Ebrington wasnever HMS Ferret: letter

I had intended to get in touch with you much sooner about your article on Ebrington in the 6 March edition. I don’t know who or what your sources were but they are extremely suspect.

1: Ebrington was not handed over to the Admiralty in December 1940. The first parts of the barracks to be handed over were four accommodation blocks and the Sergeants’ Mess, which were lent to the Admiralty in June 1941 to accommodate the American ‘technicians’ who had arrived to extend the naval base. Not until 1943 was Ebrington fully under Royal Navy control.

2: Ebrington was not the target of the Luftwaffe attack in April 1941. The target was the Royal Naval Dockyard (Fort George of later years and, far from being botched, it was an excellent piece of target finding with the mines dropping within several hundred yards of their target. In contrast RAF bombers were missing targets by anything up to ten miles and, in some cases, twice that distance. The second Luftwaffe raid on Derry, in early May, was not so good with the mines falling on a hillside near Malin.

3: The name of the barracks was not changed by the Admiralty. It remained the same as RN Barracks Ebrington.

4: HMS Ferret was the base ship for the local RN base and everything naval in the city and district, including the Allied naval forces, came under its umbrella. Ferret was a yacht moored in the Foyle and initially called HMS Firefly. Three vessels were successively named HM Ships Ferret, Ferret II and Ferret III.

I hope this is of some use to you.

Best wishes,

Richard Doherty