Mystery ship at St Nazair June 18th 1940

[Sapper59]

All reports indicate the Ben My Chree was indeed in Birkenhead being repaired on the 17th June 1940 BUT, at least 4 independent accounts have her at St Nazaire on the 17th, the day the Lancastria was hit. The IOMPSC was of no help. I have the movement card and log but there are gaps. There is also the fact the Navy took over the ship in early June (and pranged it).
 The following is a message from WW2Talk forum

Hello,

I've just seen your post about the Ben-my-Chree and St Nazaire. My great-grandfather was also shipped out on the Ben-my-Chree from St Nazaire, he told my grandfather that the ship in front of them sank (the Lancastria). Everyone has been telling me, and you, that that the Ben-my-Chree didn't evacuate anyone from there but it strikes me as strange that both my great-grandfather and your relative should remember something so utterly wrong. It's not even like a ship with a similar name shipped out from there. I just wanted to say hello and add my support to the belief that the Ben-my-Chree evacuated troops from St Nazaire!

Kind regards,
Elissa
 The mystery deepens even more

[edalmun]

That's my message, but no-one was able to offer me any explanation

[ScouseBoy]

Which UK port did Ben my Chree  reach first to disembark  her  passengers at?  If  she had been at st Nazaire  on 17 or 18th June.

Falmouth, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Poole  or Liverpool even?

[seaweed]

Just going back through documents that I have on Dunkirk, they differ slightly to your information. The BEN-MY-CHREE completed two trips to Dunkirk and was scheduled to complete four. The master refused to sail again to Dunkirk after the experience that the ship had undergone in the previous sailings. A Naval crew was put aboard apart from the Chief Officer who stayed as captain together with 3 greasers and the W/T Officer. On sailing at 1905/2nd June BEN-MY-CHREE was in collision and did not complete the trip.

The question is if she was in a collision on 2nd June how badly was she damaged? Was she still undergoing repairs on 20th June as suggested by the movement card?  The Official Log is where I would go next to rule her in or out of your search.
Regards
Hugh

According to my records BEN MY CHREE made three trips to Dunkirk. Sailing from there 31/5/40, 1/6/40, 3/6/40. She sailed  Dover 7/6/1940. Dry docked Birkenhead 11/6/40. released 28/6/40. Sailed Liverpool 30/6/40

My info was from the vessels logbook. Lets get real on this one.

[seaweed]

More attachments see also previous page

[Sapper59]

OK so according to the sanitary and repair logs say she was in dry dock, so what the heck did my dad and three other people board alongside the harbour in St. Naziere during the night of 17th/18th June 1940? There is no mention of transfer by lighter to a larger ship and apparently it was unescorted, zig zagging across the bay for two days before arriving in Plymouth on the 20th where they were ferried off to the docks and on to Borden Camp on Salisbury Plain..

[Sapper59]

That's my message, but no-one was able to offer me any explanation

Scary thought, Your grandfather and my farther was the same person, I don't think so though.

[ScouseBoy]

My father (Jack Lee, T/99927, RASC) and many others in his group had a close shave when the Lancastria was sunk as they were to have boarded her on the 17th but ended up walking up a gankplank that midnight onto a ship and sailed for Plymouth early on the 18th, landing on the 20th. He said it was the "Ben McCree", an Isle of Man packet but there hasn't been such a ship, but there was, (and still is), a "Ben-My-Chree", which makes sense, but there is nothing in Navy records of the Ben-My-Chree being involved, according to records she was never at St, Nazaire! But there was a small cargo or ferry ship capable of entering the habour instead of laying off in the bay like the Lancastria and Oronsey and John Holt and it did take on survivours including Wilfred Oldham and Neville Chesterton who write of a simular experience in their memoirs elsewhere on the web.
After disembarkation and a cup of tea and a sandwich they were moved to Borden Camp on Salisbury plain.
 So what was that small ship,? Was the Ben-My-Chree at St, Nazaire on 18th June 1940?
 Any ideas or anyone know of my Dad in the war, he was discharded in 1946 after losing his left eye in late 1944 when he was a sergeant.

My dad  was also with the RASC  in St Nazaire on that day.  My dad  was landed at Falmouth,   and he phoned home from there to let them know he was back in the UK.
The only explanation I can offer about which Isle of Man Boat they were on,  is that maybe equipment from Ben my Chree  had been transferred to the other I.O.M   boats,  so that items labelled Ben My Chree  such as Lifebelts  or the Hat bands of the Crew  were present on one of her sister ships.      When I looked  at Operation Ariel details a few days ago, I noticed that one  of the other IOM Steam packet company  boats was  at St Nazaire  on that day.

Incidentally,  I went to the  Lancastria memorial service in Edinburgh either last year or the year previous,  and was speaking to a Gentleman who had been in St Nazaire at that time.   He had been ordered to take a sledgehammer  to new Motorcycles   at the port to disable them.

[Sapper59]

Possible explanation having Ben My Chree on equipment, means the Ben My Chree and the other steamer must have been at the same port on the same day prior to the 17th but after the accident for that to happen.