Were "Little Ship" owners and crew compensated for evacuating Dunkirk?

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I don't think they were paid anything, at least officially.

On the 14th day of 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 all particulars to the Admiralty within 14 days from today if they have not already been offered or requisitioned".


Although this may have sounded something like a request, it was, in fact, an Order.


The Mrs. Miniver story of owners jumping into their Little Ships and rushing off to Dunkirk is a myth. Very few owners took their own vessels, apart from fishermen and one or two others. The whole Operation was very carefully co-ordinated and records exist of most of the Little Ships and other larger vessels that went to Dunkirk.

One of the owners that sailed to Dunkirk was Charles Lightoller, who had been second officer on board the RMS Titanic.

When the Admiralty tried to requisition his yacht, the Sundowner, Lightoller insisted that

if anyone was going to take her to Dunkirk, it would be him and his eldest son, Roger.

They rescued 130 soldiers.

For that contribution, he received a mention in despatches in 1944.

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