TNA ADM 334 83

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Dunkirk Operations.
May/June, 1940.
Addenda to Note of Movements by B.A.Smith, owner and
Master, M.C.Constant Nymph, Little Ship Club.
Nothing was heard of Constant Nymph, although I had
several sources of enquiry looking for her, except a
statement from a man I knew slightly that he had met a
man who lived at Broadstairs who told him that Constant
Nymph had been brought over by some French soldiers who
had been left behind at Dunkirk, and was stranded at
Broadstairs.
This seemed a very unlikely story as she was last seen
in the custody of the Royal Navy who were not likely to
have abandoned a boat on the other side which was in a
condition to be brought over under her own power. I therefore
did not go down to Broadstairs to verify.
As it turns out, this statement seems probably true
because the boat was at Broadstairs in fact, and found
there by Tuffs of Teddington who were going round collecting
these boats with a tug and on the 11th July I had a letter
from Tuffs saying that they towed Constant Nymph back from
Broadstairs and recognising her as a Ohris Cruiser's boat
they had turned her over to moorings at Thris Cruiser's Yard.
On the 12th July I was over at Isleworth bright and
early to see the boat and found her sound in hull, and
apparently, reasonably sound in engine, but otherwise badly
battered and stripped of everything movable. She bore every
evidence of having been used for further embarkation work
in charge of somebody who had very little experience of
motor boat handling, she had evidently been brought alongside
repeatedly in a very clumsy manner. This appearance from
the damage, to the covering boards, and edging, and the splitting
of the work of the starboard panel of the cabin trunk was
later confirmed by the state of the gear box, the damage
to which was such as would not be caused to a considerable
extent by putting the engines ahead und the astern without
throttling down sufficiently at the change over.
There was ample evidence that she had been occupied by
French and British soldiers, some of the things left scattered
about were undoubtedly French equipment and a pair of battle
dress leggings were undoubtedly British.
The boat was in a filthy state but I imagine the local
long-shoremen at Broadstairs were the gentry responsible for
a large amount of the looting which had been done. I cannot
imagine a soldier taking away a compass weighing 7 lbs. as a
souvenir, nor do I imagine soldiers wanted all mynavipation books restruments
and all my rope or my side lights, or the two gallon alluminium
water jar.
The boat has now been repaired and looks pretty much her
old self again although I am still awaiting delivery of a new
compass and lead.
16th August I was awarded the D.S.M. for work at Dunkirk,
30th September, Constant Nymph was moved up to Chertsey to
take over night patrol work on the up-river section of the
Home Guard, the River Section reserve the Little Ship Club,
which I had been in from the start, having been dispanded.
Bad