Little ships of Dunkirk - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The little ships of Dunkirk were 700 private boats that sailed from Ramsgate

Ramsgate

Ramsgate is a seaside town in the district of Thanet in east Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century and is a member of the ancient confederation of Cinque Ports. It has a population of around 40,000. Ramsgate's main attraction is its coastline and its main...

in England to Dunkirk in France between May 26 and June 4, 1940 as part of Operation Dynamo

Operation Dynamo

The Dunkirk evacuation, commonly known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, code-named Operation Dynamo by the British, was the evacuation of Allied soldiers from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, France, between 26 May and the early hours of 3 June 1940, because the British, French and Belgian troops were...

, the rescue of more than 338,000 British and French soldiers, who were trapped on the beaches at Dunkirk

Battle of Dunkirk

The Battle of Dunkirk was a battle in the Second World War between the Allies and Germany. A part of the Battle of France on the Western Front, the Battle of Dunkirk was the defence and evacuation of British and allied forces in Europe from 26 May–4 June 1940.After the Phoney War, the Battle of...

during the Second World War.

Overview

The situation of the troops, who had been cut off from their advance into France by a pincer movement from the German army, was regarded by the British prime minister Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...

as the greatest military defeat for centuries; it appeared likely to cost Britain the war, leaving the country vulnerable to invasion by Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

. Because of the shallow waters, British destroyers were unable to approach the beaches, and soldiers were having to wade out to the warships, many of them waiting hours shoulder deep in water.

On 27 May, the small-craft section of the British Ministry of Shipping telephoned boat builders around the coast, asking them to collect all boats with "shallow draft

Draft (hull)

The draft of a ship's hull is the vertical distance between the waterline and the bottom of the hull , with the thickness of the hull included; in the case of not being included the draft outline would be obtained...

" that could navigate the shallow waters. Attention was directed to the pleasure boats, private yachts and launches moored on the River Thames

River Thames

The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...

and along the south and east coasts. Some of them were taken with the owners' permission — and with the owners insisting they would sail them — while others were requisitioned by the government with no time for the owners to be contacted. The boats were checked to make sure they were seaworthy, fueled, and taken to Ramsgate

Ramsgate

to set sail for Dunkirk. They were manned by Naval Officers, Ratings

Naval rating

A Naval Rating is an enlisted member of a country's Navy, subordinate to Warrant Officers and Officers hence not conferred by commission or warrant...

and experienced volunteers. Very few owners manned their own vessels, apart from fishermen and one or two others.

When they reached France, some of the boats acted as shuttles between the beaches and the destroyers, ferrying soldiers to the warships. Others carried hundreds of soldiers each back to Ramsgate, protected by the Royal Air Force

Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

from the attacks of the Luftwaffe

Luftwaffe

Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....

Notable boats

Royal Daffodil
MV Royal Daffodil (1939)
MV Royal Daffodil was built in 1939 and scrapped in 1967. In the late 50s and early to mid 60s she was used for "no passport" trips to France, which enabled people to drink outside normal licensing hours as these did not apply at sea.-History:...

: the River Mersey
River Mersey
The River Mersey is a river in North West England. It is around long, stretching from Stockport, Greater Manchester, and ending at Liverpool Bay, Merseyside. For centuries, it formed part of the ancient county divide between Lancashire and Cheshire....

ferry evacuated 7,461 service personnel from Dunkirk in five trips between 28 May and 2 June, among them the French historian Marc Bloch
Marc Bloch
Marc Léopold Benjamin Bloch was a French historian who cofounded the highly influential Annales School of French social history. Bloch was a quintessential modernist. An assimilated Alsatian Jew from an academic family in Paris, he was deeply affected in his youth by the Dreyfus Affair...

, who served as a captain in the campaign. This was the largest number evacuated by a single passenger vessel in the operation. On 2 June, she was attacked by six German aircraft. A bomb dropped by one of them penetrated two of her decks and blew a hole below the water line, but she managed to limp back to port.
Medway Queen
Medway Queen
The PS Medway Queen is a paddle driven steamship, the only estuary paddle steamer left in the United Kingdom. She was one of the "little ships of Dunkirk", making a record 7 trips and rescuing 7000 men in the evacuation of Dunkirk....

: the paddle steamer
Paddle steamer
A paddle steamer is a steamship or riverboat, powered by a steam engine, using paddle wheels to propel it through the water. In antiquity, Paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were wheelers driven by animals or humans...

made the most round trips — seven — rescuing 7,000 men and earning herself the nickname "Heroine of Dunkirk". Funds are currently being raised for her restoration
Sundowner
Sundowner (yacht)
Sundowner is a motor yacht, formerly owned by Charles Lightoller, 2nd Officer of . One of the "little ships", she participated in the Dunkirk evacuation, and is now a museum ship at the Ramsgate Maritime Museum in Southern England.-Construction:...

: owned by Charles Lightoller
Charles Lightoller
Commander Charles Herbert Lightoller DSC & Bar, RD, RNR was the second mate on board the , and the most senior officer to survive the disaster...

, former second officer of the Titanic, was requisitioned by the Admiralty on 30 May. Lightoller insisted that, if anyone was going to take her to Dunkirk, it would be him and his eldest son, Roger, together with Sea Scout
Sea Scout
Sea Scouts are members of the international Scouting movement, with a particular emphasis on water-based activities, such as kayaking, canoeing, sailing, and rowing. Depending on the country and the available water these activities are on lakes, rivers or sea in small or large ships. Sea Scouting...

Gerald Ashcroft. The men transported 130 soldiers back to Ramsgate
Ramsgate
Ramsgate is a seaside town in the district of Thanet in east Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century and is a member of the ancient confederation of Cinque Ports. It has a population of around 40,000. Ramsgate's main attraction is its coastline and its main...

, reportedly packed together like sardines, almost capsizing when they reached the shore.
Bluebird of Chelsea
Bluebird of Chelsea
Bluebird of Chelsea, formerly Bluebird, is a motor yacht originally built for Sir Malcolm Campbell.- Ownership by Sir Malcolm Campbell :She was built in 1931 by Thornycrofts of Southampton, as a twin petrol-engined wooden carvel-built motor yacht....

: the yacht made two round trips to Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, carrying hundreds of men.

Isle of Man Steam Packet

At the outbreak of war, 10 of the 16 vessels in the fleet of the Isle of Man Steam Packet

Isle of Man Steam Packet

The Isle of Man Steam Packet Company Limited is the oldest continuously operating passenger shipping company in the world, celebrating its 180th anniversary in 2010....

company were requisitioned. Four were lost.

Eight of the company's boats took part in the Dunkirk evacuation. was the first to leave Dover, and the first vessel to complete a round trip. By the end of operations, the fleet had rescued a total of 24,699, 1 in 14 of those evacuated from Dunkirk.

Dutch coasters

Thirty-nine Dutch coasters had escaped the occupation of the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

by the Germans on 10 May 1940 and were asked by the Dutch shipping bureau in London or by the Royal Navy to assist. In total, the Dutch coasters, able to approach the beaches very closely due to their flat bottoms, rescued 22,698 men.

The record is held by the , a 35 metres (114.8 ft) ship measuring 300 ton dwt and built in 1934 in the province of Groningen

Groningen (province)

Groningen [] is the northeasternmost province of the Netherlands. In the east it borders the German state of Niedersachsen , in the south Drenthe, in the west Friesland and in the north the Wadden Sea...

, under captain D. Buining. The vessel had already saved the crew of the British coaster on 30 January 1940. Between 28 and 31 May 1940, the Rian saved 2,542 persons. Other Dutch coasters that saved more than 1,000 men each:: 1,455: 1,400: 1,200: 1,200: 1,150: 1,139: 1,002

Of these ships, seven were lost at Dunkirk or during the evacuation nearer the British coast.

Results

In nine days, 192,226 British and 139,000 French soldiers — 331,226 in all — were rescued by the 700 little ships and around 220 warships. The rescue operation turned a military disaster into a story of heroism which served to raise the morale of the British.

It was in describing the success of the operation to the House of Commons on June 4, 1940 that Churchill made one of his most famous speeches:
The phrase "Dunkirk spirit" is still used to describe courage and solidarity in adversity.

External links

Partial list of ships compiled by the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships
Video of Churchill's Speech

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Overview

Notable boats

Isle of Man Steam Packet

Dutch coasters

Results

See also

Further reading

External links