TNA ADM 199 788 A

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Дуламо 186.
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Admiralty House,
Sheerness.
June 6th, 1940.
REPORT GIVEN VERBALLY TO LIEUT. COMDR. D.E. HOLLAND-MARTIN, R.N.
A.B. S. Palmer D/JX 148052.
He was put in charge of the "Naid Errant", a 7 ton
motor yacht of about 30ft., which started from Sheerness.
She sailed for Dunkirk early on Friday, May 31st as
one of a convoy of 7 motor boats which included the "White
Heather". Before reaching the beaches close to Dunkirk he
helped to rescue the survivors of a French Destroyer. He
picked up about 20, which he transferred to a French tug, and
then proceeded to the beaches. On arrival the French soldiers
swarmed over his boat preventing him going astern so that he
drifted ashore. He left the "Naid Errant" and swam off with his
crew to a Minesweeper, whose name he did not know. Shortly
afterwards thellatter went aground, but, as the tide rose,
both the Minesweeper and the "Naid Errant" floated off. Palmer
asked permission to swim back to his boat, but this being
refused, he shouted to some soldiers on the beach to bring
her alongside. This they managed to do and Palmer jumped
on board, cast off from the Minesweeper, and set course for
home. He was the only naval rating, in a small boat without
a chart, with one serjeant and 8 other soldiers, who he thinks
were from the Middlesex regiment. The sergeant he said was
all right - "he had some rum in his bottle!". Palmer admits
to know nothing about the engines which had already given the
stoker trouble on the way over. Off Dunkirk they broke down,
and so he broke up the yacht's cabin door and made the soldiers
start to paddle. Luckily one of the engines started up and
at about 2200 he left the vicinity of Dunkirk seering W.N.W.
For a brief period one of the soldiers relieved him on the
wheel. The soldier was willing but/new nothing of steering a
course and, as Palmer found him making to the Eastward, he
took over again himself and remained on the wheel througout
the night. At about 0600 on Saturday, June 1st he picked
up the coast somewhere off Dover and followed it up to
Ramsgate arriving there about 1100.
On Sunday, June 2nd, without orders, he sailed
again with a crew of one other A.B., but as the "Naid Errant"
was too slow he was ordered back by the captain of the
"Usanco" after getting two or three miles out from Ramsgate.
A.B. Palmer stated that he passed for Leading
Seaman in May 1927, but presumably cannot have been
recommended. He says that he has three Good Conduct badges
and the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal. He was drafted
for operation Dynamo from R.N.B. Devonport, where he has
recently been employed on the Plymouth City Patrol.
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