This is an electronic transcript of the official Convoy Cruising Order for Convoy ON270 which sailed for New York, Halifax and other Canadian ports on December 4, 1944. In this convoy, there were 11 columns and 6 rows of ships with some empty positions in the centre rear. Each cell in the table contains specific information about the ship. Reading from left to right and top to bottom:

Pendant No. (ie M  44)
Type of Cargo (ie  X = explosive, T = tanker, P = passengers)
Name of Ship
Country of Registry
Call Sign
Displacement in Kilotons
Function, if any (ie ND= Net Defense)
Height of Mast above Waterline (in feet)

Some of the cells have been intentionally colour coded to make the function of the ship easier to identify. The original document did not have such colouring. The Convoy Cruising Order has been adapted for display on a Web page as the original was on an  'L' shaped piece of paper. Originally transcribed from a nearly legible copy of the original by Jerry Proc on March 8, 1995. A few of the ships had errors in their call signs. These were corrected from a list supplied by Spud Roscoe, Halifax on September 16/97. Where the original text was illegible, I have substituted a question mark. When displaying, some of the text in the main table may be mis-positioned due to some anolomy in Netscape Composer.

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(Continuation of table. This was taped to page 1)
 

012	013	014
121	131 LIGHT REPEATING  SHIPS IN PENDANTS 31,91,22,42,72,102,33 85,24,104,45,85	141
122	132 SOUND REPEATING  SHIPS - ALL COLUMN LEADERS AND COLUMNS  3, 6, & 9	142
123	133 EXPLOSIVES -  PENDANTS 85, 95 PASSENGERS-  PENDANTS 33 60 males 30 females 10 children	143
124	134	144

 

Distance between columns: East  of  7  deg West     3 cables West of  7  deg West     5 cables Distance between ships in column: To R/V      2 cables Than         3 cables Normal cruising speed: 9.5 knots	Commodore (individual)                YMD1 Vice Commodore (individual)        YMD2 Whole Convoy                              YMD3 Commodore's portion of Convoy  YMD4 Vice-commodore's portion of Convoy                                        YMD5  Senior Office of Escort                 YMD6 Stragglers from Convoy                YMD9 Individual Ships - Pdt. No. preceded by___ Columns - Column No. preceded by ____	LOCAL INSTRUCTIONS Ships will weigh to pass the Rock Light at the following times:                                              B.S.T.   61 Port Sydney...................1130/4 111 Hannibal Hamlin............   51 Wm. G. Fargo................   82 Gefion...........................   41 David L. Yulee.............. 112 Thomas U. Walker........   85 Manchester Explorer.....   95 Manchester Port...........   86 Manchester Division.... 115 Cornerbrook.................
ESCORT C.3. KOKANEE ST. THOMAS TRILLIUM FOREST HILL RIVIERE DU LOOP Local Escort -  KIRKELLA	SECTIONAL CALL SIGNS MERSEY                               YME3 BELFAST                              YMH3 CLYDE                                  YMK3 MILFORD HAVEN                YMI3 LOCK EWE                           YMQ3 ENGLISH CHANNEL            YMO3 Ships for New York                YMS3 Ships for Halifax                     YMX3 Ships for St. Lawrence Ports   YMT3 Convoy Code-Word (not to be  transmitted by merchant ship)________	When clear of the Swept channel, ships will form into two columns without further signal as under :- 61          111 51            82 41          112 85            95 86          115

T.D.  666/42   (29/1/43) (899) Wt. 18192/D779  20M  7/43  S.E.R. Ltd. Gp.671