Association of Dunkirk Little Ships

Great Yarmouth where Coronia was built and Scarborough where she has served most of her life are very much alike. They are both fishing ports, sharing the same raw easterly winds, which can sweep straight from the Continent whipping up the North Sea into being one of the most treacherous stretches of water in the world. Both towns take their pleasure as seriously as their work, which inevitably have close links with the sea.

Thus it was that at the turn of the 1900?s, cruising in small boats to large steamers began.

By the early 1930's, everyone had at least one week's holiday mostly spending time by the sea. To cope with the ever increasing holiday trade E. W. Longfield of Great Yarmouth commissioned the building of a 90ft pleasure steamer. She was launched by Fellows South Down Shipyard in March 1935 and named Britt. Sailing from the town quay at Great Yarmouth on the East coast of England, she was the largest and fastest of all the local pleasure steamers.

Summer 1939 was the last time for six years that she was to sail as a pleasure steamer. On the 16th September 1939 she taken over by the Admiralty for war duties and renamed H.M.S. Watchful.

H.M.S. Watchful is reported to have sailed to Dunkirk and returned three times, where she saved 900 lives. After her heroic dash to Dunkirk she returned to the East Coast ports to serve out the rest of the war.

On 12th December 1945, war duties over, she was returned to her owners, repainted and ready again for the 1946 holiday season. After years of restrictions the public flocked to the coast just to see the sea again and many enjoyed a sea trip.

Britt was sold in 1951 to Scarborough Cruisers. Renamed Yorkshire Lady, she was modernised and repainted white with a yellow funnel, making her first cruise from the port in late May beginning a tradition which was to last for many years to come.

In 1968 Yorkshire Lady was renamed Coronia taking on the mantle after the previous Coronia which had operated from Scarborough since 1935, had left the port.

With her new name she continued to work out of Scarborough until 1985 when she left the port to work in warmer waters, sailing from Gibraltar for the following five years. By the summer of 1990 passenger capacities were declining and it was time for Coronia to make the journey home again to Scarborough.

She sailed from Gibraltar in May 1991 and, never faltering, arrived back in Scarborough on the 5th June 1991. After a rest and a refit she was again ready to start cruising from her home port.

Together with Regal Lady, Coronia carries on a century-long tradition of cruising across Scarborough Bays.

Source: 4

Updated: 21/02/00