TEDDINGTON’S ANNIVERSARY FLOTILLA IS FULL STEAM AHEAD
PHOTO SPECIAL BY HOWARD MIATT, OWNER OF THE BOAT SHOP IN FERRY ROAD, TEDDINGTON
Five historic and heroic ‘Little Ships’ moored in Teddington will take part in the 85th anniversary flotilla returning to Dunkirk later this month.
All five are now moored in Teddington Harbour awaiting final instructions before setting off next week.
The flotilla celebrates the anniversary of Operation Dynamo, which evacuated over 330.000 British and Allied troops from the beaches of Dunkirk.
It is hoped that at least 70 of the surviving ships will set sail from Ramsgate on May 21 in a massive operation led by the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships (ALDS)
Teddington retains a close link with Dunkirk and Operation Dynamo through John Tough, who is the grandson of Douglas Tough who played a key part in the organisation of the original rescue.
Their sizes range across a wide variety of hulls and boat types; a small dinghy, small river cruisers, day boats, river boats, pleasure craft, coastal vessels, ocean going vessels. Some under sail, most engine powered.
John owns one of the Teddington ‘Little Ships’ Thamesa, which is moored locally with Fedalma 11, Papillon, White Marlin and Gentle Ladye.
The Association says: “This event is of extreme national and world importance; without the effective success that Operation Dynamo was, the war itself may well have been very different, taken longer to come to its end, and cost many more lives.
”Undoubtedly it is the Little Ships that are the members; the owners consider themselves the current ‘custodians’of the Little Ships and maintainers of their history.”
The Little Ships will take different routes to their pre-crossing assembly point at Ramsgate; many will be sailing in flotillas and some independently to arrive over the weekend of Saturday 17 to Monday 19 May, weather permitting.
All are recognisable by their individual house flag; the Cross of St George defaced with the Arms of Dunkirk in the centre, worn at the masthead.
In addition, they fly the Cross of St George in the bow and the Red Ensign at the stern when two or more Little Ships are together when attending, enroute to, or returning from events.
It was feared that the issues with the Teddington Lock may disrupt the sailing time of the historic flotilla but the Environment Agency has said it is working to ensure it is ‘getting the lock operational for 24 hours a day.’
THAMESA
1940 Minnehaha (original name)
Type: Motor Yacht
Length: 40ft 6ins
Beam: 10ft 3ins
Draft: 4ft 6ins
Displacement: 15 tons
Engine: 2x 60hp Thornycroft
Construction: Teak
Builder: J Samuel White, Cowes IoW
Year: 1936
The Teddington boatyard of Tough Brothers played a prominent part in the story of Dunkirk and some of the hastily requisitioned boats from the upper Thames were collected and set out in convoy on the first part of their journey from Teddington.
Just ten years after the evacuation, she returned to Dunkirk for the first reunion ceremony in 1950. Thamesa is also famous for helping The Beatles to avoid the crowds at the height of their popularity in 1964 by taking them to Thames Television studios at Teddington on the river.
PAPILLON
Type: Motor Yacht
Length: 33ft 5ins
Beam: 8ft 7ins
Draft: 3ft 8ins
Displacement: 10.5 tons
Engine: 2 x 4cyl 42HP Isuzu Diesels
Construction: Carvel
Builder: Leslie W Harris, Burnham
Year: 1930
According to records she arrived for service at Dover on 30th May 1940 and that her two 4 cylinder Morris petrol engines were ‘defective’. Her skipper was E. Somers Holmwood of Kingston by the Sea, Sussex, and his crew S.J. Downes of Shoreham, B. Hawood of Brighton and Mr. Griffiths of Peacehaven (who was lent to an RNLI lifeboat). She was probably a local boat, since her owner, C.P. Mackenrot, lived at Westcliffe-on-Sea, Essex and she had been built in 1930 by Leslie W. Harris at Burnham-on-Crouch. On 7th June 1940 she was again requisitioned by the Royal Navy for Operation Cycle, the evacuation of the BEF from Le Havre. Her skipper was once again listed as E Summers-Holmwood who gave his address as Old Watch House Club, Kingston, Shoreham, Sussex. She took part in Queen’s Golden Jubilee Pageant on the Thames in 2012 and sailed to Dunkirk to take part in the Christopher Nolan film, “Dunkirk”, released in July 2017.
FEDALMA 11
Beam: 11ft
Draft: 4ft 9ins
Displacement: 17.82 tons
Engine: 2 x 6cyl Perkins 6-354
Construction: Carvel, teak
Builder: C H Fox & Son, Ipswich
Year: 1936
Fedalma II was built in 1936 for a Mr. Claud Scrutton of Thorpe Bay in Essex, at the Suffolk yard of C.H. Fox & Son with the intention of keeping her at Burnham on Crouch. He must have appreciated the craftmanship of the yard because his first Fedalma, a 35ft motor yacht, was built there in 1931. Fedalma II is a roomy 47-footer, originally schooner rigged, carrying 375 sq. ft. of sail. She was changed to a ketch rig in the late 1940’s and then changed again in the early 1990’s to a single mast, which carries no sail, ahead of the wheelhouse.
She is a handsome boat, with a great expanse of varnished teak both above and below decks and her interior remains remarkably similar to the photographs taken of her in 1936. The major change has been the installation of 2 Perkins P6-354 Diesels which give her a comfortable cruising speed of 10kts using about 4 gallons (18litres) an hour. Claud Scrutton employed a full-time skipper but the crew quarters, forward of the galley, no longer exist. Externally, apart from the change to the rig, she has had an outside steering position fitted together with a comfortable seating area for 6-8 people on the aft deck.
GENTLE LADYE
Type: Motor Yacht
Length: 40ft
Beam: 9ft
Draft: 3ft 6ins
Displacement: 13 tons
Engine: 2 x Fiat
Construction: Carvel, mahogany on oak
Builder: Thornycroft
Year: 1931
Friday, 31st May 1940, was the sixth day of Operation Dynamo’ and by first light that morning, an estimated 150,000 British soldiers had already been evacuated.
The Thornycroft cabin cruiser Jong, commanded by Sub-Lt. I.F. Smith, RNVR was there, in company with Marsayru, loading SS Foam Queen and SS Jaba with French and British troops from the beaches. She had been collected by Tough’s from her owner, Donald Aldington, a motor engineer, while she was lying on the Thames. A crew of three, entered in Douglas Tough’s notebook as G. Allendale, G. Thomas and H. Morte, took her down to Sheerness, where the Royal Navy took over. Douglas Tough received her back with only minor damage to her stanchions and guardrail a week later.
After the war, in 1951, she was re-named Gentle Ladye. In 1965, then owned by Wing Cdr. Tom Jefferson, DSO, AFC, AE, she was one of the founder members of the ADLS. She attended the first Return and cruised extensively along the south coast as far as Dartmouth.
She was rescued and changed owners several times, being seen along the Kent coast and at Allington Lock, on the Medway, stripped and unused. Now Paul Rainbow has restored her and was last at Platt’s Eyot at Hampton, near the very place where she was built by Thornycroft’s nearly seventy years ago
WHITE MARLIN
1940 HMS Fervent
Type: Motor Yacht
Length: 50ft
Beam: 11ft 9ins
Draft: 3ft 9ins
Displacement: 15 tons
Engine: 2 x 140hp GM Diesels
Construction: Double carvel, teak on elm.
Builder: Thornycroft
Year: 1938/9
The Armenian sugar broker who ordered White Marlin from Thornycroft’s never even took delivery of her. As she was completed at Hampton on Thames in 1939, right on the eve of World War II, she was handed over instead to the Ministry of War Transport at Dover. The Royal Navy called her HMS Fervent and assigned her as the communications boat for the Officer Commanding convoys in the area.
During the evacuation she was the launch of the Senior Naval 0fficer at Dunkirk, under the command of Lieut. Cdr. W.R.T. Clemments. She numbered among her crew Douglas Kirkaldie, the coxswain of the Ramsgate lifeboat Prudential who was mentioned in despatches. And, she was one of the last naval vessels to leave Dunkirk harbour.
She was taken back to Hampton on a barge and restore her completely. Although his personal boat, she rapidly became the company’s communications launch, taking visitors from Tower Pier in London down to the Albert Dock refineries. Col. Sudbury had her superstructure rebuilt and he took White Marlin to Henley Regatta fifteen years in succession. She now belongs to David Murr who has undertaken a complete restoration to her original form with an open centre cockpit.
An Environment Agency spokesman said: “We have taken action to ensure that vessels can once again pass through Teddington Lock each day between 9am and 5pm, and at high tide outside of these times. We have notified boating customers who were disrupted by the closure. We are working at once again getting the lock operational for 24 hours a day.”