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Convoy HX 220 - warsailors.com

CONVOY HX 220
Departed New York on Dec. 21-1942 and arrived Liverpool on Jan. 9-1943.
Arnold Hague's "The Allied Convoy System" gives 33 ships in this convoy.

Transcribed from several documents received from Roger Griffiths (Advance Sailing Telegram, A 1 form etc.) - His source: Public Records Office, Kew. The ships are listed in the order in which they appear on the various documents. Crossed out ships did not sail, underlined ships returned to port. MOWT = Ministry of War Transport For info, some of the ships in this convoy are listed in the westbound convoy ON 162, leaving Liverpool on Jan. 23-1943, others are listed in ON 164 in Febr.-1943.
Ship	Nationality	Cargo	Station	Destination	Remarks
Bralanta	Norwegian	Admiralty tanker	–	Clyde	From HX 219
Haakon Hauan	"	Tanker W	–	Avonmouth	Sailed in HX 221
Ingria	"	general	–	Hull	Sailed in HX 221
Castalia	British	general - passengers	–	Hull	To HX 221 - cancelled
Empire Trader	"	refrig. - general - passengers - mail	–	Mersey f. o.	Sailed in HX 221
Fort Paskoyak	"	general	102	Liverpool	–
Fort Wedderburne	"	general	84	Manchester	–
Silverbeech	"	general - passengers - mail	–	Liverpool	Sailed in HX 221
Fort Hudson's Hope	"	timber - grain - metal	11	London	–
Baharistan	"	general	61	London	Commodore vessel
Fort Slave	"	timber - grain - metal	13	Hull	–
B. P. Newton	Norwegian	Tanker W	–	Avonmouth	Sailed in HX 221
Mokambo	Belgian	general - mail	81	Liverpool	–
Voco	British	lub. oil	91	Mersey	From HX 219
Gulf of Venezuela	American	Tanker B	–	Clyde	Returned to New York (see Notes) Sailed in HX 221
Esso Bayonne	"	Admiralty tanker	–	Stanlow	To HX 221 - did not sail
Henri Jaspar	Belgian	general - passengers - mail	82	Liverpool	From HX 219
Mosli	Norwegian	Admiralty fuel	63	Scapa	–
Pan-Rhode Island	American	Tanker W	94	Manchester	–
Stad Vlaardingen	Dutch	general	52	Liverpool	–
Consuelo	British	general	74	Liverpool	From HX 219
Abangarez	American	general - explosives - mail	53	Barry Dock	–
Abraham Lincoln	Norwegian	general	–	Liverpool	Sailed in HX 221
Nicania	British	gasoline	12	Lamlash for Ardrossan	–
Empire Nugget	"	Tanker W	–	Swansea	Sailed in HX 221
Delius	"	general	42	Liverpool	–
Pachesham	"	general	31	Glasgow	Vice Commodore Returned to port (St. John's) see Notes
Cairnesk	"	general	71	Liverpool	–
Noesa Niwi	Dutch	general - explosives	83	Holyhead / Liverpool	–
Nordlys	Danish / MOWT 1940	general	–	London
Andrew Moore	American	general (valuables) - mail	41	Loch Ewe	Returned to port (St. John's) see Notes
Cornelius Harnett	"	general (valuables)	33	Clyde f. o.	Listed in Convoy JW 52 to Murmansk, leaving Loch Ewe Jan 17-1943
Silverash	British	palm oil - seeds	103	Liverpool	–
Nicholas Gilman	American	general - explosives - mail	32	Clyde f. o.	–
Southern Sun	"	Tanker	–	Liverpool	–
N. T. Nielsen Alonso	Norwegian	fuel - teak cargo	44	Clyde	–
Thurland Castle	British	general - passengers	54	Milford Haven / Southampton	–
Wallace E. Pratt	American	diesel oil	92	U.K.	Returned to port (Halifax) (see Notes) Sailed in HX 221
John Carver	"	general - passengers - mail	101	Liverpool	–
Additionally, the following ships are listed on the A 1 form (not mentioned in the Advance Sailing Telegram): Fred W. Weller (Am), crude oil for Halifax, station 13 (see Notes). HMS Battler - station 62
Joining from Halifax departed Dec. 23
Skaraas	Norwegian	Tanker W	92	Liverpool	–
Vav	"	Tanker B	43	Clyde	–
Moveria	British	general	51	Avonmouth	–
Empire Tide	"	grain	64	Mersey	From HX 219
Tropic Star	Norwegian	general	95	Belfast Dock / Cardiff	From HX 219
Stuart Prince	British	general	73	Liverpool	–
Mathew Luckenbach	American	general	–	Avonmouth	From HX 219
Gdynia	Swedish	general	45	Belfast Dock	–
From St. John's
Kofresi	American	general	–	Iceland	To Convoy SC 114
Good Gulf	Panamanian	Admiralty tanker oil	34?	Liverpool	–

Notes:
Commodore, Admiral A. J. Davies C.B. was in Baharistan (also, Commodore W. van du Donker), Vice Commodore in Pachesham.

The convoy had a total of 39 ships.

Average speed: 6.91 knots

Gulf of Venezuela returned to New York on Dec. 22 with defective steering gear
Wallace E. Pratt (referred to as William E. Pratt by Commodore) had condensor trouble and was sent to Halifax on Dec. 24 with Fred. W. Weller and escort.
Pachesham and Andrew Moore - deck cargo shifted in gale, sent to St. John's on Dec. 28, 49 56 (54?)N 46 44W.
Tropic Star and Mathew Luckenbach became stragglers on Dec. 28, evidently had to stop for short while during night and did not get alteration of route.

Commodore's comments on station keeping etc.:
Nicholas Gilman very bad, but improved at end. Cornelius Harnett and Southern Sun "not good", others good. Moravia (does he mean Moveria?), Nicania and Stad Vlaardingen" very good indeed".

He adds:
Again I should like to commend the Master of Moravia(?) for his excellent station keeping and signalling and especially on night of 7th January when I had to turn over guide as the first ship took over racing ahead had to make his guide in a gale at dusk (strange sentence). His excellent course and revolutions kept the convoy together.
I cannot speak too highly of Captain Metcalfe and the officers of S.S. Baharistan and especially the Chief Engineer and his staff whose steadiness in course and revolution in 2 gales were of the utmost assistance in keeping the convoy together.

Narrative of Voyage:
Left New York in a N.W.'ly snow blizzard temp 14°F. Only 30 out of 40 ships sailing.
Fair weather HOMP to WESTOMP without fog.
Dec. 27 - North wind freshened during night to N.E.'ly gale which lasts 4 days. Average speed under 5 knots. On the evening of 27th just after dusk escort passed CONNAV 1725/Z/27 to ? (meet?) at 2005/Z/27. This altered route 20° to port and as ships could not be warned previously and R.V.'s were thrown out resulted in 2 and my only stragglers.
Saturday Jan. 2, 59 05N 32 31W P.M. - Easterly gale reducing speed to 3 1/2 knots on 4th January and very strong easterly wind with rough sea. Continues to P.M. 7th January av. speed under 5 knots.
P.M. Jan. 7, 12°W - approaching N.W. approaches a full easterly gale again catches us.
The barometer during whole passage was never below 29.60 and up as high 30.18.

Escorts:
From New York to Halifax (HOMP - Dec. 24) - Warwick and 6 corvettes
From HOMP to WESTOMP (Dec. 27) - Warwick and 2 corvettes/also 2 other
From WESTOMP to 7°W (except for Beverly and Winchelsea who had to proceed to Iceland for fuel) - Beverly, Winchelsea and 5 corvettes.
Also, HMS Battler.

Air Escort: From New York up to Dec. 27 (48 25N 49 30W) only. No Iceland or Home Based aircraft seen.

Related external links:
Liberty Ships - Some of the ships listed as American in this convoy were Liberty Ships, this website has an alphabetical list of them.
Fort Ships of WW II - Alphabetical list (a warning: pop-ups).

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To the next HX convoy in my list HX 221

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