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CLASSIC BOAT MAY 2015 49

In this club it’s the boat, not you, which is the member.

And she has to be a Little Ship, one of the brave fleet which

rescued our soldiers from Dunkirk

STORY BY PETER WILLIS

peculiarly our own. With much history recorded – tales

of heroism, endurance, self-sacrifice – and a few myths,

too, including the persistent belief that the Little Ships

were all motor-cruisers from the upper Thames, piloted

across the Channel by their enthusiastic owners. Quite a

lot were, and there are instances of such boats crossing

the Channel under the command of their owners, but –

as the register of the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships

records, and as its members demonstrate every five years,

an astonishing variety of vessels made up the hastily-

assembled flotilla that went to the rescue.

One fact though is inescapable. Inevitable human

frailty means that for the first time, this year’s Return

will almost certainly be bereft of the presence of

dignified, medal-bedecked elderly veterans of the

evacuation. Not for the first time, the reflection arises

that it is the boats themselves, cared-for, restored, with

THE LITTLE SHIPS

PREPARE TO

REVISIT DUNKIRK

their participation documented, that are the durable

bearers of the spirit of this particular piece of history.

And, as the decades go by, it seems that more of these

historic vessels are rediscovered and restored. In each of

the ADLS’s five-yearly commemorative Returns to

Dunkirk, there are a few new names.

So it is this year – and furthermore, the number of

vessels registered to take part suggests that if they all turn

up (which admittedly is unlikely) this could be one of the

largest of the Returns so far.

It’s also likely to be one of the most visible. Typically

the fleet departs for Dunkirk from Ramsgate Harbour at

some ungodly hour of the morning – as indeed it will do

again this year, away by about 7.30am – and even so a

goodly crowd turns out to cheer it on its way. This year,

however, the organisers have decided to stretch the event

out, and begin things the previous weekend, in London,

RAY LITTLE

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