Gavin Atkin's weblog for the sort of people who like looking inside boat sheds. It's about old boats, traditional boats, boat building, restoration, the sea and the North Kent Coast
The folks restoring lifeboat Little Ship Lucy Lavers are appealing for financial help to get her ready for a 75th anniversary trip back to the beaches at Dunkirk. If you can, chip in your few bobs here.
In May 1940 the then newly-built lifeboat was part of the fleet of ‘little ships’ that sailed to Dunkirk to evacuate the British and Allied forces stranded on the beaches. In May this year, 75 years after the great rescue from the beaches of Belguim, she is to make a return to Dunkirk after a loving restoration and repair job by the folks at Norfolk’s Rescue Wooden Boats.
It’ll be an emotional trip together with a convoy of other Dunkirk Little Ships. Before she leaves the UK, she is scheduled to call in at Lowestoft, Southwold, Aldeburgh and Harwich (see dates overleaf), before joining the fleet of Little Ships gathering in Ramsgate to make the crossing to Dunkirk.
The crew will include lifeboat men, and at each stopover there will be a land-based exhibition and an opportunity for the public to go aboard.
After Lucy Lavers returns from Dunkirk, visitors will be
able to book a trip afloat on her in Wells-next-the-Sea, as well as see her story displayed at RWB’s visitor centre at Stiffkey.
These are just two short segments from the original TV film about a crossing the North Atlantic from Ireland to North America in a leather boat led by Tim Severin – however, they’re quite enough to make my hair stand on end.
My thanks go to Brian Anderson for spotting them.
St Brendan is said to have made the same journey in the early 6th century. The Wikipedia page about St Brendan includes the wonderful image below.
