TNA MT 40 66

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Sa
143
OF
at
and
S.S. "LOCHGARRY" AT DUNKIRK.
42
R
190
TOTAL
Letter to Mr J. L. Roxburgh, Superintendent Engineer,
from Wm. McKillop, Chief Engineer, "LOCHGARRY".
25th
August,
1940.
way
Dear
Sir,
What struck me most at Dunkirk was the coolness and efficiency with which
the N.T.O. and his men moved about the narrow wharf shepherding the tired
troops as they slowly moved down towards the ships. While we were lying
alongside the wharf under continuous bombing they moved about quite unconcerned.
It was certainly a good example to us.
We were amused at three soldiers (old timers) coming down the wharf arm-in-
arm singing with a bottle sticking out of their pocket; they were not the
least bit upset. An old fireman I had wondered where they had been so lucky.
These three soldiers decided they would travel with us instead of a destroyer
that was loading beside us, and their luck was still holding as that destroyer
was hit shortly after leaving Dunkirk, and a big number killed. This
destroyer was our escort, so we had to carry on alone.
Our ship was filled up; 2,700 came down the gangway, but many more
jumped aboard at other parts of the ship. We were alongside the wharf from
about 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. When we were leaving the wharf an armed trawler,
who was assisting us out of our berth, damaged our D.G. cable and set fire to
the starboard belting aft. Mr Wallace, the 2nd Engineer, went aft and saw
the fire out. After he examined the cable he came back to me in the engine-
room and reported the cable was beyond repair, so we had to leave with no
D.G. gear.
After leaving the wharf we in the engine-room saw no more of what was
happening on deck. However, we had plenty to keep us busy, as it turned out.
We could hear the planes swooping down, and as the bombs dropped round us
electric bulbs and parts of the glass from the engine-room skylights kept
falling down on us. The concussion and vibration was bad every time a salvo
would drop near us.
During this time every one on watch just kept moving about carrying out
their various duties. Our only discomfort was the fact that we all had our
life-belts on. This made us very warm. The reason we had them on was the
fact that the decks were so crowded, if anything had happened we could not get
near our rooms. This bombing kept on without anything serious happening until
about 3.45 p.m. when after a heavy shock the fireman on watch in the stokehold
came running into the engine-room to tell me something was burst about the
steam pipes. I ran into the stokehold, and to my great relief I found that
all that was wrong was a drain from one of the steam pipes had opened with the
shock, and was allowing steam to escape. When I went back into the engine-
room and told Mr Wallace what was wrong we had a good laugh.
However, shortly after this we received an extra heavy shock. I was sure
she was hit as she seemed to be lifted out of the water. I was just coming
out of the stokehold when I heard the fireman shout. When I got back into
the stokehold all the fires were out and fuel oil spraying all over the stokehold.
I sent word into the engine-room to Mr Wallace to slow the main engines down
and take charge of the engine-room so as we would not lose the steam on the
boilers. I managed to get the damaged oil unit isolated and got the stand-by
unit under way. Within ten minutes we were away full speed again. The
concussion/