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.

It is expected that 15 Little Ships will attend the 34th Thames Traditional Boat Rally, Henley-on-Thames over the weekend of July 16 and 17. The schedule for the Little Ships to sail past on is as follows:
....Saturday – 13:40 Little Ships form a line on to the booms – 14:05 WWII Veterans sail past aboard Devon Belle followed by a sail past of the Little Ships
....Sunday – 13:45 Little Ships sail past

It is hoped that a number of Veterans will join the Little Ships on Saturday aboard Devon Belle for the sail past.

A glorious weekend of varnished wood and gleaming brass. 16 Little Ships are expected to attend the Rally held at Fawley Meadows, Henley-on-Thames. See http://www.tradboatrally.com for more information on the Rally.

The Thames Traditional Boat Rally is, simply put, a huge 2-day display of the very finest-looking traditional boats one can see. It was the dream, back in 1977, of a few keen boaters. Most of these were members of the River Thames Society, others were members of the Inland Waterways Association or Thames boat clubs. Their idea was to encourage owners of traditional craft to cherish and restore them to all their former glory, as well as to continue to use them upon the river.

When she served at Dunkirk, the 60ft. Dartmouth excursion boat Dartmothian was called Seymour Castle. She was taken on her 200-mile journey to Ramsgate by Cyril Roper, one of the River Dart Steamboat Company's skippers. It was a company with a long tradition in a popular holiday area. Formed in 1834 to operate steam tugs and the local barges, they began a river passenger service to Totnes, Devon, in 1856 at the suggestion of the Duke of Clarence.