TNA ADM 334 83

Raw OCR

Unformatted machine-generated OCR for document page 60.

COPY
act of letter from Lieut. Charles Waterland Read, R.N.
dated 11th Sept.1940.
" I was sent to Ramsgate for the Evacuation, and selected the BONNY
HEATHER myself as a leader of a Convoy of motor boats for the Beach
work, and believe me the choice was justified, as of the whole lot
attached to the Convoy we were the only one to finish the course
throughout.
I'm afraid I am rather bad at descriptive accounts, but perhaps
one day I may have the pleasure of meeting you and then probably
be able to tell you more about the affair. This I can tell you, the
BONNY HEATHER behaved like a perfect lady in spite of theunusual
treatment she received, and stood up to it like a trojan and never
let us down - 7 complete round trips Ramsgate/Dunkirk after filling up
Transports (lying off) from the Beaches.
You say you heard third hand that we carried 80 men. I
don't know, of course, who told you that, but it was true on the last
trip, but normally about 60. On one trip that we picked up survivors
from the S.S. "Scotia" which was sunk by bombs, when full of French
Colonial tropps, we picked up the Chief Steward and 40 soldiers out
of the water and with our own crew a total of 45 wet sodden men, some
all in and they were lying about and not standing as soldiers were
in goodish condition, so you can imagine what your little vessel had
to put up with.
We tried to keep her in as good condition as possible under
the circumstances from sheer admiration of the gallant little ship,
which in my opinion deserves to carry the .C.colours.
I can't even begin to describe the Hell under which the
operations were carried out - bombed, machine gunned, shelled, caught
in parachute flares and bombed. - that little ship was certainly built
И
in a lucky zone, and dodging and twisting never once let us down,
f
loaded as she was.
V
dt
Trusting I have not bored you with this account, which I
tl
regret to say does not do justice to your famous little vessel. "
no
We
Th
on
iel
ne
I S
is
inf
whi
S.V
a machine gun and ammunition on board.
masts and putting on quay and fixing machine gun on deck -
all ready to sail at 2.30 p.m. Orders came to proceed
outside harbour at 4 p.m. to the Tug "SUN XV" to be towed
across in company with other yachts. Three other yachts
make fast astern of us, under way 6.35 p.m. Engines running
at half-speed to ease the strain of the tow ropes. Slight
swell. The tow ropes of two of the yachts broke and they
were told to proceed on under own power. Arrived off Dunkin
at 11.30 p.m. and cast off from Tug. Proceeded into Dunkir
past the Mole, and up the Canal for about 2 miles. Moored
alongside the quay and proceeded to take troops on board.
Could find no Englishmen so took on board 40 Frenchmen.