SS Dorrien Rose from The Ships that saved an Army-R. Plummer The Dorrien Rose was an elderly (1922) 1,039 ton tramp steamer used to carry supplies to the BEF in 1940. On the morning of 27th May her master, Captain William Thompson, had been ordered to proceed to Dunkirk without delay. The crew along with Capt Thompson were still unaware of the situation in Flanders and how desperate things had become for the BEF. Around ten miles off Dunkirk the crew began to realise there was a problem as they saw Dunkirk in flames. Thompson recorded, 'and being almost dark it looked and sounded appalling. So I decided to reverse my course and to proceed until daylight presented a better opportunity of seeing what was happening ashore.' Dawn on the 28th revealed a large variety of ships heading towards Dunkirk and a lot of air activity; then came a Mayday message: The Queen of the Channel was sinking after being attacked by a lone bomber, her back was broken and had over 900 troops onboard. Like so many ships that took part in Op Dynamo, they never had enough lifeboats to accomodate their passengers. Thompson went to her assistance immediately, as the weather was fine she was requested to pull alongside where the Dorrien Rose was secured port bow to starboard bow to prevent troops all going to one side and listing the Queen of the Channel. The troops were then ordered over the rail and told to jump across onto the fore deck of the Dorrien Rose by the Queen of the Channel's Captain, W J O'Dell, this work proceeded smoothly, he also ordered the four lifeboats lowered and some troops and the crew boarded them and they rowed over to the Dorrien Rose and climbed rope ladders up her side. Having discharged their troops onto the Dorrien Rose, Captain Thompson noted that the operation took 35 minutes, despite being attacked three times by German aircraft they cast off from the Queen of the Channel at 0525 hrs after a final inspection was made and confidential papers were collected. After taking onboard 904 souls (her normal complement was 14) Thompson having cast off made for Dover, escorted part of the way by HMS Greyhound. She towed the four lifeboats from Queen of the Channel for extra security incase of further attacks but during the passage two broke away and were lost. Dorrien Rose arrived around 1430 hrs at Dover. Enroute she was subjected to a further 8 enemy aircraft attacks. Being extremely well armed now and having numerous machine guns amongst the army units onboard they had some satisfaction on the way back to Dover as the last of the aircraft to attack them was shot down and the pilot bailed out. Having landed the survivors from the Queen of the Channel the Dorrien Rose took on water and supplies and left again for Dunkirk the following afternoon. On the way she collided with a submerged object which delayed her arrival until the next morning on 30th May 0650 hrs. The route into Dunkirk was a hazard in itself with the area being litter with sunken and blazing ships. On top of that there was the frequent visits paid to the ships by the Luftwaffe, Dunkirk now lay under a pall of oily smoke after the oil storage tanks were bombed and set ablaze. With no one visible giving instructions Captain Thompson took it upon himself to enter the harbour. He was then gestured by someone ashore to pull alonside a battered wall where for the next two hours the Dorrien Rose boarded soldiers arriving in small groups. The Chief Engineer, Bernard Murphy kept himself busy at the back end of the boilers, all to aware of the age of her engines he wanted to be sure she was ready to give all she had should they need to leave quickly. Even whilst working Murphy could feel the concussion of bombs exploding rattling through the ship. With 637 troops aboard and two very near misses the Dorrien Rose left the harbour. The Boatswain, Paddy McFadden recalled, 'The Channel was now a navigator's nightmare, with bouys missing, wrecks and wreckage all over the place.' He aslo said , 'Thats the first time that I've left Dunkirk without having to round up the crew out of the cafe's.' Having landed her troops at Folkstone, the Dorrien Rose had to anchor outside . She couldn't return to Dunkirk as her engines had protested against the abnormally high pressure of steam. Her engine room crew worked through the night trying to repair one of the boilers and while she was at anchor the Luftwaffe dropped around 6 magnetic mines around her. The crew watched the next morning as Royal Navy minesweepers exploded these in the morning. She stayed at Folkstone until temporary repairs were good unough to allow her to limp off to Newhaven on Saturday, 1st June 1940. In short she had been at work for six days and nights with a minimum of rest for everyone and none of her engine room staff (So often the unsung heroes of a ship). She had transported some 1,600 troops from France to England and but for her engines she would have undoubtedly collected more. The Dorrien Rose survived the war and steamed on working for several companies until 1951. She was scrapped at Dublin in 1959. The crew for their efforts were awarded the following: MURPHY, Bernard - Chief Engineer - DSC O'HANLON, Terence - Mate - DSC THOMPSON, William - Captain - DSC BARNETT, William Charles - Ordinary Seaman - DSM GIBSON, Adolphus Augustus - Fireman - DSM O'RAWE, John Joseph - Able Seaman - DSM WATSON, Tom Wilson - Able Seaman RN - DSM BARNETT, Clifford Thomas - Ordinary Seaman MiD BARNETT, Thomas Henry - Cook - MiD KHAN, Ali - Fireman - MiD McFADDEN, Paddy - Boatswain - MiD MOHAND, Abdul - Fireman - MiD STEWARD, James - Second Engineer - MiD UPPERTON, James - Able Seaman - MiD Thanks to Forum member Hugh Maclean on Merchantile Marine website for the list of awards to crew members. Info sourced from the following books: Dunkirk the Great Escape-A J Barker, The Ships that saved an Army-R Plummer, BEF Ships-John de S. Winser, The Evacuation from Dunkirk-Naval Staff Histories, Dunkirk-A D Divine and Dunkirk 1940-R Carse.
An amazing little ship. It's not often you see the whole complement decorated - total crew 14, total awards 14. Thanks for the acknowledgement to the Mercantile Marine forum. Regards Hugh
Andy, The National Archives website suggests they are in BT 395: The National Archives | DocumentsOnline | WW2 Seamen's Medals, and are searchable and downloadable on Documents Online, however, I did random searches and found none of the men were mentioned. Mark
Mark, You will not find citations in BT 395. This is the merchant seaman's medal card ie a note of campaign medals only. Regards Hugh
Mark, You will not find citations in BT 395. This is the merchant seaman's medal card ie a note of campaign medals only. Regards Hugh Thanks, Guess Andy shouldn't waste his time looking there then, hey? Mark
Hello I know this is an old thread but I seen a post on another platform about a Captain David Ivor who served in the merchant navy during the WW2 and won an MBE for shooting down a German aircraft and bringing back 1600 men from Dunkirk would anyone know if he was part of the Dorrian Rose?
Hello I know this is an old thread but I seen a post on another platform about a Captain David Ivor who served in the merchant navy during the WW2 and won an MBE for shooting down a German aircraft and bringing back 1600 men from Dunkirk would anyone know if he was part of the Dorrian Rose?
Captain David Bruce Ivor was awarded the MBE(Civ) in the New Year Honours List 1943. Gazetted on 4 January 1943. He was master of the ss CARRICKMORE at the time. Further research suggests he was awarded that MBE for actions at Dunkirk while master of the ss CLEWBAY. See the attached report below. Captain Ivor was not the master of DORRIAN ROSE - that was Captain William Thomson DSC. Regards Hugh
Clewbay was also involved in Operation Aerial, going to Quiberon. She is not mentioned as embarking evacuees.
Thank you so much to you and Roy for clearing this information up for me the original post had me confused to which Ship he was captain of not stating this but posting about the Dorrian Rose in the same information. Many thanks Kind regards Jim
I know this is an old thread but i just happened to research the dorien rose as my late grandfather from belfast had a tattoo of a rose with the name dorien over it and he allways joked that it was an old girlfriends name we later found out that he was one of 5 that had this tattoo after they were rescued from dunkirk he was a very private man that didnt speak much about the war and had to endure the troubles in belfast for 30 years aswell before passing away he was such a hero to me and hope this is about the same boat that saved him . His name was edward blayney and was in the irish guards fighting in france
