A look at some of the Dunkirk Little Ships gathered at Ramsgate in June 2000.Throughout the 60th Anniversary of the Dunkirk Evacuation, I, like millions of others, watched events on television and repeatedly saw those 'Dunkirk Little Ships' gathering then crossing the Channel to Dunkirk and marvelled at the sight.  If ever there needed to be evidence in support of 'Old soldiers never die….' it is surely there, spiritually at least, in these boats.

By the evening of Monday the 5th, with them returning from Dunkirk, I could sit and watch them on television no longer - I had to go and see them for real. I suspect the fact that I was taking my first faltering steps in the SE corner of Essex at the time of the 1940 evacuation and spent my formative years on and in the water of the Thames Estuary at Old Leigh - from where some of the cockle bawleys and crews set out - might also have been a factor. 
 
Just how valiant the crews, civil and military, were in helping to take more than a third of a million soldiers, 340,000 plus, from the beaches of Dunkirk in those nine dramatic days to the 4th of June 1940 can never be exaggerated. There was no counselling in1940 they just got on with doing what had to be done and were then sent off to fight again elsewhere!

Setting off early next morning I arrived in a dry but chilly Ramsgate to wander around the pontoons where I was able to touch these examples of the best of British boatbuilding of the 1920's and '30's. In those days you could have a boat made as you wanted it, as long as you wanted it in wood. Wooden boats are now fast becoming extinct and even the word wood now seems to be replaced with 'forest products' (Pic. see 8. below)

These small boats with proud pasts live on today, 60 years later, thanks to their devoted owners who must see five - revised, probably still inadequately, in 2006 to fifty - pound notes disappearing as fast as their wake on misty morning. Long may they, people and boats, survive. It was a great pleasure to see them - some had already left for home moorings - and to be able to get a picture or two that you might also like to see. (Note: The camera date was a day slow!)

If you are interested in learning more about the 'little ships' you might like to read Christian Brann's book 'The Little Ships of Dunkirk'

1. 122' 'Atlantide' ('Caleta' in 1940) departing Ramsgate PM 6 June 2000. Built at Rowhedge Ironworks at Colchester in 1930 she has recently been totally restored and returned to sea from Camper & Nicholsons, Gosport on completion in 1999.

2.  33' MY 'Bou Saada'. Built by King & Sons Burnham on Crouch 1935 
 
3.  41' MY 'Dowager'. (Shoreham Lifeboat in 1940) built by Groves & Guttridge, Isle of Wight 1932
 
4.  43' MY 'Elizabeth Green'. Built on the Thames by Harry Millham at Swan Island, Twickenham c.1935 (Thanks to Harry's great-grandson John Powell for correcting my details of Elizabeth Green. At the same time he also said that his father Jack Milham Powell and Jack's brother Pat, went to Dunkirk in 'Cordelia' and 'Reda' (later renamed 'Janthea') respectively). Both vessels are reportedly active and based on the Thames in 2003. 
 
5. 47' MY 'Fedalma II' built in 1936 by Charles Fox at Ipswich. In background 40' MC 'Gentle Ladye' ('Jong' in 1940) Built by Thornycroft at Hampton on Thames in 1931.

6. Ramsgate general scene June 2000  
 
7. 45' MY 'Lamouette'. Built in Portsmouth Dockyard as a naval pinnace in 1937. 'Sundowner' in background.
 
8. 46' 'Michael Stephens' (Lowestoft Lifeboat in 1940). The combined picture in the text is  RNLB 'Michael Stephens' in 1973 whilst on Relief Duty at St Helier, Channel Islands.  Thanks to Ian Moignard, a crew member then for the picture. 

9. 37' MY 'Lurline'. A real veteran built in Maldon, Essex by Howard's in 1914. Astern can be seen 'Gentle Ladye' & on the left of the pontoon the 'Nyula'.

10. 54' Passenger boat 'New Britannic' was a 1930 product of Maynard's at Chiswick.
  
11.  33' MY 'Papillon'. Built by Harris at Burnham on Crouch in 1930. 

12.  The 40' MY 'Nyula' ('Betty' in 1940) built at Shepperton in 1933.

13.  52' MY 'Sundowner' built as a steam pinnace for the Admiralty in 1912. Owned and skippered at Dunkirk in 1940 by Charles Lightoller who was 2nd Officer in the 'Titanic' on her fateful voyage.

14.  60' Aux. Ketch 'Tahilla' ('Skylark' in 1940) built by Thornycroft in 1922.