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Skylark IX
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Many of the Dunkirk ships have moved far from the scene of their wartime exploits, but none farther north than Skylark IX, who began life in 1928 at Bolson's yard, in Poole, Dorset.
Her precise part in 'Operation Dynamo' was unrecorded until, one day in 1987, Charles Fairman, touring in Scotland saw a notice advertising cruises on Loch Lomond in a boat called Skylark IX. He became interested and recognised her as the ship he commanded in Poole when he was a Petty Officer, RNVR, in 1941. He had first seen her the previous year, first at Dunkirk and later in Ramsgate harbour, whilst ferrying a yacht round to Felixstowe, Suffolk.
At Poole, Skylark IX served as a shallow water minesweeper and was engaged in placing anti-invasion obstacles around the harbour. At one time she erected decoys on Brownsea Island, consisting of wooden sheds filled with coal and sprayed with oil. They were set alight when German bombers flew over, looking for the Admiralty Armaments depot at Holton Heath.
After the war, Skylark IX gradually worked her way north, via Morecambe and Burntisland to Loch Lomond, where Sweeneys Cruises operate her now. She has been modernised and made a more comfortable little ship to cruise in, with an enclosed foredeck and covered rear saloon.
John Sweeney gives Skylark IX's services free, to Dunkirk Veterans once a year, for their reunion on Loch Lomond. Veterans remember those who did not return from Dunkirk with Skylark IX and her fellow rescuers in 'Operation Dynamo' during those nine fateful days of 1940.
Source: 2, 3, 4, 5, 11, 19 & 20
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