Thanks to Paul's article about Dunkirk in a BBC magazine - a little article on two ship wrecks from Operation Dynamo within it caught my attention. I decided to pay the two wrecks a visit and pay my respects. The following I've found out from a few nautical books on Op Dynamo and a bit of digging down the usual routes like CWGC. Hope you enjoy the pictures etc. I'm quite interested to see how the crosses fair in a few months.
Built: 1905 by John Brown and Co. Clydebank, for the Barry Railway Company; acquired by P. & A. Campbell in 1911. Gross Tonnage: 641 Length: 245 feet Width: 29 feet Machinery: Compound diagonal, two cylinders. Speed: 18 Knots 1939 Route: Laid up throughout season, previously Bristol Channel excursions for P. & A. Campbell The Devonia today with Bray Dunes in the background.
Although not used by Cambells during the 1939 season, Devonia was requisitioned soon after the war and sent to Milford Haven to be converted into a minesweeper, a role she had filled with some distinction between 1914 and 1919. The Devonia pre war.
Commissioned at the end of 1939, the steamer went to join the 7th Flotilla at Granton and there worked regularly with her sister ship Brighton Queen apart from a spell in February 1940 when collision damage was repaired at Leith.
Sent south towards the end of May, coaling enroute at Tynemouth and Harwich, Devonia crossed to La Panne on 30th May and launched her boat, which made runs to the beach and assisted in loading the skoot Hilda which was closer to the shore.
Devonia came under air attack and after an explosion caused serious leaks astern, the commanding officer, temporary Lieutenant J. Brotchie was instructed to beach the vessel as far inshore as possible in the hope that she could be used as a jetty and boarding point by the troops. The Devonia beached at low tide. Devonia's crew crossed to the Hilda and were later transferred to the destroyer Scimitar and returned to Dover. There were reports that Devonia had been salvaged by the Germans and put to worl on the Elbe but these were unfounded and the wreck was broken up on the beach. The Devonia after Operation Dynamo complete with 'German Military Tourists'
Andy, you do realise that future investigators are going to think that Scottish shipyards were using nylon cable ties at the beginning of the last century ?
Devonia is beached At 1035 Rear-Admiral Wake-Walker had informed V.A. Dover that he would beach a ship in the hope of improving conditions for boat work, which was then being made difficult by a lop and he instructed Cdre. Stephenson accordingly. Cdre. Stephenson, then in the yacht Bounty off La Panne, boarded the minesweeper Devonia at 1600 and gave orders to beach the ship. The Devonia, already much damaged by near misses at 1230, was beached at full speed off La Panne, and at 1930, on account of the shelling and bombing, she was abandoned. Fortunately by 1700 the weather off the beaches had much improved.
Built: 1925 by J Samuel White & Co, Cowes, for the General Steam Navigation Company. Gross Tonnage: 1,110 Length: 299 feet 7 inches Width: 34 feet 6 inches Machinery: Tripal Diagonal, Three Cylinders Speed: 18 knots 1939 Route: GSNC 'Eagle Steamers' excursion service from Tower Pier, London, to Southend, Clacton and Felixstow. The Crested Eagle at Bray Dunes Beach looking towards the stern. The Crested Eagle at Bray Dunes Beach looking towards the bow.
The first Thames paddle steamer built with oil-fired boilers, the Crested Eagle was designed with a hinged foremast and telescopic funnel to pass beneath London Bridge and berth in the Thames at the Old Swan Pier. The Crested Eagle pre war. You can clearly see the telescopic funnel
Later, when the vessel's base became Tower Pier, a conventional funnel was fitted and, after running to Ramsgate for seven years, Crested Eagle was switched to a daily London-Southend-Clacton-Felixstow service when the larger Royal Eagle was completed in 1932. I suspect due to her tonnage she sits a lot deeper in the sand Getting to her was much more hazardous than the Devonia
After the war started, Crested Eagle was first used to evacuate children from London before being one of three paddlers from the famous Eagle Steamers fleet to be designated Thames Special Service ships and fitted at Sheerness with special anti-aircraft equipment. Pre war postcards
Crested Eagle was recalled from patrol duties to Sheerness on 25th May 1940 but it was not until Tuesday 28th that she was ordered across by Route Y to La Panne.
After arriving next morning, Crested Eagle was sent on to Dunkirk Harbour and managed to berth on the seaward side of the East Mole, her complement of troops being swelled by survivors from the Manx packet Fenella which was hit whilst moored astern.
The paddler got underway at 18.00 and was off Malo-les-Bains when attacked by a flight of Stukas and, although the first bombs were avoided, Crested Eagle was struck aft of the bridge. Two more bombs ignited fuel oil tanks and the after half of the vessel was quickly a blazing inferno.
Lieutenant-Commander B R Booth managed to beach her and the minesweeper Albury moved in to pick up survivors but many lives were lost. The Crested Eagle's stern The Crested Eagle's starboard paddle wheel One of her hatches and a ladder going below only used by starfish today.
Crested Eagle blazing, is beached. Meanwhile, when the verity left the harbour at 1755, the Crested Eagle swung clear of the east pier and proceeded on an easterly course. Shortly afterwards, however, she was hit by 4 bombs and caught fire; out of control, she continued under way. The Verity instructed the Crested Eagle to stop so that she might transfer her troops; but the Crested Eagle could not stop. At about 1830, blazing fiercely fore and aft (she was a wooden ship) the Crested Eagle ran aground west of Bray beach. The 200 survivors, who could be seen in the water, were heavily machine-gunned from the air, and the ships that came to the rescue were bombed. Some of the survivors, several with severe burns, were picked up by minesweepers Hebe and Lydd; others, including the Captain and other survivors of the Grenade, by the minesweeper Albury. Among those picked up by the Sabre was the Second Engineer of the Crested Eagle and a Stoker from the Grenade.