Big ferry brings home the Little Ship that made it back to Dunkirk

by Andrew Rosthorn on 5 Jun 2010 The 30ft motor boat Anne, one of the smallest 'little ships' to make it back to France for the 70th anniversary return of the surviving boats of from the battle of Dunkirk, has come home to England on a lorry.

The 85 year old motor cruiser, motored outward bound from Ramsgate to the Dunkirk sea lock last week, but her two 79 year old Ailsa Craig gravity-fed petrol engines developed a fault entering the docks.

She is believed to be the only surviving boat to have made the 2010 trip to Dunkirk on her original motors. Twice since the war, previous owners attempted to motor her back to Dunkirk reunions but each time they were forced back. The wooden boat, built in Looe in 1925, was rebuilt last winter by a team from the Berwickshire-based restorers Spirit of Dunkirk, run by ex Royal Navy submariner Kes Travers.

After taking her place for three days in a line-up of veteran boats in the city centre of Dunkirk she was lifted from the water to a lorry from Sealand Boat Deliveries, for an emergency return trip to HMS Sultan, the naval base at Gosport.

When lorry driver Mark Chapman crossed the Dartford bridge on the rescue job this week, he spotted five of the homecoming 'little ships' below him, motoring home up the River Thames in diamond formation.

He said: 'It was a wonderful sight. We may never see anything like it again.'

Norfolkline, the Dover - Dunkirk ferry operators shipped dozens of preserved army and RAF lorries from England for a welcoming line-up on the quays of Dunkirk and donated a free space for the lorry bringing Anne back to Dover.