•'OPERATION   DTNAMO":    THE   SWEEPERS   AT   DUNKIRK

57

on his back. Hayward gave the men first aid and took them to hospital. He refused to remain himself, although in great pain, since there was no one else to take charge of the ship. Next day the Germans captured the hospital and his shipmates became prisoners of war.

The St. Melante, with her consort the Arctic Hunter, then went to Flushing, where she was bombed and raked by machine-gun fire, and later reached Zeebrugge. The water was thick with mines, and ships were going up every hour. The trawlers swept the harbour approaches and took on board the crew of a bombed Greek ship, then were ordered to return to their Base. On arrival both ships' companies were given five days' leave. An hour later leave was cancelled and the St. Melante was told to proceed to Dunkirk.

There was no need to look at the chart, for over Dunkirk hung a pall of smoke which could be seen for miles. Bombs were dropping as the trawler reached the quay, where she embarked 600 troops. The men were worn out but revived once they were on board, under the impression that they were " safe with the Navy." They were distributed along the deck, in the cabin, in the stokehold, and on the gun-platform. The ship was bombed the whole way back to Dover, but there were no casualties.

The St. Melante's next duty was to sweep at Le Havre. As she approached the harbour the oil tanks were blazing, and on arrival she was ordered to St. Valery, where 6,000 troops were believed to be surrounded on a strip of beach. The relief force consisted of a score of small vessels : trawlers, sloops and a destroyer. They reached the rendezvous at midnight and sent the boats in. But the beach was empty. When dawn broke there was no sign of troops. All had been taken prisoner. During the night the St. Melantd found a French yacht adrift. She was intact, but everyone aboard was dead. They looked as if they had been murdered.

The St. Melante then returned to Portsmouth and was ordered to St. Nazaire in company with the trawler Asama. They reached the harbour to find the quay lined six deep with troops, who extended as far as the eye could see. The St. Melantd took 670 on board. The Asama, a destroyer and a French tug took others, and ferried them to the transports waiting in the harbour. The ships were bombed all the way out, but the soldiers stood the ordeal unflinchingly.

This work went on for three days and nights. There seemed no end to the troops. The St. Melant^'s men found themselves " napping on their feet," as Skipper Hay-ward put it. They saw the Lancastria go down.

Skipper Hayward was beginning to lose the use of his legs from the effect of his fall, but he refused to go to hospital. Then a fleet of trawlers arrived, with civilian crews and their fishing gear still on board, and the evacuation was at last completed. But the troopships still had to be taken safely out of harbour, the approaches to which were suspected of being mined. Skipper Hayward was told, " Although your crew are off their feet, you must sweep us out."

At dawn the St. Melante and the Asama went ahead of the great convoy—twenty merchant ships packed with troops, with ten fishing trawlers and the destroyer escorts. They swept from the lock gates into the open sea ; then took up their position on either side of the convoy and steamed with it to Plymouth.

That, so far as Skipper Hayward was concerned, was the end of what he called " all that bother across yon side."

He was loud in his praise of his men. They were all landsmen except the Leading Seaman, a giant with ginger hair, who, when he sighted enemy aircraft, would man the gun and bawl out imploringly, " Gome over 'ere !   Just come over a little closer ! "

" Yes, the men behaved as though they had a job," said Skipper Hayward.