 The British military attaché in Bordeaux directed them to Arcachon where, at a villa outside the town, they met a British naval lieutenant, Ian Fleming, who arranged for them to be taken aboard HMS Galatea (71) for the short sea voyage to St Jean de Luz near the Spanish frontier.Here they were transhipped to a passenger vessel, the "Etric" [sic], which already had on board a large number of British subjects (mainly well-to-do ladies and their staff) evacuated from their villas in France.Mary Spears and her party of 25 British nurses and MTC drivers docked in Plymouth on 26 June 1940 with nothing but their personal effects.