Blood of Honour

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A little before 8.25 a.m. on the morning of Monday, 28 April, 1941. A wooden fishing-boat, some eighty feet long, a painted eye on either side of its prow, was approaching the mouth of the outer harbour at Heraklion. At first glance, it was much like any other caique that had sailed the Aegean for centuries: gaff-rigged with a main and mizzen mast, light rigging either side, a prominent bowsprit, and half a dozen men manning its deck. A closer glance, however, revealed some anomalies. On its foredeck stood a single two-pounder gun, while towards the stern were a brace of mounted Oerlikon 20mm cannon. And that was not all, for fluttering from the top of the mizzen mast was a small White Ensign. His Majesty’s Ship Dolphin was an unusual naval vessel, yet in this war there was room for all shapes and sizes in the Royal Navy – after all, needs must. A flotilla of fast motor gunboats would have been better, a godsend in fact, but Britain’s war effort was already badly stretched and here in the eastern Mediterranean they had to make do with whatever was available. If that meant a wooden fishing boat, then so be it.

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