TNA MT 40 36 Pt 2

Raw OCR

Unformatted machine-generated OCR for document page 272.

Information supplied to F.S. 3N. bounty Hold
Blackpool 15.1.43
Dunkirk June 100L The on which May was 27th, the 1940,. official and was name concluded for the on
Transport Instructions Officers, had and been in given to local Naval Officers and Sea
Officers, might be used to search either their local some cases ports the for Fisheries any small Department
as Tenders'on the English to go coast on to the shore at Dunkirk craft or to that serve
the there quite operation. was sure just of time The in local the men excitement were for the given to larger a very ships free engaged hand, but on
matter for addresses of the Owners. This, of took, and of the
names and the names of the craft that instruct they them to make
the Admiralty. our Executive side working in close course, co-operation was all with a
Department allowed to pay the piper, and we quickly realised the Finance if we
The operation concluded, it was the task of
lengthy normal procedure to operate it might become that
was due. and involved task to pay compensation to a very whom it
immediately The matter was therefore put to the those to
Committee method would be to create a small and most
straightforward agreed to the suggestion that the simplest Treasury, who
would be to consider the whole affair. All Treasury Departmental difficulties
representative from the Treasury.
overcome by the inclusion on that Committee of a
to in the days following Dunkirk at two points on the French place
There were two other evacuation operations which took
the west of Dunkirk, which were given the official coast
Operations Cycle and Aerial. The Departmental Committee names dealt of
with less these concurrently with the Dynamo Operation. They
is known, operations, and certainly much less dramatic, but were it
of the cráft employed on the 3 operations.
well to of them as it was not possible to separate the names
the Committee dealh with some
involved in the three operations.
Altogether there wore 1,170 small craft of all descriptions
As a first step, on the 12th June 1940 a circular letter
sent to all owners involved, advising them to forward any clas
House. The claims as receivèd were checked against reports then Was
to the Ministry of Shipping, Berkeley Square
coming in from the various ports, and were dealt with speedily and
generally on broad lines. It will be appreciated that owing to
the urgency of the operation there was no time to on-survey the
craft, and there was no certainty as to their condition when
taken over or to what stores and equipment might have been on
board; and the Committee had to judge the claims for damage or
missing equipment mostly on circumstantial evidence. Generall
speaking the claimants acted in the manner one would expect of
loyal citizens, and it was rare that an excessive or doubtful
claim was made.
The claims received fell roughly into 3 major classes:-
(1) Hire and expenses. (2) Repairs and replacements.
(3) Compensation for Total Loss.
So far as expenses other than total loss were concerned
procedure of the Committee was to authorise the Secretary to
with clearly defined and straightforward cases in consultati
with technical or other competent officers of the Department
payments being scheduled and reported to the Committee for
approval. It was also arranged, in the hope of avoiding
the settlement of claims from fishermen whose boats were of
prepare and stand by for the subsequent operations Cycle 8
that the Fishery Officers of the Ministry of Agriculture
8
Fisheries should be authorised to settle them on behalf of