Convoy PQ 17 was the penultimate of the PQ/QP series of arctic convoys, bound from British ports through the Arctic Ocean via Reykjavík to the White Sea ports of the Soviet Union, particularly Murmansk and Archangel.
After it scattered each ship began its individual journey to the Russian ports.
Some ships took refuge along the frozen coast of Novaya Zemlya, landing at Matochkin.
[2] Of the forty-one ships which left Iceland, three were forced to return, and twenty-four were sunk.
[3] Ten merchant ships (one British, six American, one Panamanian and two Russian) and four auxiliaries reached Archangel, and delivered 70,000 tons out of the 200,000 which had started from Iceland.