 To camouflage preparations, the eleven merchantmen were loaded at Alexandria, Port Said, Suez, Haifa and Beirut, rendezvousing at Port Said and Haifa.Secrecy led to a lack of practice for the military passengers who made up damage control and fire-fighting parties and some defects in the ships' guns went unnoticed.The Port Said ships "Aagtekirk", "Bhutan", "City of Calcutta" and "Rembrandt" of MW11c, sailed early in the afternoon of 11 June, in Operation Rembrandt, each towing an MTB.