page_title: SS Dover Hill
section_title: Convoy JW 53
hierarchical_section_title: SS Dover Hill / Convoy JW 53
caption_attribution_description: English: The Arctic Convoys The view from the bridge of the Royal Navy cruiser HMS SHEFFIELD as she battles heavy seas while escorting convoy JW 53 to Russia, February 1943. The ship suffered severe structural damage during three days of storms and had to return to port for repairs.
context_page_description: SS Dover Hill was a United Kingdom shelter deck cargo steamship. She was launched as Maenwen but after completion in March 1918 she entered service with Clan Line who renamed her Clan Macvicar. She spent most of her career under this name, but is noted for her Second World War service under her later name Dover Hill.
  In 1936 the Dover Hill Steamship Co. bought Clan Macvicar, renamed her Dover Hill and placed her under the management of Counties Ship Management Ltd. Dover Hill SS Co was a one-ship company established under CSM control to own the ship.
  In the Second World War Dover Hill served with distinction on Arctic convoy duty. In the Normandy landings she was scuttled as a Corn Cob block ship for a Gooseberry Harbour.
context_section_description: In January 1943 Dover Hill loaded a cargo of fighter aircraft, guns and munitions, plus a deck cargo of Matilda II tanks, lorries in cases and drums of lubricating oil protected by sandbags. On 23 January she sailed from her anchorage off Gourock in the Firth of Clyde and on 25 January she anchored in Loch Ewe. On 15 February she sailed for the USSR as one of 28 merchant ships in Arctic convoy JW 53. The flagship was the cruiser HMS Belfast and the convoy's other escorts included the cruisers Cumberland and Sheffield, escort carrier Dasher and 15 destroyers.
  JW 53 has been referred to as "The Forgotten Convoy". As it sailed northward it encountered heavy winds. Six merchant ships were damaged and diverted to Iceland along with the cruiser Sheffield and the armed trawler HMT Lord Middleton. A Royal Navy flotilla led by the cruiser Scylla relieved the original escorts off Iceland. However, during the storm the aircraft carrier Dasher had suffered engine trouble and returned to the Firth of Clyde, leaving JW 53 without air cover.
  In the storm Dover Hill's drums of oil were lost overboard, the lorries were damaged and then they too were lost overboard. Her crew managed to save the Matilda II tanks. The poor weather scattered the ships but the weather moderated and by 20 February its Royal Navy escorts reformed the remaining 22 merchant ships into the convoy.
  By now the convoy was sailing through pancake ice, which along with the naval escort ensured there were no U-boat attacks. However, on 24 February a Luftwaffe patrol aircraft shadowed the convoy and the next day Junkers Ju 88 aircraft bombed the convoy. Dover Hill was damaged and one of her gunners was wounded. The convoy reached the Kola Inlet on the northern coast of Russia on 27 February. 15 cargo ships from the convoy docked in Murmansk while seven others continued south to Archangel. Despite air attacks and adverse weather, JW 53 had lost no merchant ships en route.
caption: The storm that hit Convoy JW 53, pictured from the bridge of the cruiser HMS Sheffield
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