Lancastria and destroyer rescue risk

Lancastria was the catastrophic exception among many successful sailings, with uncertain passenger totals and thousands believed lost after bombing. The liner was normally permitted to carry 1,700 passengers and 375 crew, but the emergency order called for as many troops and civilians as possible to embark. The figure of about 6,700 aboard rests on an overheard conversation rather than a complete manifest, so the precise death toll remains uncertain. A separate family account describes an evacuation destroyer with twice the visible guns of the others. Its armament and a surviving photograph make HMS Punjabi the likely ship, although the identification remains an evidence-based inference rather than a documented certainty.