Mother, brother, sister and myself sailed from Liverpool to Montreal on the SS Duchess of Athol in September 1940. We returned in convoy from New York to Liverpool on board the NZSS Rangitata arriving in UK in November 1944. There were some "incidents" on both journeys. How can I find the ships' captains' logs and the convoy commander's log? Do the passenger lists still exist and, if so, where?
Welcome to the forum Colin. I cannot help however someone may be able to steer you in the right direction.
Colin, welcome to the board, and good luck with your quest. Britain's National Archives and the Imperial War Museum would be two good places to start, as well as the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.
Mother, brother, sister and myself sailed from Liverpool to Montreal on the SS Duchess of Athol in September 1940. We returned in convoy from New York to Liverpool on board the NZSS Rangitata arriving in UK in November 1944. There were some "incidents" on both journeys. How can I find the ships' captains' logs and the convoy commander's log? Do the passenger lists still exist and, if so, where? Hello Colymar, I am new here but "Duchess of Athol" caught my eye ! I was an "evacuee" in the summer of 1940 in the Duchess of Athol, Liverpool to Montreal, and thence by train to New Jersey. Returned summer 1943, joined Royal Navy 1944. Seem to remember "incidents" each way too. peterpc
Can't help yu much with the merchantships, but tracking them down though u-boat.net or Red Duster may be useful. As to the war ships contacting the National Archives at Kew is a must. They have all the surviving ships records. Unfortunately the logs of those ships of Destroyer and smaller after 1940ish were destroyed during the war as there was no space to store them. First you need to discover your convoy number, which the information is out there on the net, but it involves extensive google searches down to page 70+ to find the information amongst the dross, then when you have the convoy number you can contact Kew who should have all the records and hopefully reports. Then through Red Duster and other such associations you can find info on the merchant ships. I hope this is of help but it will take you days to track down the convoy number, then you will need to get down to Kew to go through logs and records.
Mother, brother, sister and myself sailed from Liverpool to Montreal on the SS Duchess of Athol in September 1940. We returned in convoy from New York to Liverpool on board the NZSS Rangitata arriving in UK in November 1944. There were some "incidents" on both journeys. How can I find the ships' captains' logs and the convoy commander's log? Do the passenger lists still exist and, if so, where? I think we were on the same voyage. I, too, was with my mother, brother and sister. I was seven/eight and remember several incidents including a "depth charge " (?) which caused the cabin to flood. I recall being assembled on deck, at Liverpool, to be addressed by the captain (?) who reminded us that security was still important and therefore we should not divulge the name of our ship.
Abdartington, Hello and welcome to the forum. Unfortunately ColyMar only posted once and has not posted since January 2006. Regards Tom
Just in case it may help someone else. The information you required for Log Books is kept at The National Archives at Kew in BT381 under the ships Official No's. Unfortunately I cant access their database at the moment to tell you the exact file numbers. Rangitata 149564 Duchess of Athol 160505
