TNA MT 40 36 Pt 2

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of shipping. We chugged steadily through the night. About
three oclock in the morning- still on the wheel and in my
wet clothes- my eyes got a bit shaky through looking down
into the compass bowl all the time ( the compass I had was
a grid steering compass and I didn't know a darned thing
about it except that it had eight points on it- North,
North east, East, South east, South, South west, West and
Northwest). However, I felt confident that I should roach
Dover, for I knew the geography of the coast- SO I asked
a soldier to take the wheel whilst I looked out into the
night to give my eyes a rest. I had been looking round
for about five minutes when something seemed to tell me
that we were not going in the right direction, SO I
immediately goes down and has a look at the compass- to
find that we were steaming due EAST- back to Dunkirk
again!
Well, I couldn't blame the soldier. He was half
asleep anyway, and seamanship is not his job after all, SO
I took over the wheel
Just after dawn I struck
Dover dead centre and then followed the coast up to Ramsgate
arriving thero at eleven and put the soldiers ashore on
the pier.
lty
Straight away I took the boat to be filled up
ce
again with petrol, water and provisions, and got an engineer
to fix up the engines- they were covered with sand. Then I
C.
was ready for another trip. I first went ashore to report my
Sea-
safe arrival and was told to get into some dry clothes.
1.
They rigged me out with civilian clothes and after a hot
bath I felt brand new again.
I did two more trips over there, ferrying the
troops from the beach to the big ships, then filling my own