Duty Padre's Piece, The Royal Naval Association, Cyprus, remembering others

Rev. Eric Freeman

There was an article in the May issue of Saga magazine which set me off thinking. It was about the paddle steamer “Medway Queen” which did sterling service during the evacuation at Dunkirk, seventy years ago. She made a total of seven crossings and saved over 7,000 men. Then I remembered that several of the pleasure steamers which plied their trade on my home river Clyde had also done a lot of war service. In fact one of them – the paddle steamer Waverly was actually sunk at Dunkirk by dive bombers. She was actually the second vessel to bear that name – and a third was eventually built in 1948. This one is still sailing and visiting ports around Britain to this day – claiming to be the only ocean going paddler left.

When I started to look at these little ships I discovered that many were used as minesweepers all through the war – in company with many, many trawlers – often with members of their original crews still serving as RNVR recruits. These little ships of the Coastal Forces probably saved the British nation – for without their dedicated work, many of the convoys which supplied the war effort would not have made it.

Sadly over 400 of the little ships perished – together with over 5,000 shipmates. This is a part of the overall picture which is often overlooked unfortunately – for their record is a very proud one and they deserve to be remembered.