Thames Sailing Barge Pudge, Dunkirk Little Ships - Operation Dynamo, 2015 - Mate's Headcam (2 of 3)

Thames Sailing Barge Pudge returns to Dunkirk 2 of 3
On the 14th May 1940, the BBC made the following announcement: “The admiralty have made an Order requesting all owners of self-propelled pleasure craft between 30′ and 100′ in length to send particulars to the Admiralty within 14 days from today if they have not already been offered or requisitioned”
On the 29th May 1940, PUDGE, built on the River Medway in 1922, was requisitioned by the Navy while waiting for a cargo of wheat in Tilbury. She was towed to Dover via Ramsgate by the tug, OCEAN COCK.
Her skipper, Bill Watson, and his mate, known as Old Dick volunteered to sail her across to Dunkirk as part of the fleet of “little ships” contributing to Operation Dynamo - the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from the French port of Dunkirk.
When they got to Dover, the naval officer in command asked for eight or ten volunteers from among the skippers and their mates to take their barges to Dunkirk. There were 17 barges in Dover harbour that day, lying alongside the Prince of Wales Pier and every one of the skippers was ready to take their barge across. They drew lots and six were selected for immediate service, the three engined/auxiliary barges, PUDGE, THYRA and LADY ROSEBERY, and the three sail only barges DORIS, H.A.C. and DUCHESS. The three auxiliary barges proceeded out of the harbour with the sailing barges in tow. PUDGE, DORIS and LADY ROSEBERY, in that order, were then taken in tow by the steel-hulled tug, ST.FAGAN.
On the night of May 31st, she was towed to Dunkirk by the Navy tug, HMS ST.FAGAN, along with the two other barges, DORIS and LADY ROSEBERY.
ST.FAGAN was a large (860 ton) vessel, carrying a crew of 30. Her principal task was to rescue damaged warships and merchantmen, towing them to a safe port. She had a single 12 pounder anti-aircraft gun and a maximum speed of 12 knots. Her captain was Lt Commander G. Warren, and by 0300 on the morning of June 1st he had safely brought the three barges to within three miles of the Dunkirk beaches, where thousands of British and French troops awaited rescue.
At 0340, with the night sky just beginning to lighten, the barges slipped their tow line with LADY ROSEBERY towing DORIS into the beach, using her auxiliary engine, and PUDGE, the last in tow, just starting her engine to follow them. Suddenly all four vessels came under air attack, probably from a Junkers JU87 Stuka. A stick of bombs hailed down on the little convoy, and ST.FAGAN exploded and sank, soon followed by LADY ROSEBERY and DORIS.
PUDGE, furthest from the ST.FAGAN, remained intact, though the shock wave from the exploding ST.FAGAN caused her to lift bodily in the water. “She went up in the air but by the Grace of God came down the right way up”, said skipper Bill Watson. When the smoke and dust had settled, the ST.FAGAN, LADY ROSEBERY and DORIS were no more. PUDGE launched her boat to pick up survivors.
Some reports claim ST.FAGAN struck a mine, though this would not have caused the other two barges to sink. It is hard to imagine the total chaos and confusion the attack caused, and the only written record of the event is Commander Warren’s log entry of 0355, “Hit by a bomb”.
Of the 25 officers and men of the ST.FAGAN only eight (including Commander Warren) were picked up by PUDGE’s barge boat. PUDGE also assisted in the rescue of the crews of DORIS and LADY ROSEBERY, but sadly there was no trace of the latter’s 14 year-old third hand.
PUDGE was now alone. Leaking badly from the shock waves from the explosion. A destroyer relayed the order for her to make for home with her rescued survivors. Whilst heading back for England, the tug TANGA (203 tons), took PUDGE in tow and three hours later arrived safely in Ramsgate.
TANGA had been collecting groups of men brought to her from the beach in small boats. In total she is recorded as having landed 160 troops back in Ramsgate that day, many of them French. It is very possible that she would have transferred several of these to the unladen PUDGE, given that with a length of only 100' by 25' beam she was barely longer than PUDGE herself.
We have an eye-witness account from Eddie Fry, the 14 year-old boy / cook on the TANGA , who reported seeing “about 300 French soldiers” in PUDGE’s hold, when TANGA was towing her back to Ramsgate. (Eddie went on eventually to become the master of the TANGA).
After the war, PUDGE continued her work with the London Rochester Trading Company until her retirement in 1968 when she was sold to the Thames Barge Sailing Club (now the Thames Sailing Barge Trust).
Over 30 sailing barges went to Dunkirk between 27th May & 4th June 1940, sadly only 17 are known to have survived.
In 2015, Thames sailing barges PUDGE and GRETA joined around 50 Dunkirk Little Ships to mark the 75th Anniversary of Operation Dynamo.
For current news regarding PUDGE, CENTAUR and the Thames Sailing Barge Trust, visit www.bargetrust.org
For ADLS visit www.adls.org.uk