Moment little ships leave Ramsgate harbour for Operation Dynamo's 85th anniversary

KentOnline / KMTV

A fleet of around 60 little ships have set sail to recreate the famous journey this morning, and our reporter Gabriel Morris has been onboard one of the support vessels following them.

Transcript

00:00Eighty-five years on, the little ships that took part in the Dunkirk evacuation are once

00:06again making that historic journey. This morning, around a thousand people gathered to wave them

00:12off.

00:13Leave the Dunkirk fleet out to sea. Yes, they have permission to exit.

00:18A proud moment for the custodians of the vessels that once helped save more than 300,000 lives.

00:25People in this part of the country especially are more than aware of its particular part

00:30of history within the Dunkirk, within the overall Dunkirk story and as you can see they've turned

00:37out en masse to pick up as many of the views and sights as they can.

00:42Travelling at speeds of around four knots, the little ships take around eight hours to

00:47cross the channel. But I boarded one of the support vessels to retrace the path taken in

00:52May 1940. For us, a shorter cruise, but still steeped in history.

00:59Our crossing today is much like that in 1940. Calm conditions and that was perfect back in

01:061940. It allowed all those 800 little ships to cross, save so many lives.

01:14Around 60 little ships could be seen navigating the English Channel this morning, escorted by

01:19the Royal Navy and the RNLI. So what would it be like if we were on one of those little

01:23ships today compared to this? Extremely rocky rolly. If you've been on a very uncomfortable

01:30fairground ride, those little ships were designed to be used really on the Thames where you might

01:36get a few ripples every now and then. So they are really out of their element at the moment.

01:40And I've been told that this is possibly the first time they've actually left the Thames,

01:49or the second time, since they went across to France.

01:53We're about halfway now on our crossing. We've just got across the shipping lanes. And it's

01:58a challenge to try and avoid them, make sure we're not in their wake and going at different

02:02angles to be sure we're crossing it in the correct way. But in World War II it would have been a

02:06completely different challenge. Those little ships would have been facing enemy fire from

02:10above and being shelled from land. So it's a bit of a reminder of what it would have been

02:16like for them back there. But today's nothing compared to what they would have faced.

02:20But on my voyage, about an hour from Dunkirk, one of the support boats ran into trouble.

02:27The engine failed and a distress signal was sent. But that famous Dunkirk spirits came alive

02:34again. Our vessel stepped in, towing the stricken boat safely to Dunkirk. And a few hours later,

02:41those historic little ships followed, just as they did 85 years ago. There might have not

02:48been an active war zone around us, but the challenges of the crossing prove the message

02:53behind today's journey is still truly alive. Gabriel Morris for KNTV in Dunkirk, France.

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