The Helford boats
4 February 2025
Helford and the SOE
6 February 2025Created in early 1943, the Inshore Patrol Flotilla brought together the ‘informal’ fleets in Dartmouth and the Helford into a unified command under Lt Cdr Nigel Warington Smyth. At one time or another, the fleet included the following (in approximate order of commissioning):1
MFV 2013 Mutin -a 62ft/60-ton yawl French sailing/auxiliary vessel of the tunny type, suited to working in deep waters which had been used by the French Navy as a sail training ship. The first vessel to be added to the SOE Helford fleet in 1940. Originally the Base ship for the SOE, she was replaced by Roger Juliette when she left for the Mediterranean in November 1942. She returned from the Mediterranean in November 1944 and was discharged in March 1945.
MFV 2014 Ste Denise-Louise – another 62ft French sailing aux fishing vessel but of the N Coast type. The second vessel to be added to the SOE Helford fleet. She was severely damaged when she hit a ledge in the Isles of Scilly, was re-floated and towed back to Penzance where she was used ‘as a boarding vessel’.
MFV 2017 Sérénini – a 65ft sailing auxiliary French fishing vessel of the trawler type. She was the third vessel to be added to the SOE Helford fleet. She sailed for the Mediterranean in company with Mutin in November 1942.
RAF 360 – a 41ft 6in RAF air sea rescue launch joined the SOE flotilla in 1940. Although she carried out several missions to France in the early days, she was deemed too slow and lightly defended for cross-Channel operations. She became the workhorse motor launch of the IPF, being returned to the RAF when the Base closed in March 1945. Bureaucracy caught up with them as there were then questions as to how SOE had ever acquired her in the first place.
Roger Juliette (the spelling varies with some sources using Roger Juliet) – the SOE floating headquarters and accommodation ship until March 1945.
MFV 2032 Trebouliste – an 80ft sailing auxiliary French fishing vessel of the large crabber type. Used as an accommodation and store ship. She is first mentioned in the Logbook in October 1942 and lastly in November 1944.
MFV 2020 N 51 /Le Dinan: – a 65ft long malamok which arrived from the Dartmouth flotilla in November 1942. She paid off in December 1944.
MFV 2025 Fée-Des-Eaux -a malamok which was clearly popular in the IPF. She was found at the same time as Le DInan and arrived in the Helford in January 1943. She was one of the last to leave in March 1945.
MFV 2021 P 11 /Ar Morscoul – a pinasse which had escaped from France in June 1940. She was found half-submerged in Newlyn harbour in June 1942, was salvaged and brought into service. She arrived from the Dartmouth flotilla in November 1942 and remained in the Helford until at least January 1945.
MFV 2022 AO 4/Président Herriot – a malamok. She joined the flotilla around January 1943 and remained in it until at least January 1945.
MFV 2027 La Korrigan (sometimes Corrigan) – a pinasse, 50ft French trawler. She played a significant role in collecting refugees in 1940. She escaped from France in 1942 after a period operating out of France and arrived in Falmouth in December of that year, prior to conversion in March/June 1943.
MFV 2028 L’Oeuvre -a malamok, 65ft French fishing vessel. Arrived in the Helford in November 1943. Delivered a Jeep to the Normandy beachhead in June 1944 and was in the flotilla until at least November 1944.
MFV 2023 L’Angèle-Rouge – a very interesting vessel. She was not a French vessel but was modelled on P 11/Ar-Morscoul by Laurent Giles to look like an ordinary pinasse above the water. Below the water, she had a flat bottom which, with her powerful 500hp Hall-Scott engines, allowed her to scoot along at 18-20 knots when not being observed. In daylight, she chugged along under a suitably smelly auxiliary engine. She was named after the boss’s secretary: the auburn-haired Miss Sykes-Wright who had recently married Lt McKenzie. She arrived in the Helford in February 1943 and was still in the flotilla in June 1944.
MFV 2026 -Sirène (sometimes Cyrene) – a converted 55ft French crabber. She escaped from France in August 1942 and joined the flotilla in the Helford. She paid off in December 1944.
Breeze – a 105ft trawler. Arrived to assist with operation PLANIMETER in March 1943 and was still in the Helford in July 1944.
Le Clipper – similar to Mutin but engineless, she was used as a store ship in the Helford. Arrived ‘in an extremely dirty condition’ in May 1943. She was handed over to the salvage authorities in November 1943.
Jacques Morgand – a 106ft trawler. Arrived in July 1943. She was almost wrecked with La Brise in St Ives in January 1945 but returned safely.
HMY Sunbeam II – a splendid, three-masted square-topsail schooner that belonged to Lord Runciman: a near replica of the original Sunbeam in which Lord Brassey had sailed around the world. She acted as the headquarters for the Inshore Patrol Flotilla from June 1943 until March 1945.
Genista – not known.
La Brise -an Audierne mackerel drifter which fished out of Newlyn. She arrived in May 1944 and was then wrecked off St Ives in January 1945.
Pourquoi-pas? – a sloop-rigged fishing boat (also referred to as a sand barge) owned by Jacques Guéguen who made several crossings in here in 1940/41 bringing across stragglers from the Allied Expeditionary Force and refugees. Was handed over to Port Navas Boatyard for re-conditioning in February 1945.