GREY MIST

Type: Steel Twin Screw Schooner 
Length: 116ft but now lengthened to 135ft 
Beam: 19ft 6in 
Draft: 9 ft 6 in 
Displacement: 160 tons before lengthening 
Engine: Main Propulsion 2- 240 HP Caterpillar 3306 Bow thruster 1- 240 HP Caterpillar D334 
Construction: Steel 
Builder: Camper & Nicholsons 
Year: 1920?

In 1939 she was owned by Lady Maud Burton and Ronald Rothbury Burton. She was requisitioned in November 1939.

On 21st May 1940 Grey Mist was sent into Boulogne to act as a wireless radio link to the British forces defending the town. By the 22nd May she reported that the German tanks were less than 2 miles away and she departed for Dover with troops aboard. Boulogne finally fell on 25th May (see below).

http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_boulogne_1940.html

‘At 2130 on 25th May a force of seven trawlers, three yachts (the Grey Mist, Conidaw and Chico), and two drifters sailed for Calais Roads ready to evacuate troops the moment an order to do so was received. Five of the trawlers towed motor boats. Commander W.V.H. Harris, RN (Commander, MS Dover), in the Grey Mist, was in command and the destroyers H.M.S. Windsor and H.M.S. Verity left Dover at 2300 to cover the withdrawal of this force. On arrival off Calais, two of the motor boats were ordered into Calais harbour. At about 0300 on the 26th, a signal was received that Calais was to be held at all costs; furthermore, it was ordered that this signal was to be sent by hand to the Brigadier commanding our forces on shore. The Conidaw went in to deliver the signal. All ships were then ordered back to the Downs.'

The present owner Mr. Holt Hickman of Fort Worth, Texas purchased the Grey Mist when she was in South Africa, and her name at the time was DORITA.

After sailing her to the United States he renamed her to her original name, GREY MIST. She is presently anchored at the port of Galveston, Texas, where renovations are almost complete.