The ships lost in November were taking part in the misconceived Operation F.B., a result of Roosevelt's inability to withstand pressure from Stalin to send supplies to replace the cancelled convoy PQ 19, and in turn Churchill's inability to withstand Roosevelt's insistent requests. Only five of the 13 ships which sailed to the USSR from Iceland made it through. This was all the more futile because Rommel's collapse on 4 November and the Torch landings four days later meant that there would be very few Luftwaffe strike aircraft left in Norway by the end of the month. Delaying Operation F.B. by several weeks would probably have saved the lives of most of those who died.
Michel, are you referring to an article by René Alloin in Navires & Histoire, or some other text?
The other Soviet transport ship sunk during the operation, the steamship Donbass, may have been carrying the Soviet spy Arnold Deutsch. See the links below:
Roskill's history of the war at sea:
"Forty ships were ready loaded by the end of September, but to send them would have meant postponing Operation 'Torch' for three weeks. Very heavy pressure was applied by the Russians to get us to send the convoy; but the Prime Minister and the War Cabinet held firmly to the need to place first strategic requirements first. On the 22nd of September Mr. Churchill told President Roosevelt that the time had come to tell Stalin that there would be no PQ 19, and that we could not run any more PQ convoys until January. The President, however, considered this 'a tough blow for the Russians' and urged that the convoy should be sailed in several successive groups, which Mr. Churchill described as impossible of fulfilment."
Admiralty War Diaries transcribed by Don Kindell:
The sailing of eastbound and westbound independently routed merchant ships between Iceland and North Russia commenced during the first half of November. A/S trawlers were sailed from Reykjavik and Archangel to act as rescue ships during the operation and they were augmented by two submarines from patrol off the Norwegian coast.
The following tables show the progress of the Operation:"
https://www.naval-history.net/xDKWD-HF1942d.htm
Operation FB (ii)
"This was the designation of the Allied passage of independently routed eastbound and westbound ships between Iceland and Murmansk on the north-west coast of the USSR (October/December 1942)."
https://codenames.info/operation/fb-ii/
Operation Hoffnung
"This was a German unsuccessful naval undertaking by the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper, escorted by four destroyers, against Allied merchant vessels making independent passages from Scotland to the northern USSR (5/9 November 1942)."
https://codenames.info/operation/hoffnung/
Bordfliegerkommando 1/196
http://www.luftwaffe-zur-see.de/Seeluft/196%20Bordfliegergruppe/Bkdo_Hipper.htm
The dauntless SS Donbass…
https://ciphermysteries.com/2014/10/19/dauntless-ss-donbass
Search for the wreck of M/S Chumleigh, lost off Svalbard, 1942FCO 76/1863
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C11501988SS
Chumleigh Deaths
https://news.gov.scot/resources/ss-chulmleigh-deaths