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STORE TOTAL motal
showed me a souvenir pencil with our ship's name on it - "KING GEORGE V" (one
of those we sold in the ship), which he had bought last summer while on a trip
to Staffa and Iona. He was so proud of it, and as I happened to have one or
two on hand I gave his pals a present of them, and they were delighted and
said they would show me them when they were on holiday and we were back on our
own run again.
alvIng
Flow
We arrived back safely at Margate and were not long before we were on our
way back again. We did several trips across to Dunkirk, and in spite of all
the bombing and shelling we received, we always brought our complement of
"passengers" safely home. One trip, shortly before the final evacuation,
going along "Hell's Lane" we had a good laugh at a remark made by one of the
crew. We were being bombed by a Jerry at the time and one of his bombs
Ri
dow
landed very close to us. "By Gosh!" he said, "If that one had landed on us
we would all have been blown into 'Maternity'".
VISA
On our final trip back from Dunkirk we heard a heavy explosion astern of
blos
us, and looking back we saw a cloud of smoke. At once we put about to render
or
what assistance we could, as we knew that some ship had been blown up by a
only
mine. As we came nearer and the smoke had cleared away, the ship had gone, but
the sea was covered with oil and pieces of wreckage and people's heads bobbing
about. We had our life-boats out and manned. It was a gruesome task lifting
the survivors out of the water as most of them were seriously injured. They
40
included men and women; as far as I know we rescued about 69, including the
of
Commander, but he died in one of our life-boats before we got back to our ship.
We carried them into our dining saloon as very few of them were able to walk,
the majority suffering from broken limbs. Our saloon was like a hospital,
and it was not a nice sight. However we did all we could to help the
survivors until we were able to receive medical assistance. We broke up
wooden boxes to make splints and tore up linen to make bandages, and those who
were bleeding badly we made tourniquets, but they were all in a terrible mess
with oil. Some of them had very little clothes on. We gave them blankets
and made them tea and coffee and tried to make them as comfortable as we could,
but unfortunately three of them died before we got to Margate.
When we got there we soon got medical assistance, and stretchers on board,
and had them all removed to hospital. One of the survivors whom we picked up
was suffering very much from shock and cold. We could not get him to stop
shivering, so we put him on top of steam press in the pantry, but forgot to
shut off the steam. Needless to say he did not stay long there - however,
it stopped his shivering.
I never thought I would see the saloon of the "KING GEORGE V" turned into
a first-aid station, but one never knows what is going to happen next, so we
just have to take things as they come along and be prepared for almost anything.
got orders proceed to Southampton. After being a few days at Southampton
We to left Margate for Dover, but were only there for one day when we got
six orders months to proceed to the Clyde, so here we are back to where we left nearly we
hope sound, having completed a duty - shall I say, "well done" (at again,
and ago, and I need not add that we are all glad to be back safe
in the so). I will write you again and let you know how we are getting least, along, I
meantime wishing you all the best.
Yours sincerely,
(Signed) George L. Weir.