A sad end

Looking at the tool they're using, I don't think they will have been surprised at it falling apart.
I imagine the owner wouldbe well advised to keep his head down?
 
It is sad, but it is unfortunately the fact that a wooden boat of that age is a significant commitment and it is going to be increasingly difficult to find private owners for them who will be prepared to put in the time and money to keep them afloat. It is a pity that nobody thought to offer it to one of the dockyard museums around - Chatham or Portsmouth, for example. The time must be fast approaching when those will be the only homes able to give these historic old boats the care they need.
 
maby said:
It is sad, but it is unfortunately the fact that a wooden boat of that age is a significant commitment and it is going to be increasingly difficult to find private owners for them who will be prepared to put in the time and money to keep them afloat. It is a pity that nobody thought to offer it to one of the dockyard museums around - Chatham or Portsmouth, for example. The time must be fast approaching when those will be the only homes able to give these historic old boats the care they need.
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In reality, does anyone really want to preserve them? Do people want to go along to museums to see random old boats which might have been used momentarily for something significant?
 
pvb said:
In reality, does anyone really want to preserve them? Do people want to go along to museums to see random old boats which might have been used momentarily for something significant?
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I have been on quite a lot of them and I would be sorry to see them go, but I would not be prepared to put in the effort associated with owning one of them. Chatham and Portsmouth preserve quite a lot of boats with less claim to fame - they should have been given the opportunity to take this one on.
 
maby said:
It is sad, but it is unfortunately the fact that a wooden boat of that age is a significant commitment and it is going to be increasingly difficult to find private owners for them who will be prepared to put in the time and money to keep them afloat. It is a pity that nobody thought to offer it to one of the dockyard museums around - Chatham or Portsmouth, for example. The time must be fast approaching when those will be the only homes able to give these historic old boats the care they need.
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I entirely agree that boats - especially wooden boats - have a natural lifespan, beyond which they become unmaintainable. I don't argue with the idea that this boat had passed the point of no return. But surely something more dignified than being scooped up by a grab could have been organised? A Viking funeral comes to mind, or perhaps more feasibly a funeral pyre. At least the agency concerned did recognise the history involved - it's just a shame she couldn't be dealt with more gently.

Hopeless sentimentality, I'm afraid! But the loss of any boat is sad; the loss of one involved in an iconic moment of history more so.
 
Joker said:
Wasn't 'Compass Rose' the name of the ship in Monserrat's 'The Cruel Sea'?
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Yes it was.

I struggle to work out why items, in this case a boat, are held in such high reverence just because they were involved in some act and must be saved at all costs. Back in 1993 I met a group of men who arrived in France on D-Day H-hour 0, some of the paratroopers before H-Hour! I don't expect any of them to be alive today.
 
Sandy said:
Yes it was.

I struggle to work out why items, in this case a boat, are held in such high reverence just because they were involved in some act and must be saved at all costs. Back in 1993 I met a group of men who arrived in France on D-Day H-hour 0, some of the paratroopers before H-Hour! I don't expect any of them to be alive today.
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First of all, I am NOT arguing that the boat should have been saved at all costs. She was clearly well past that point, and beyond a certain point it becomes impossible to keep a vessel going without heroic efforts which I quite agree aren't always justified. That said, if I owned a "little ship", I would feel duty bound to do my best for her, and to pass her on to others who would feel the same.

However, I think that the passing of the generation that was at Dunkirk and D-Day makes it more relevant to preserve physical memories of the sacrifices made then, not less. That doesn't mean that every single vessel that took part should be preserved no matter what, but that we should ensure that a representative sample are preserved, as a focus for memory.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." (George Santayana, 1905)
 
We are very fortunate in being able to commemorate a British defeat with so many artefacts in the form of these beautiful boats. Sometimes, events take over from our wishes and we lose things. I just hope that this loss will make the trustees of the remaining vessels appreciate how important they are, as if this were needed.
 
AntarcticPilot said:
First of all, I am NOT arguing that the boat should have been saved at all costs. She was clearly well past that point, and beyond a certain point it becomes impossible to keep a vessel going without heroic efforts which I quite agree aren't always justified. That said, if I owned a "little ship", I would feel duty bound to do my best for her, and to pass her on to others who would feel the same.

However, I think that the passing of the generation that was at Dunkirk and D-Day makes it more relevant to preserve physical memories of the sacrifices made then, not less. That doesn't mean that every single vessel that took part should be preserved no matter what, but that we should ensure that a representative sample are preserved, as a focus for memory.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." (George Santayana, 1905)
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An interesting point AntarcticPilot that I totally agree with. Keep a small selection of artefacts, but not everything. Being in Normandy with a "Bigot" was humbling. To my surprise I was in conversation with a lady where we lived and I mentioned I was playing a small part in the publication of a couple of books on the Americans and the preparations for D-Day in Devon and that the Normandy beaches were selected using post cards and the Devon training beaches chosen because they were the same type of beaches. With a glint in her eye she said, "yes, it was the job of the chap on the desk next to mine to collate the postcards", instantly I knew who she worked for during WWII.

I visited Lyness, formally HMS Prosperine, where my late father was OiC in the 1960's a few years ago. It is now the Scapa Flow Visitor Centre and on being warmly greeted by the chap on the door was asked if we had visited before. He was a tad surprised when I said yes about 50 years ago! There is a huge amount of WWI and WWII artefacts there, but zero from the Cold War, when my father was stationed there. I thought it a bit odd, but understandable, looks like as a nation we can be a bit selective about what we keep. And don't get me going about Churchill's order to destroy all the Colossus machines, which thankfully was not fully carried out..

* Bigot - one of the few who knew all of the plans for Operations Overlord and Neptune.
 
For anyone who wants to contribute to preservation of an almost lost Dunkirk Little Ship....... you can bung a few quid the way of the Skylark Trust:

http://www.skylarkix.com/

Skylark spend quite a long time on the bottom of Loch Lomond. I am pretty sure that if she was not a Dunkirk participant she would have either been left where she was or removed in a destructive way. Almost total rebuild required.
 
Romeo said:
For anyone who wants to contribute to preservation of an almost lost Dunkirk Little Ship....... you can bung a few quid the way of the Skylark Trust:

http://www.skylarkix.com/

Skylark spend quite a long time on the bottom of Loch Lomond. I am pretty sure that if she was not a Dunkirk participant she would have either been left where she was or removed in a destructive way. Almost total rebuild required.
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But why bother? Seriously, it's a rather nondescript boat, if it's restored is anyone going to be remotely interested in it? These restoration appeals are vanity projects for those involved.
 
Romeo said:
For anyone who wants to contribute to preservation of an almost lost Dunkirk Little Ship....... you can bung a few quid the way of the Skylark Trust:

http://www.skylarkix.com/

Skylark spend quite a long time on the bottom of Loch Lomond. I am pretty sure that if she was not a Dunkirk participant she would have either been left where she was or removed in a destructive way. Almost total rebuild required.
Click to expand...

Are they actually getting on with it?
 
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