Association of Dunkirk Little Ships

The 2012 Commemorative Cruise will be held in London, in King George V Dock to coincide with the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant. The Pageant to be held at high water on the afternoon of Sunday 3 June 2012 and the event will see up to a thousand boats muster on the River Thames in preparation for Her Majesty The Queen to lead the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant. The Pageant celebrates Her Majesty's sixty years of service by magnificently bringing the Thames to life.
Little Ships will assemble in Barnes reach prior to the event.

FOLLOWING THE SUCCESSFUL RETURN TO DUNKIRK< THE ADLS ARE NOW PREPARING FOR THE ANNUAL VETERANS CRUISE, WHICH THIS YEAR TAKES PLACE ON SUNDAY 5 SEPTEMBER. THE FLOTILLA OF LITTLE SHIPS WILL MOOR DOWNSTREAM OF KINGSTON BRIDGE FOR VETERANS TO EMBARK AT 0915 FOR A 0945 DEPARTURE, AND WILL TRANSIT EAST MOLESEY AND SUNBURY LOCKS TO MAKE AN ETA AT THE WEYBRIDGE MARINERS CLUB OF APPROXIMATELY 1300. THE VETERANS WILL BE HOSTED THERE TO LUNCH BEFORE RETURNING TO KINGSTON IN A FLEET OF PERIOD VEHICLES AT APPROXIMATELY 1530.

The Annual Veterans Cruise is one of the most important events in the ADLS calendar. Originally conceived as an opportunity to reunite participants in Operation Dynamo with the Little Ships, the event now includes Veterans from D-Day and other operations of WWII.

Colonel Hardy was incensed when the Royal Navy simply informed him by telephone that they had taken his motor yacht Dab II from the canal basin at Heybridge, on the river Blackwater in Essex, to take part in Operation Dynamo. His anger did not stem from a lack of patriotic fervour, but from the understandable feeling that he should have been given a chance to go with her. In fact, few of the owners went with the Little Ships.