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Narrowboat rescues soldiers at Dunkirk


King Learie

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This is story related by a boater sharing a lock with us some years back.

 

While waiting for the lock to empty he told me about a narrowboat that had crossed the channel in 1940.

 

This was with all the other small river craft from the Thames to help with the evacuation of the Expeditionary Forces trapped on the beaches of France by the advancing Nazis.

 

Does anyone know more or is this one of those stories that has become fact due to someone confusing the description of a vessel with another? Thames barges did take part and some survived and of course many people called narrowboats BARGES and boatmen BARGEES (and still do!)

 

The chap told me the name of this boat but during the four years since hearing the tale new information has pushed the old out! But it was something grand sounding like 'Belvadeer'.

 

King Learie

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Although I no longer have the reference, when researching 'Operation Dynamo' for an article I was writing about the involvement of the railways, I saw a picture of what looked like a narrowboat beached at Dunkirk.

 

Several Thames Barges and similar shallow draughted river and Estuary craft made it over and back but I was unable to find out if the narrowboat came back - or even which one it could have been . . .

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The Association Of Dunkirk Little Ships

 

All the boats are named, but I've not the patience to go through each one! Nothing like 'Belvadeer', though.

 

Hi

Many boats not on the register Of Little Ships went on Operation Dynamo, my engine came out of one "The Pride of Sheppy" (it was not the engine at the time of Dunkirk, but a replacement in 1950.)

A lot a small craft were commandered by the navy at the outbreak of the war and only had a navy number and some were towed over to act as ferries to the big boats and are simply not recorded.

The Thames Waterman who operated Pride of Sheppy (for Websters of Gravesend) told me she was brand new in 1939 and immediatly commandered and later towed to Dunkirk with a navy crew, and was lucky in being brought back, then used as a service boat on the boom at Hole Haven for the rest of the war. She was named when finally returned in 1945/6, and my informant was made up to skipper of her when she was refitted in 1950, I have no reason to doubt his word as he operated Pride of Sheppy until Webster's sold her in 1980 and when I spoke to him 2 years ago at the age of 78 he was still a registered Waterman and working the river at Gravesend.

david

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I HAVE IT FROM A VERY GOOD SOURCE THAT MY BOAT MONARCH DID NOT GO TO DUNKIRK. IF ANY OF YOU REMEMBER A FEW YEARS AGO THE DID IT OR NOT GO??? THAT A PREVOUS OWNER WAS TRYING TO FIND OUT??? IT WAS A WIND UP WITH THE OWNERS OF FMC ENGLAND AND DRAGON BLESS EM THEM FMC OWNER WE ALL HAVE TO HAVE A SENCE OF HUMOUR

AND NO NARROWBOATS ARE LISTED IN THE SMALL SHIPS REGISTER MONARCH USED TO HAVE A COPY OF IT IN HER BOOK SHELVES

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I HAVE IT FROM A VERY GOOD SOURCE THAT MY BOAT MONARCH DID NOT GO TO DUNKIRK. IF ANY OF YOU REMEMBER A FEW YEARS AGO THE DID IT OR NOT GO??? THAT A PREVOUS OWNER WAS TRYING TO FIND OUT??? IT WAS A WIND UP WITH THE OWNERS OF FMC ENGLAND AND DRAGON BLESS EM THEM FMC OWNER WE ALL HAVE TO HAVE A SENCE OF HUMOUR

AND NO NARROWBOATS ARE LISTED IN THE SMALL SHIPS REGISTER MONARCH USED TO HAVE A COPY OF IT IN HER BOOK SHELVES

 

 

Well I think that puts that myth of a 'narrowboat to Dunkirk', to rest, althought the mention of a photo that showed what looked like looked like a grounded narrowboat on that harrowing beach is a tantilising clue....

 

Can this pic be posted up so that we can put it to our collective assessment?

 

King Learie

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  • 3 weeks later...
This is story related by a boater sharing a lock with us some years back.

 

While waiting for the lock to empty he told me about a narrowboat that had crossed the channel in 1940.

 

This was with all the other small river craft from the Thames to help with the evacuation of the Expeditionary Forces trapped on the beaches of France by the advancing Nazis.

 

Does anyone know more or is this one of those stories that has become fact due to someone confusing the description of a vessel with another? Thames barges did take part and some survived and of course many people called narrowboats BARGES and boatmen BARGEES (and still do!)

 

The chap told me the name of this boat but during the four years since hearing the tale new information has pushed the old out! But it was something grand sounding like 'Belvadeer'.

 

King Learie

 

 

Theres older and wiser that will know the full story but i was told only recently that Ike Argent took a narrowboat over to dunkirk - my source is away at the moment but i'll ask him about the boats name when he comes back

 

Cheers Bill Liddle - Long Eaton

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Theres older and wiser that will know the full story but i was told only recently that Ike Argent took a narrowboat over to dunkirk - my source is away at the moment but i'll ask him about the boats name when he comes back

 

Cheers Bill Liddle - Long Eaton

 

I was with George last night a he was on about that story again and the man who used to own Monarch

 

and the bullet holes that England has down just below her gunnels them what we call rivets !!!!!

And the adrdress George told the guy to Correspond with him to was The Nut House at Cheddleton

I think you will find it was a big wind up otherwise when you google it something would come up and it doesnt and nothing is registed on the small ships register there was a Monarch but not mine

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Theres older and wiser that will know the full story but i was told only recently that Ike Argent took a narrowboat over to dunkirk - my source is away at the moment but i'll ask him about the boats name when he comes back

 

Cheers Bill Liddle - Long Eaton

 

I spoke to Ike a few years ago..well about 14 now and we were watching George come past with England and his Little Woolwich 'josher' butty at the time Puppisand getting some serious stick for it. Ike then without prompting and no prior knowledge of any of us there with him suddenly came out with a story about going to Dunkirk with Dragon and a lady and her husband taking over Monarch to help with the extraction of the troops from the beach. There was nothing in his demeanour or the way he told the story to suggest it was a joke and Ike usually had great trouble keeping a straight face whenever he was talking...which he was very good at. Its my last memory of Ike and as we sat there with two other ex boatmen talking 'the good old days' its one I treasure, I have a picture of the day showing him sharing a doughnut with a horse but thats another story.

 

Andy

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It was a Joke that Probably went to far in the end and George was threatened with being sued which was when he said his adress was the nut house at Cheddletion

 

George was moored at Longport whilst Monarch was being done

 

Puppis George had actually worked this butty when he was younger. It won the National as well it was a lovely looking butty

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It was a lovely looking butty and even in her Josher clothes looked as smart as a new pin, I'll post some pics of the pair Puppis and England as they winded later it was a nice series of shots.

 

I would like to see those and I bet George would i will show them him He certainly takes a great pride in his boats

 

Viv :)

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Check out my gallery or whatever its called lol. Ive put the pictures of both George and Ike on here....I made a model of England for Georges son as a present for his dad a few years ago I think.

 

Andy

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  • 1 month later...
It was a Joke that Probably went to far in the end and George was threatened with being sued which was when he said his adress was the nut house at Cheddletion

 

George was moored at Longport whilst Monarch was being done

 

Puppis George had actually worked this butty when he was younger. It won the National as well it was a lovely looking butty

 

 

It was a Joke that Probably went to far in the end and George was threatened with being sued which was when he said his adress was the nut house at Cheddletion

 

George was moored at Longport whilst Monarch was being done

 

Puppis George had actually worked this butty when he was younger. It won the National as well it was a lovely looking butty

It all kicked off at Ellesmere Port. The then owner of Monarch had been fed a line by someone ( I`ve no idea who ) about te boat being at Dunkirk - he then included this in a piece he wrote for Canal and Riverboat about the alterations he was making to the boat. Something about the article ( refering to the "Tradcab" and other inanities got a few backs up - so a letterwas put together by R**s S***h - owner of Dragon . It purported to have been written by the wartime traffic controller at FMC ( whose name I`ve now forgotten ) and told how Dragon and England had been to Dunkirk - finding the route easily because one of the skipers had been

" a spotter in a Sopwith Camel during WW1 and therefore knew the way! There was much more in that ilk including the tale of Monarch having been straffed by a Messerschmidt on the way back. It was supposed to have been sent from Mr "Mack" Anderson ( I think that may have been the name ) resident at The Church Minshull Home for the Mentally Unstable. Despite it`s being an obvious and very thorough pi*s take the magazine published it. It must have been around 1989/90.

I know this to be true - because R**s was ,and although I`ve not seen him for years remains, a friend of mine - at the time of the Monarch scam we were neighbours - indeed I`d not long finished painting his trip boat when it all kicked off and I saw the letter in many forms before it was finally posted. It should have caused no offense to any one - and it was extremely funny . None of us could believe that someone could really have taken the original "Monarch at Dunkirk" story seriously - and the portentious announcements about carefully preserving the original "tradcab" - when for instance we all knew that it had in fact been built by Tony Lewery in the seventies - and various other aspects of the "restoration" plans ( shortening the boat , making it narrower etc., ) caused much discussion - leading to the joke letter.

I used to know Ike Argent well also and I`ve never heard any mention of him going to Dunkirk with a narrow boat . I`m entirely convinced that no narrowboat went to Dunkirk during the war . I vaguely remember someone saying that there is a "Monarch"on the register but that it was NOT a narrow boat.

Cheers

Phil

Edited by Phil Speight
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Mac Anderson was the traffic controller for FMC during the period in question, and Im not surprised to find out Ike got me I used to sit for hours just listening to his stories and they did get stranger and stranger lol.

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OK so there weren't any narrowboats at Dunkirk. But I can't help wondering if our ENGINE might have been there ... 3 cylinder National, built 1937, removed 1953 from a fisheries protection vessel at Kings Lynn. What are the chances, do you reckon? And how would you go about finding out more?

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OK so there weren't any narrowboats at Dunkirk. But I can't help wondering if our ENGINE might have been there ... 3 cylinder National, built 1937, removed 1953 from a fisheries protection vessel at Kings Lynn. What are the chances, do you reckon? And how would you go about finding out more?

 

This boat went:

 

DLS on ebay!

 

My finger hovers over the bid button. If only I could buy it.....and stay alive. :blush:

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I want it I want I want it....................anyone willing to buy it for my encroaching dotage?

Cheers

Phil

What's really sad is that it's unlikely to make 10k (it's been available on the DLS site for a while now) and yet a ropey old 1980's steel boat will clear £10000 easily.

 

This is a work of art, a piece of history and a genuine seaworthy cruiser. It's stuffed full of proper joinery made with hardwoods that just aren't available to those standards today.

Edited by carlt
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  • 4 years later...

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