109-year-old Dunkirk boat Glala's owner Kathy Norris on the vessel's history

The owner of a more than 100-year-old Dunkirk rescue vessel is being restored in Ipswich. One of her owners tells the boat's fascinating story.

Transcript

00:00 So this is Glala. She was designed and built in 1914 for an Argentinian diplomat

00:07 who at outbreak of World War I disappeared back to Argentina. So nothing happened to her in the

00:16 World War I and she was then used as a private gentleman's yacht in 1920 onwards.

00:24 Had some very prestigious owners, the main one being Sir Alan Cobham who ended up naming her.

00:31 So she's named after his wife Gladys and Alan. So she's called Glala.

00:38 And then in 1938 she was she was brought by AEC, the engineering company, who

00:46 wanted to use her as a show vessel and almost immediately they finished their works on her.

00:53 She was commandeered by the MOD and ended up as a harbour defence vessel in Sienese.

01:01 In 1940 she was part of the Dunkirk little ship Attila and went over to Dunkirk to ferry

01:10 soldiers off the beaches and to tow whalers and boats back to England.

01:20 I think she made about three or four trips back bringing lots and lots of men with her.

01:24 She went into Belfast as a hospital tender and then into the Liverpool docks as a fire tender

01:36 and then after the war she went back to be a gentleman's motor yacht.

01:43 Not quite such a glamorous life and in 2002 she ended up here in Ipswich. She was moved on as a

01:52 houseboat and we took her over in 2017 when the project that she was had been stalled

01:59 and we've been working on her ever since. We aim to finish her sometime next year to get her into

02:08 the water and then take her back to Dunkirk in 2025.