Practical Boat Owner - July 2018

DUNKIRK LITTLE SHIP

personnel arriving at 0930 on 30 May.

Moored up in Ramsgate harbour

Nayland disembarked 28 troops. On 2

June more disembarkation took place, at

0740 and then 1140, suggesting that she

was ferrying soldiers from other larger

vessels offshore.

The following morning Nayland

undertook another passage back to the

French coast returning with more troops,

her tally for the whole operation being an

impressive 83 serving soldiers.

Nayland was then transferred to auxiliary

pilot duties in Ramsgate and then became

a despatch vessel under the coxswain of

Frank Coxhead, becoming involved with

many hair-raising near misses with the

enemy while running essential paperwork

errands between Naval craft moored up at

Sheerness. She remained in service with

the Military until 17th July 1945 when she

was paid off.

Post-war decline

Nayland then had several owners and her

name was changed to Peggotty, the

fictional family name in the novel David

Copperfield by Charles Dickens.

By 1977, she had been raised from the

mud at Richmond on Thames three

and carry out war damage repair work.
Then, on 25 May 1940, Nayland sailed to
Ramsgate where she met up with many
other similar motorboats in preparation for
Operation Dynamo – the rescue of what
remained of the British Expeditionary
Force now marooned on the beaches of
Dunkirk being strafed by enemy aircraft.
In a report by Commander J
Glendinnining he revealed how he took
charge of a tug on 28 May, slipping his
lines to take four drifters and five motor
vessels, including Nayland, in tow for the
passage across to the French beaches
arriving off Bray Dunes at 0100. Here he
anchored in three fathoms of water
ordering the Royal Navy crews aboard the
motorboats to search for and rescue
troops from the sands.
Then began a steady ferrying operation,
the motorboats transferring the troops to
larger craft anchored further out. At 1000
he ordered the motorboats to transfer their
troops to HMS Calcutta. By 1900 there
was no more space aboard the larger
vessel so the small motorboats returned
to Ramsgate with their cargo of army

A pleasurable retirement for the
beautifully rebuilt Peggotty on the
River Thames

➜

Photos by Heather Dennett and Mike Taylor

Restoration work was extensive