TNA ADM 334 83

LITTLE SHIP CLUB
at
COCKFOSTERS: HERTS.
DUNKIRK. 1940.
Jan 18th. 1931
Name & Address.
INET 3391.
Ship
Dr.B.A.Smith
(Tel:Malden 1461) (Tel:Malden 1461) (Tel:Malden 1461) (Tel:Malden 1461)
Malden,
"Constant Nymph"
Penera
Dear Luard, with an know utterly - and who of I indectiphers
Brought
Commdr.C.H.Lightoller The R.D. "Sundowner"
D.S.M. off name 251 Upper - life include
Cottage, know make him it but being it.
E.J.Wilkins Esq.
body 1611
Ludgate Hill,E.C.4.
a story the the He the THE THE THE it you back or that make We
"Lady Pamela"
did not go but
Lost ship, here sort till says to he they put one got next want of his
C.G.Thompson. Esq.
himself. OVE
Jerminus Court. 4411 / Beluine Rd. Banked! "Thark"
Court
Lieut.F.y. Grenfell, R. N. V.R.
Lost ship.
some commission the Roger He's class in a the this also so and the too. but get old if he went Over?
week,gecond stripe done him for
Avenue, Court, N.W.6
as On Active Service
R.N.V.R.
Sundowner believe ___???___
Esq.
times Went over several
Rd.Ruislip,Middx.
"Letitia"
the the the the this we but blooked from the mad a
Lost ship.? if
The about second was that of best he went over.
(Holborn)
"Spinaway"
yours
Scottie
Downing G.Kimber Dominions Esq. office Jemple Bar 9262
St.s.W.1 Esq.
(12.8.40) House,
4044) W.1
A.R. (now Zoccola abroad) Esq.
difficulties were experienced in regard littl that other side on the morning of the 31st th there was a bit of a breeze and a Ma;
"Bonny Heather"
the difficult to embark troops, except water on very the ship, during the previous night the used.
that it did not matter which side was first warned for duty, that the Navy collecte
(4) It is quite clear, from the time a
boats by way of intelligent anticipation, man

EGG & SMITH.
CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS.
GROVELAND HOUSE,
BOW LANE
J. FRANCIS LEGG.F.C.A.
BASIL A.SMITH,LLD.,FC.A.
F.O.S.LONDON,F.G.A.
LONDON, E.C.4.
TELEPHONE: CITY 4301 (2 LINES)
TELEGRAMS: ACCOLEGITH,PHONE,LONDON.
10th October 1940.
CABLES: ACCOLEGITH,LONDON.
W. B. Louard Esq.,
14 Wood Lane,
FALMOUTH.
Dear Louard,
Little Ship Club, Dunkirk.
In reply to your letter of 7th October, the Ministry of Shipping paid for the repairs to "Constant Nymph" and also paid my claim for lost gear, such as compass, etc.
Of course the claim had to be at cost and there is a very considerable loss as everything is costing more to replace and some of the more expensive things, such as compass, were new in the summer of 1939.
No Article on Dunkirk would be complete without referring to our traffic policeman whom I mention in my
Notes. He was an elderly man in his shirt sleeves, smoking a pipe and reading of newspaper, sitting on of kitchen chair outside the wheel house of a Naval Drifter off the North
Foreland. I presumed the Drifter was in wireless communication with the shore, and every ship, this did not affect motor boats carrying only a few troops, closed with this Drifter and asked the shirt-sleeved gentleman where this lot should be taken, and the shirt-sleeved gentleman took the pipe out of his mouth, looked up from his paper for a moment, and gave them the name of the port to receive their packet.
I should like to have been able to show Hitler and
Goering of Air Force fame this terrified gentleman!
Yours sincerely,
Botman difficulties were experienced in regard that there was a bit of a breeze and a little popple on the other side on the morning of the 31st May, which made it very difficult to embark troops, except on the lee side of the ship, during the previous night the water was so smooth that it did not matter which side was used.
(4) It is quite clear, from the time at which I was first warned for duty, that the Navy collected the small boats by way of intelligent anticipation, many of us were

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

THE
OF
to space
LOVAD
-5-
SEAL
THIS
Birth the it Officers' pistols and the A.A.Lewis guns were unable but to
On two the way back to England we avoided a floating-mine, drifting pop so we informed another ship that was outward bound and it was duly popped in due course.
so
SECURITY
9
in the flbator nor the popping of it, it was first sighted on
The troops on board Laudania evinced no interest whatsoever off and passed behind it, the troops evidently regarded this as our starboard bady and as the tide was running that way we sheered up to see what happened to it.
entirely a naval matter and I do not think any of them even got
He whole course from Rams gate to
Off the Foreland we enquired of the local Policeman, a
Dunkirk waslike gentleman in his shirt-sãeeves on a drifter, as to which port the main strat would take us and were sent to Margate. Three other ships and
1: busy town.
two destroyers also had loads for Margate and we eventually saffee sweral tied up outside two destroyers and landed the whole issue abreast going each across each ethar about 17.30 on 31.24 may way.
I reported to the Naval Office with my crew of two and we were promptly put in a taxi and sent back to our own port at
Ramsgate, a matter of a few minutes which might have been a dreary Journey by train. As throughout, there was no red tape in the Navy at all, they had ready everything that was necessary and our general instructions were that if we were in any sort of trouble we could close any ship we saw as it would be one of ours.
On arrival at Ramsgate I reported to the Commander = the
Naval Office and within five minutes my crew had been taken off to the temporary barracks established by the Harbour and I was on my way to getting a bed for the night inaan Hotel.
On Saturday, 1st June, I reported at Pier Head abouto9.
and asked for another boat and before lunch time had taken over one which had only been brought into Ramsgate that morning and german put her into commission with a new crew. This boat was an old
Admiral's barge from the last war, to which the only conversion of any importance seemed to be that the steam engine had been fitted where the original funnel existed. The engine was a fourtaken out and a petrol engine substituted, a dummy funnel being cylinder engine with cylinders of enormous size, it had no self-starter and worked with a clutch, being in fact a lorry engine. The engine was a brute to start and the gear lever required a strong man to put it into any position, but the engine was started and run over for a few minutes by the man who stated that he had brought the ship round from the Thames pressing. and he assured me that it was good for 12 knots without undue is not got been over my new crew had
As we were all anxious to go over again, but I did not relish in fact.
the idea of being towed any more, the prospect of being able to in about six hours each way was very welcome, and I decided that go over under my own steam at 12 knots and so make the journey on this occasion we would do what most of the larger motor boats had been doing, namely run over under our own steam, pick up a boat-load and come back with them. I was informed that the new boat only drew 3'2" so that it would be quite possible for the troops to get to the boat without swimming. This still did not strike me as being a very efficient method of getting the troops off but I felt that some real work had been done with Constant
Nymph and I had been informed that morning shat 187, 000 were this boat could already off so that I felt justified in indulging in something men should think have taken 35
more in the nature of a pienic, especiably as cigarettes and other little comforts had been provided on the boat by the owner for the rescued troops. We had already victualled the boat and obtained our water supplies and directly after lunch we cast off to go across the Harbour and get petrol, having as a quite unauthorised passenger an old member of my own Club who

OF
GROUP
BEAT
-7-
pubs around the harbour in about two minutes, and a seething crowd gathered round the Naval Office near the entrance but this proved to be a pure navy job and they were only taking the minimum number necessary so as to have more room for the troops, only Naval Officers were chosen and a very small proportion of those available at that. The correspondent who had been coming with me, a competent motor boat man himself, had seen there was little chance of our getting away on Saturday and jumped another boat which got across that night so he got his real experience all right, I may say most of the correspondents down there went across at least once.
By Tuesday morning, 4th June, the real operations were over and senior officers were turning up from different places to try and straighten out records, etc., among them the
Commodore from Sheerness who had looked after us thoroughly there. I was coming along to the exit from the Harbour from my wretched house boat to lunch on shore and this Commodore was standing near the entrance talking to a post-Captain whom
I did not know by sight; when I was within 20 yards of them the Commodore happened to look in my direction, promptly
One nice piece of as shifting was done by waing the slight breeze, which was stonger than the tide act against it, to take this hulk across 2/3 rdo of the harbour with oput her within 2 yards of where the was to tie up on the other side.
had some anxious moments half through this evolution, butwas very proud whom it anceeded.
pointed towards me with a very pleasant smile, said loudly and firmly "Constant Nymph". Considering that he had exchanged about 20 words with me a week before when busily engaged over all the possible wants of 20 or 30 motor boats, this officer must have a memory for faces and names that would leave an experienced hotel keeper blushing in despair. As my boat would not move, except by manhandling, and we often had to shift in this manner for one reason and another, and the show seemed to be over, I busied myself in trying to obtain a passage for myself and crew back to Sheerness as & large number of boats had already gone and quite a lot of drifters etc. were laid up in the Harbour, while the crews had their three days Dunkirk leave.
The difference in the town was most marked, naval uniforms were becoming comparatively rare. Unfortunately a lot of the senior officers concerned with the motor boat side seemed to have gone on leave by this time and it was not until Wednesday evening that I could get any useful information. I then found that an officer was supposed to be coming over from Sheerness on Thursday, 6th June, to take a boat named Cairngorm back to Sheerness and it was suggested that I might accompany him if the boat could be found, apparently two officers were looking for her at the moment as nobody knew where she was.
On returning to my boat I found that Cairngorn was lying amongst two or three others just astern of me and had received a nasty bump on the starboard buby which had smashed gerabohed quite a bit of the planking; it proved later on examination that two of the ribs had been broken at the top.
On Thursday morning, 6th June, the expected Officer arrived, and proved to be a very young man just down from
Oxford and waiting to get into the Air Force who had taken this boat to Dunkirk and had then been back to Sheerness for some reason.
The compass had been smashed by a bomb splinter on the other side, but the damage to the hull had apparently been done in harbour while he was away. As the damage was pretty well all above water line we got the navy carpenters to patch it with canvast and battens, obtained a chart, filled up with petrol and got under way about 14.30. My arew, on being given the choice of going back to Sheerness by rail or helping us two to navigate the crock back to Sheerness at once elected to come by sea, three of them never having been to sea before.
The boat was a beauty, a 45 foot twin screw Therneycroft, and