Convoy SC 71 - warsailors.com

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CONVOY SC 71
Departed Halifax on Febr. 22-1942 and arrived Liverpool on March 10 (Arnold Hague says 23 ships).

Transcribed from several documents received from Tony Cooper, England (his source: Public Records Office, Kew). Station numbers and sequence of departure were received from Ted Agar - His source: Halifax diary. Stations are pendants flown on departure Halifax, and may have changed as the voyage progressed. As can be seen from these numbers, the convoy had 8 columns and 4 rows. ~~Crossed out~~ ships did not sail, underlined returned to port. MOWT = Ministry of War Transport
Ship	Nationality	Cargo	Station	Destination	Remarks
Katingo Hadjipatera	Greek	grain	23	Ipswich	From SC 69
Melmore Head	British	general	51	Liverpool	From SC 69 Commodore Vessel
Anastassios Pateras	Greek	steel - wood pulp	53	Hull	–
City of Dallas	American	general	43	Reykjavik	From SC 69
Radcombe	British	iron ore	73	Middlesbrough	From SC 70
Sarthe	"	general - mail 71	41	Manchester	From SC 70
Llanover	"	grain	31	London	From SC 70
Empire Nightingale	"	general	21	Hull	–
Lorient	French / MOWT 1940	sulphur	64	Glasgow	–
Kingsbury	British	wheat - general	12	Hull	–
Empire Buffalo	"	general	63	Newport	–
Kaia Knudsen	Norwegian	Adm. tanker B	42	Hvalfjord	From HX 176
Arica	French / MOWT 1942	general - pitch - sugar	11	Milford Haven / Southampton	–
Bristol City	British	general	81	Bristol	From SC 69
Geo. H. Jones	"	Tanker B	72	Swansea	From SC 70
Empire Moonbeam	"	general	61	Cardiff	From HX 176
~~Blink~~	Norwegian	phosphates	–	Ipswich	From SC 70 Had been sunk Febr. 11 See D/S Blink
Opalia	British	Tanker W	52	Iceland	–
~~Tricula~~	"	Adm. tanker B	–	Clyde	Listed in HX 177
~~Bernhard~~	Norwegian	phosphates	–	Leith	Listed in SC 77
~~Grodno~~	British	general	–	Mersey	Listed in SC 72
~~Lake Osweya~~	American	general	–	Reykjavik	–
~~Vulcanus~~	Dutch	phosphates	–	Ipswich	Listed in SC 72
~~British Renown~~	British	Tanker W	–	Avonmouth	Listed in SC 72
Empire Tyne	"	grain	33	London	Returned to Halifax Listed in SC 74
~~Lackenby~~	"	general	–	Tyne	To SC 72 - did not sail To SC 73 - did not sail Shows up again in SC 79
~~Seattle Spirit~~	American	general	–	Archangel	Listed in SC 72 Later joined Convoy PQ 14 - returned Joined PQ 15
~~Ingerfire~~	Norwegian	phosphates	–	Glasgow	To SC 72 - did not sail To SC 73 - did not sail Listed in SC 75
~~Drammensfjord~~	"	cereals	–	Avonmouth	See * in Notes
Empire Flame	British	grain	82	Manchester	–
~~Gerassimos Vergottis~~	Greek	dates	–	London	Listed in SC 73
Kelso	British	general	22	Manchester	–
Lobos	"	general	71	Liverpool	–
~~Minotaur~~	American	general	–	Archangel	Listed in SC 72 Later joined Convoy PQ 14
~~Empire Union~~	British	general	–	London	Listed in SC 72
Photinia	"	grain	13	London	From SC 70
Norse King	Norwegian	general	32	Leith / Hull	–
Dettifoss	Icelandic	general	74	Reykjavik	–
Ted's diary also lists the British Connector (station 14) and Northern Ranger (24), the Canadian Royalite (34) and Sarnolite (54), and a Panamanain Hanjurand (44) as leaving port with this convoy. As can be seen, they are not mentioned in the Advance Sailing Telegram (unless there's a page missing?). It's possible that some of these were on their way out either to test gunnery, or perhaps en route to other ports. Sarnolite, Royalite and Northern Ranger are also mentioned among the ships that went out with Convoy SC 75 on March 18, and the 2 Canadian ships also show up in Convoy SC 73. Also, according to Ted's diary, the British Milcrest (cancelled from SC 68 and SC 69) and the Norwegian Solsten were cancelled from this convoy - again, not mentioned in the Advance Sailing Telegram. (Milcrest sailed in SC 73, while Solsten is listed in SC 72).

Notes:
* At the external website that I've linked to below, Drammensfjord is listed in Convoy SL 101, which departed Freetown on Febr. 21-1942 and arrived Liverpool on March 15. If this is correct, it's the reason she could not have been in Halifax on Febr. 22 to join Convoy SC 71. (See also my page about this ship).

The ships left port in the following order (from T. Agar):
At 11:10 the British freighter Llanover went out, followed at 11:22 by Melmore Head (Flagship) and with a few minutes between each ship:
Sarthe, Bristol City, Lobos, Kelso, Empire Moonbeam, Arica, Empire Tyne, Kingsbury, Katingo Hadjipatera, Geo. H. Jones, Photinia, Norse King, Empire Buffalo, Connector, Radcombe, Lorient, Anastassios Pateras, Opalia (at 13:00, with a notation saying "Stops north of Tower, later on a water boat comes alongside and she sails later at 2:12), Empire Flame (Catapult freighter, minus her Hurricane). The last ship to leave at 13:22 was the Norwegian Kaia Knudsen (2 red bands on stack).

There's a note saying: "The following ships also went out today but times not known":
City of Dallas, U.S. freighter - 43, Empire Nightingale, Br. - 21, Royalite, Canadian tanker - 34, Sarnolite, Canadian tanker - 54, Northern Ranger, U.S. freighter (I believe this ship was British) - 24, Hanjurand, Panama freighter - 44, Dettifoss, Icelandic freighter - 74.

Related external links:
Sl & SL/MKS Convoys - As mentioned, Drammensfjord is included in SL 101 in Febr.-1942. The site also has a section on the Russian Convoy Series (and others).

Empire Ships

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To the next SC convoy in my list SC 72

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