TNA / MT 40 66

TNA MT 40 66

Collection details

TNA MT 40 66

Ministry of Transport records containing a Dynamo vessel list and reports from masters and crews engaged in the evacuation, covering 1940–1947.

Holding archive: TNA
Collection reference: MT 40 66

View the archive catalogue entry ↗

Source: The National Archives, Kew, MT 40/66. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Showing only document page 164. Show all matching pages ×

1 matching pages. OCR may contain transcription errors.

List page 1 of 1 Showing document pages 164–164 of this collection

A note about image and OCR quality

Every reasonable effort has been made to present these document images as flat, straight and accurately cropped as possible. Historical records can be difficult to photograph or scan because of tight bindings, deep gutters, page curvature, folds, creases, fragile paper, uneven edges, shadows, glare, skewed pages, fading, stains, tears, attachments and restrictions on how a document may be handled. These conditions can distort parts of an image and consequently affect the OCR transcription.

Considerable post-production work has been undertaken to crop, align, flatten and enhance the images where practicable, but the results represent our best effort rather than exact facsimiles. Text showing through from the reverse of a page, printed backgrounds, stamps, ruled lines, marks and text visible from neighbouring pages may confuse or spoil OCR output. Handwriting is not reliably recognised and, in most places, may be missing, incomplete or incorrectly transcribed. Always check the page image and, where accuracy matters, consult the original record held by the identified archive.

OCR is not a transcription. It is machine-generated text used to create research tags and help locate names and references within the source images; it should not be read as a verified narrative.

Page	Image	OCR text	OCR tags
164	Log in to enlarge	and 141 not DUNKIRK OPERATIONS OF S.S. "LOCHGARRY" Letter to Mr J. Purvis, Catering Superintendent, From Mathew Pandelus, Chief Steward, S.S. "LOCHGARRY". DOVER. Dear Sir, Just a note to let you know what we are doing down here. We have just got a message to go into the Harbour for fuel and water, after lying off Deal for more than a week. All my men are doing fine and all seem glad we are going to get something to do. There are air raids here every night which means we don't get much sleep, as we must be ready for anything that may come along. At night you can see the French coast all alight with fire and black smoke, and can hear the boom of the big guns quite easily. I'm getting all the stores I require and everyone is very obliging. Hope to hear from you soon. Yours faithfully, (Signed) M. Pandelus. Chief Steward. Well, Mr Purvis, I didn't get this letter posted as we didn't get alongside, and no one is allowed to take letters ashore while we are in the Harbour. We have just arrived back from Dunkirk and what a time we had! We left Dover on a certain date about 9 p.m., and sailed out to the roads. We waited there until about 3 a.m. when we weighed anchor and sailed for Dunkirk. We followed a steamer which I learned was the "CLAN McALLISTER". We kept behind her until about 9 a.m., when we passed her, and on looking back about twenty minutes later we saw her being bombed and set on fire. It started on the after well deck. Not long after that she went down. We carried on to Dunkirk; we had to wait quite a while to get inside the harbour as other ships were loading troops as fast as possible. We got in at last and started loading troops. This would be about midday. Shells were pouring into the harbour from shore batteries. Then about 1 o'clock we had our first air raid. About eighteen raiders came over and dropped bombs all around us like raindrops. We were very lucky we were not hit. We had our two Lewis guns replying as hard as they could; also a British destroyer alongside of us was giving them all they wanted. After dropping dozens of bombs they flew away and we were untouched. In about an hour's time they came back - only thirteen this time - and they gave us another dusting and again we got clear. As these raids were going on there were four of my stewards and myself in the dining-saloon keeping the soldiers from rushing the doors, as they all right/ wanted to see what was going on. We assured them everything was all	Deal Lochgarry Black Don Dover Last Lewis Long May McAllister right Roads Steward

Raw OCR

Unformatted machine-generated OCR for document page 164.

and
141
not
DUNKIRK OPERATIONS
OF
S.S. "LOCHGARRY"
Letter to Mr J. Purvis, Catering Superintendent,
From Mathew Pandelus, Chief Steward, S.S. "LOCHGARRY".
DOVER.
Dear Sir,
Just a note to let you know what we are doing down here. We have just
got a message to go into the Harbour for fuel and water, after lying off
Deal for more than a week. All my men are doing fine and all seem glad we
are going to get something to do.
There are air raids here every night which means we don't get much
sleep, as we must be ready for anything that may come along. At night you
can see the French coast all alight with fire and black smoke, and can hear
the boom of the big guns quite easily.
I'm getting all the stores I require and everyone is very obliging.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Yours
faithfully,
(Signed) M. Pandelus.
Chief Steward.
Well, Mr Purvis, I didn't get this letter posted as we didn't get along-
side, and no one is allowed to take letters ashore while we are in the
Harbour.
We have just arrived back from Dunkirk and what a time we had! We left
Dover on a certain date about 9 p.m., and sailed out to the roads. We waited
there until about 3 a.m. when we weighed anchor and sailed for Dunkirk. We
followed a steamer which I learned was the "CLAN McALLISTER". We kept behind
her until about 9 a.m., when we passed her, and on looking back about twenty
minutes later we saw her being bombed and set on fire. It started on the
after well deck. Not long after that she went down.
We carried on to Dunkirk; we had to wait quite a while to get inside the
harbour as other ships were loading troops as fast as possible. We got in at
last and started loading troops. This would be about midday. Shells were
pouring into the harbour from shore batteries. Then about 1 o'clock we had
our first air raid. About eighteen raiders came over and dropped bombs all
around us like raindrops. We were very lucky we were not hit. We had our
two Lewis guns replying as hard as they could; also a British destroyer
alongside of us was giving them all they wanted. After dropping dozens of
bombs they flew away and we were untouched. In about an hour's time they
came back - only thirteen this time - and they gave us another dusting and
again we got clear.
As these raids were going on there were four of my stewards and myself
in the dining-saloon keeping the soldiers from rushing the doors, as they
all right/ wanted to see what was going on. We assured them everything was all