TNA MT 40 66

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Time
THE
145
to
впогов
.
wode
bus
OF
DUNKIRK OPERATIONS.
BLUOW
123RF
*
yous
RECEIVED
11111121
S.S. "LOCHGARRY"
-
bases DEVITIS Salamod TTTS Mod %
(Lirt
16
Report by Captain Ewen MacKinnon.
35
SW
BROW
The "LOCHGARRY" having been fitted out in Greenock for a special charter,
Les
we were placed on six hours' notice, and having got over the ordeal of signing
on for foreign articles, and the vessel really ready for sea - trimmed
with ballast, and fitted with equipment of all kind, all of us were "straining
OF
at the leash" to get away from the Clyde, somewhere. It did not matter very
Sags Jedw
much where, so long as we were away from the Clyde!
When the orders did come at last they came at the most unexpected and
awkward hour - at 10 p.m. Proceed to sea, so and so. Nearly every one of
Juods
the crew were now at their homes having waited till late, and all being satisfied
that there would be no orders till next morning. But it was my lookout to sail
ONJ
the ship on time, and the crew had to be roped in someway. The P.O. was closed
load
for telegrams and telephone, but I managed to get in touch with them all by
another method, and with one or two exceptions I got them all together before
sailing time.
We then started off from the Clyde for an altogether different destination
from what we expected, and what we fitted out particularly for. We arrived in
Liverpool in good order and waited for some days expecting to do some useful
work, but in this we were disappointed, for the job we were hoping to do did
not come off, viz., to carry Belgian refugees to a certain Island.
We spent several days in Liverpool in the Stanley Dock in company with the
S.S. "KILLARNEY", and everything went very well until one night after 6 p.m.
orders were received to raise steam at once and proceed to Dover without a
moment's delay on any account - get out of the dock by midnight and proceed at
full speed on a certain track down channel. In this we were successful, but
the "KILLARNEY" did not manage, so we missed her company that night! Pilot on
board and all ready we left the dock on time, and proceeded to the Bar where we
discharged the Pilot, shouting, "Good-Night, Captain, Good-Night, and the best
of luck, for I know you need all the luck you can get tonight". So we plunged
forth into a pitch black night without a speck of light, nor was there any
light to be seen for some time after.
We got along very well that night, and at daybreak we got all the points of
land we were looking for. We had hundreds of charts on board, but none of
them was of any use to us for navigating through the Irish and English Channels
except a magnetic variation chart of the British Isles, so when we got down as
far as the Bishop Light we were so to speak "off the map". The magnetic
variation chart was a rough guide, but surely we could get to Dover even
without that itself, for Captain Pell took good care to see that we were
supplied with Norie's Epitome and all other essential books and instruments on
which we could "at a pinch" navigate on a blank sheet of paper. However, we
got to Dover in record time and were all ready for action as soon as we had fuel
and water.
We approached the Downs in the early hours of the morning before daybreak,
and were picking out a suitable anchorage, when a hail of machine-gun bullets
from either an enemy or one of our own, hit us on the vessel's port side - I
cannot say which as a fight was in process overhead at the time. The Mate,
with a smile, commented that he did not think this was very healthy. "Well,
whether healthy or not you better get the anchor ready for dropping!" This
being done, we anchored until after breakfast time, when a Pilot came on board
and put us in the right anchorage.
During/