Association of Dunkirk Little Ships

The 2014 Commemorative Cruise will see the Little Ships visiting Chatham on the River Medway. Over 20 Little Ships are expected to attend from the Medway, Thames, South and East Coast.

Little Ships will be mooring on the Home & Communities agency (HCA) pontoon which is located in Basin 1 by the HMS Chatham Bridge, access to the pontoon will be through MDL Chatham Maritime Marina lock on River Medway.

The programme of event will be as follows:

Friday 23rd/Saturday 24th - Dunkirk Little Ships arrive in Chatham
Saturday 24th - Free day

The Association plans to return to Dunkirk in May 2020 to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Operation Dynamo. It is expected that around 50 Little Ships escorted by the RNLI and the Royal Navy will take part in the Return.

Rescuing people in severe conditions is every-day work for the lifeboats and it is not only at Dunkirk that they have earned their medals. The Rosa Woodd and Phyllis Lunn was launched in 1933 and was Shoreham's 5th lifeboat. The cost of £6,500 was met by a private legacy and other collections. But in order to accommodate the boat a new boathouse had to be built together with a slipway so that her launching was not dependent upon the state of the tide. She served for thirty years, during which time she was launched 244 times and saved 143 lives.