Two Isle of Man Steam Packet Company vessels, both launched on the same day in 1936, played dramatic roles in the Dunkirk evacuation (Operation Dynamo) of May-June 1940. The Tynwald made four trips between 28 May and 4 June, embarking more troops than any other company vessel (around 8,953 in total) and was the last ship to leave, landing 3,000 French troops in England; she was later requisitioned as HMS Tynwald and sunk by an Italian submarine torpedo off North Africa in November 1942. The Fenella, on her first run into Dunkirk on 29 May 1940 under Captain W. Cubbon, was hit by three bombs while loading around 650 troops from the East Pier and sank; of her 48 crew, 33 reached Dover, and steward Thomas Helsby became the only Steam Packet crewman taken prisoner.