SCIMITAR

Important context

These are vessels recorded as having some association or possible involvement with Operation Dynamo. This is not a definitive list of participating ships, and inclusion does not establish that a vessel reached Dunkirk, evacuated personnel or otherwise took part. A source record may exist because a claim was investigated, qualified or rejected; for example, an Orde entry may expressly state that the vessel did not participate. Always review the underlying records and source notes before drawing a conclusion.

The archive and its metadata are still being compiled and are presented as a work in progress. Entries may be incomplete, change as additional material is processed or appear in more than one source record.

Historic logs, handwritten documents, later indexes and transcriptions may contain spelling or identification differences. For example, NIAIAD ERRANT, MAID ERRANT and NAIAD ERRANT refer to the same vessel under variant spellings. Search cautiously, try likely variants and check for multiple records before drawing conclusions.

Cross-collection links and record counts should be treated as candidate matches rather than confirmed vessel identities. Matching may involve case and punctuation normalisation, partial-name or OCR text matches, aliases and associated metadata. A Roman-numeral suffix such as I, II, III, IV or V may be omitted, separated or mistranscribed, causing a base name to match a different numbered vessel. With multi-word names, a candidate may also be returned because only one distinctive word matched. Verify the complete name and numeral against vessel type, dimensions, builder, ownership, dates and the underlying source before merging or relying on records.

Also known as

ORDE: 8 · SCSL: 0 · Lloyd’s: 0 · Red List: 0

Help complete the archive

Do you have a photo of this vessel you can share?

Contribute photographs of SCIMITAR to the archive for editorial review. Submissions remain private and will only be published following approval by an administrator.

1. Upload photos 2. Describe 3. Validate email

Select photographs

JPG, PNG or WebP; up to 12 photos and 20 MB per image. Images upload privately to S3 before description.

Uploading photographs securely…

I confirm that I am the copyright holder for every selected photograph and permit OperationDynamo.navy to store, review and publish approved images under the contribution terms.

Validate your email Your name Email address

We will email a 24-hour validation link. After confirmation, the photographs enter administrator review. If you later create an account with this address, they will be linked automatically.

Already have an account? Log in before uploading to link new photographs immediately.

Wikipedia vessel details

Secondary-source table data; verify against primary records where available.

Source table

Name: HMS Scimitar (H21)
Pennant number: H21
Flag: Royal Navy
Description: Destroyer
Built: 1918
Tonnage: 905
Commanding officer: Lt. Robert Denys Franks, RN
Trips to Dunkirk: 5
Troops landed: 2,716
Notes: Seriously damaged by collision with HMS Icarus off Dunkirk on 31 May returned to Dover; left Dynamo for repair on 2 June[1]

Linked vessel page

Dunkirk-related passages from the linked page

The class had two funnels, a long forecastle and a tall, open bridge, located behind the break in the main deck. The class was built in two batches, the first 33 ordered on 9 April 1917 and the second batch of 36 in June 1917, with Scimitar from the first batch. She was laid down at Clydebank on 30 May 1917 and launched on 27 Feb 1918. Although she was active before the armistice, she took no part in the War and was reduced to the Reserve Fleet at Devonport in August 1920, then paid off to the Maintenance Reserve in Rosyth in October 1927. She recommissioned at Rosyth on 2 June 1931[2] before being reduced to reserve again at The Nore in September 1936.[3] In May she assisted in the evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk where she collided with the destroyer Icarus sustaining damage to her propellers after grounding. In June, while under repair in Portland, she suffered minor damage during an air raid. In July she embarked troops of No. 3 Commando at Dartmouth for an abortive raid on Guernsey. She transferred to the Western Approaches for Atlantic Convoy HX 72 and in September helped drive off an attack by the German submarine U-32.[4]

← Back

ORDE Registry

8 records

8 potential matching records have been identified.

These records may contain vessel particulars, reported movements, participation assessments, named personnel and source references. A match does not by itself prove that the vessel participated in Operation Dynamo.

“Potential match” means a candidate returned by one or more indexing rules; it is not necessarily an exact identity match. Depending on the source, matching may use a normalised vessel name, a partial text or OCR hit, an alias, or related metadata. Roman-numeral suffixes such as I, II, III, IV and V may be absent, misread or separated from the base name, so records for similarly named vessels can be grouped incorrectly. Multi-word names can also produce candidates where only one significant word matches. Confirm the full name, numeral, vessel type, dimensions, builder, ownership, dates and source context before treating two records as the same vessel.

We are compiling and checking transcriptions, metadata, vessel-name matches, source references and reuse permissions before publishing further detail. This work helps prevent incomplete OCR, historic spelling variations or unverified associations from being presented as established fact.

Account registrations and access to these developing records are temporarily unavailable. Existing account holders may log in, and everyone can join the newsletter for publication updates.

Small Craft Service List

0 records

0 potential matching records have currently been identified.

Further indexing may identify service-list entries, vessel metadata, source-page references and protected full-size document images. The absence of a current match does not establish that no relevant source exists.

Account registrations and access to these developing records are temporarily unavailable. Existing account holders may log in, and everyone can join the newsletter for publication updates.

No Small Craft records.

Red List (1939–40) — OCR

0 records

0 potential matching records have currently been identified.

Further indexing may identify OCR text matches, source files, page references and digitised page imagery. The absence of a current match does not establish that no relevant source exists.

Account registrations and access to these developing records are temporarily unavailable. Existing account holders may log in, and everyone can join the newsletter for publication updates.

Ship Details

These details have been aggregated from multiple sources and may include contemporary records, later recollections, claims or assertions for which no corroborating evidence has been identified. Inclusion does not establish that any account or assertion is accurate. The information may be incomplete, out of date, disputed or incorrect and should be checked against the underlying source records and independent evidence before being relied upon.

No additional ship details available.

Lloyd’s Yacht Register (1939)

Source: Lloyd’s Register Foundation, Heritage & Education Centre, Lloyd’s Register of Yachts 1939, digitised via Internet Archive. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Images have been converted, resized and watermarked for web display; machine-generated table OCR has been added.

No Lloyd’s records.

Operation Dynamo Map — Movement Logs

2 logs View SCIMITAR on map →

Movements recorded for SCIMITAR during the evacuation period, as plotted on the Operation Dynamo map.

Departed	Route	Arrived	Troops	Notes	Source
—	Dunkirk	—	—	Stationary HMS report explicitly names this location; a complete dated movement is unavailable	TNA ADM 116 4649, page 67
—	Dover	—	—	Stationary HMS report explicitly names this location; a complete dated movement is unavailable	TNA ADM 116 4649, page 67

User Contributed Collection

Documents and descriptions supplied by registered researchers. All submissions are reviewed in accordance with our Terms and Conditions.

No user-contributed documents have been approved for this vessel yet.

← Back