Attached as part of the defensive net around Convoy PQ 17, on receiving the third order to scatter on 4 July 1942, Gradwell concluded that as he was heading north to the Arctic ice shelf, he might as well take some merchant ships with him.

On reaching the Arctic ice pack, the convoy found itself stuck fast, so the ships stopped engines and banked their fires.

[8] After a period of waiting, and having evaded the reconnoitring Luftwaffe aircraft, finding themselves unstuck they proceeded to the Matochkin Strait in Novaya Zemlya.

[12] After the British publishing rights to Hubert Selby, Jr.'s novel Last Exit to Brooklyn were acquired by Marion Boyars and John Calder in January 1966, Gradwell was the judge for the private prosecution brought by Sir Cyril Black, the then Conservative Member of Parliament for Wimbledon.

[14][15] The order was overturned by a successful appeal issued by the lawyer and writer John Mortimer: Mr Justice Lane reversed the ruling in 1968.