Just before noon on 20 June the following ships sailed from Le Verdon for Falmouth: the KASANGO with 100 British passengers; the NIGERSTROOM with 600 British passengers; the VILLE DE LEIGE with 200-300 Polish and Czech troops and the BROOMPARK with unknown number of British nationals and machine tools. This mention of 'machine tools' hides an interesting story. Denholm's almost new coal fired tramp ship BROOMPARK, Captain Olaf Paulsen[1], arrived at Bordeaux before 17 June. There the ship loaded diamonds and specialist machine tools that had been collected by the colourful Charles 'Wild Jack' Howard, the 20th Earl of Suffolk.[2] The Earl had travelled to France, with his secretary Eileen Beryl Morden, and others to act as a Liaison Officer for the British Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. While the ship was loading two scientists, Hans Halban and Lew Kowarski, arrived with their families and a consignment 'heavy water.'
At that time the only place where heavy water (deuterium oxide) could be isolated was at the Norsk Hydro Ryukan plant in Norway. By the end of 1939, Ryukan was receiving orders for up to 100 kg of heavy water a month from the Germans. French intelligence became aware of this. In early March, Lieutenant Jacques Allier, managed to fly the entire 165 kg (elsewhere 185 kg) of heavy water, in twenty six five-litre containers, to France via Scotland.
When France was invaded the nuclear scientist Jean Frédéric Joliot-Curie[3] took charge of the material. His colleague Hans Halban loaded a gram of Marie Curie's radium in his car with the cans of heavy water between it and himself, his wife, and their one year old daughter. This, they hoped, would give them some protection from radiation. They first hid their cargo in a Banque de France vault and then in a women's prison. They then moved it to Bordeaux, where the heavy water was loaded on to the BROOMPARK.
The Master was a very large man, well on in his sixties. He spoke English and French with a guttural accent. The crew, mostly Glaswegians, would have been no easier to understand. Captain Clausen was known through the fleet as a parsimonious man; to gain such a reputation on a Glasgow tramp is to be acknowledged as a master of the art. The centre of attention was the Earl. In one account he was working, stripped to the waist and displaying his many tattoos and carrying the two pistols that were always with him. There are no reports of a bandanna and an eye patch, but there is little doubt that he was a piratical figure. Once the heavy water had been loaded the Earl set about supervising theconstruction of a raft to stow it in, the idea being that the raft would float free if the ship were sunk. In this event some of the French scientists were to crew the raft! The Earl had also acquired a quantity of champagne, which he issued generously, especially to the faint-hearted.
The scientists, with their research papers, also boarded the BROOMPARK, which sailed from Bordeaux on 17 June and from Le Verdon on the 20 June.. On the way down the Gironde the ship ahead was mined and sunk. The Germans were aware that the heavy water had been spirited away, Joliot-Curie, who remained in France with his wife, convinced them that it was in the sunken ship. BROOMPARK arrived at Falmouth at 0600 on 21 June. After discharging she was ordered to Swansea on 22 June. The scientists all went on to have distinguished careers and played themselves in a film about the epic. A search for BROOMPARK in the National Archives catalogue gives no results.
Some reports say BROOMPARK was the only vessel available or Paulsen was the only Master willing to load the material. At least nineteen vessels sailed from the Gironde between 17 and 23 June. Two were warships and several were British cargo liners who may have been more suited to the work. No reports have been seen that explain the choice of the BROOMPARK, who nevertheless did her job very well.
BROOMPARK in Le Verdon Roads, June 19 1940
(Courtesy, Denholm)
[1] When young Olaf Paulsen had landed in Leith from Norway he had little English. He signed on as a catering boy. After several trips he went on deck, eventually gaining his Master's certificate. Fairly late in life he joined the Denholm's as Chief Officer, then Master. "He was a quaint mixture of showman and clown, but he had intense drive was ruthlessly efficient." He retired when he reached his sixties, but was called back in 1939 to command the new BROOMPARK. He had a knowledge of French, and several other European languages. Captain Paulsen was awarded the OBE, and Lloyd's Medal for Gallantry at Sea, for saving BROOMPARK when she was torpedoed later in 1940. After this he joined Denholm's Superintendent's Department . Source: Captain Olaf Paulsen, matelot extraordinaire by Captain J M Henderson ex Director of Denholm Ship Management. Courtesy, Joyce Murdoch, J&J Denholm
[2] Charles Howard entered Dartmouth Naval College, but soon left and signed on as a seaman on the windjammer MOUNT STEWART. When he returned his family bought him a commission in the Scots Guards, but was 'asked to leave' because of his 'wild ways'. He then worked on sheep farms in Australia and New Zealand. After this he graduated from Edinburgh University with a first-class honours degree in Chemistry. After the BROOMPARK he formed a three person bomb disposal team, 'The Holy Trinity' with whom he safely defused thirty four bombs. In 1941 the Trinity, the Earl, his secretary and his 'chauffeur' Fred Hards, were killed on Erith Marshes while the Earl was attempting to de-fuse the thirty fifth bomb. For his work he was awarded the George Cross. Various sources.
To be published 2011: One Man In His Time: Life and Times of the 20th Earl of Suffolk & Berkshire, Kerin Freeman
[3]"Jean Frédéric Joliot-Curie and his wife Irène (Marie Curie's daughter) shared the 1935 Nobel prize for Chemistry. By the outbreak of World War II, Joliot-Curie, at that time a professor at the Collège de France, was working actively on nuclear fission, and since the summer of 1939 had been thinking of heavy water as a moderator in a nuclear reactor, to produce neutrons of the right velocity to induce nuclear fission." Sources: Chronology-June-1940-Part-1.html and