruising Order
Departed Halifax on Sept. 23-1939 and arrived Liverpool on Oct. 10 (Arnold Hague agrees with 15 ships).
List received from Roger Griffiths (his source: Public Records Office, Kew).

Nationalities of the ships have been added with the help of "The World's Merchant Fleets", R. W. Jordan.

Br=British, Fr=French, Du=Dutch, Am=American
1
2
3
4
5
6
11
Corner Brook
newsprint
Liverpool
(Br)
21
Vandyck*
general - apples
Liverpool
(Br)
31
Manchester Port
general
Manchester
(Br)
41
San Mateo
wheat
Le Havre
(Fr**)
51
Beaverburn
general
London
(Br)
61
Comanchee
lube oil
London
(Br)
12
Blairmore
lumber
Glasgow
(Br)
22
Wanderer
general - sugar
Liverpool
(Br)
32
Saltwick
wheat
Falmouth
(Br)
42
Charles L-D.
wheat
Falmouth
(Fr)
52
Languedoc
crude
Le Havre
(Fr)
62
Tower Field
newsprint
London
(Br)
13
23
New York City
metals - foods
Newport
(Br)
 33
Kurdistan
wheat
Falmouth
(Br)		 43
Mill Hill
coke
Rouen
(Br)		 53 63


Notes:
* The name of the ship in station 21 is hard to desipher - looks like Van Dyck; might be a misspelling of the British Vandyck.
** There was a French and 2 American ships by this name - I would imagine this would have been the French one.

Commodore A. H. Walker was in Manchester Port, Vice Commodore W. Stanfield in Beaverburn, Rear Commodore in San Mateo.

Mill Hill broke down at 18:30 ADT on Sept. 24 and proceeded at 03:30 on Sept. 25, 1 TBD stood by her.

Blairmore left during the night of Oct. 1/2 in approximate position 50 03N 26 50W, reason unknown.

Commodore's comments on station keeping in convoy:
Fair, considering the lack of experience. Improved daily, but there was always a general tendency to open up at night. During the bad weather the smaller, low covered ships found much difficulty. S/S Saltwick was often unable to zig-zag continuously. Visual signalling also improved towards the end. The need of daylight flashing apparatus was very apparent. W/T signals made, but one ship's receiver oxcillated(? hard to desipher) frequently.

Comments on ability to keep speed:
For first 36 hours ships burning Sydney, Cape Breton coal were bad, Saltwick, Kurdistan and Mill Hill particularly.

Escorts: Saquenay, Fraser, St. Laurent, York (the latter parted company in 42 10N 54 55W).
Escorts on arrival: Versatile, Warwick, Jackal and 1 more.

Back to Convoy Index

The next HX convoy to sail was HXF 2
To the next HX convoy HX 3 & HXS 3


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