1930's Dunkirk Little Ship Breda: Restored and Cruising
By: Steffan Meyric-Hughes (Classic Boat Magazine)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
1930's Dunkirk Little Ship Breda: Restored and Cruising
The 1930s Dunkirk little ship Breda played a pivotal part in the war, and now she's making the most of peacetime with a fabulous interior and plans to go cruising.
Dunkirk Little Ships
The fleet of 800 or more small, civilian vessels that sailed from England to save Allied troops from the beaches of Dunkirk in Operation Dynamo has become a central pillar of British identity. At the same time, the story of these Dunkirk little ships has become so weakened by repetition that it's reached the point where it's in danger of becoming just another trope in the national consciousness. It might have been, as the 2017 film put it, Britain's darkest hour, as a ferocious German army pinned us against the edge of the sea, but the actions of those few days remain the greatest hour that a fleet of pleasure vessels has ever seen and ever will see, in terms of lives saved, and the shaping of the course of the rest of time. A letter written to Classic Boat in 2010 by a Dunkirk veteran named Richard Samson of Deal in Kent gives some insight into what it was like to be on those beaches in 1940.
He tells of "the wide-eyed fear, of the noise, of the shouting, and the uncontrollable cursing each time the Stukas arrived, ie "Here they come again, the B*****ds" "Where's our effing Air Force" "Run for Ch**st sake, Run" and the relief you felt when the planes had gone and you were still alive." Official records don't record what Richard saw: "The few drunks wandering around totally unaware of the chaos around them." "One lasting memory I have is when I was transferred from the rowing boat to one of the Little Ships. I knew then that I'd made it back home to England. I liken it now to the same feeling I get when I've been out for the day. I'm tired, hungry and a bit cold and I'm wondering I've missed the very last bus home. Then I see its welcoming lights coming round the corner to take me home. There's warmth and comfort on that bus, just as there was on that little ship. What a fool I was not to ask its name. I would so much like to know its name and if it's still afloat. Thank God it was on that night in early June 1940.
Which little ship carried Richard Samson to safety? It could have been Breda , but it could have been any of them. Every Dunkirk little ship was the last bus home. As it happens, Breda 's story is well documented. She was designed and built as Dab II JW Brooke and Co in 1931 for George Smart of Westcliffe-on-Sea. By 1940, the year of Operation Dynamo (AKA the Dunkirk evacuation), she was owned by a Colonel Hardy, whose only anger at learning Dab II had been requisitioned, stemmed from the fact that he would not be going with her. That duty fell to Lieutenant RW Thompson, who took her across the Channel three times in six days. On her final return journey, she rescued a group of Dutch soldiers from the town of Breda. She went on to serve as a patrol vessel for the rest of the war. When Colonel Hardy was reunited with his yacht at the end of the war, he renamed her Breda in honour of her war record, and of the Dutch troops who'd fought a brave rear-guard action before their rescue.
Saving a Saviour: Breda
By the end of 2017, Breda was abandoned on a Thames mooring and rotting from the inside out. Alain Lemans, a Belgian settled in England who fell for motorboats at the age of seven after taking the wheel of a small, wooden powerboat on a family holiday, was looking for a 24-carat classic. He had already owned a 26ft Swift Junior-class motorboat built by 1946 by William Osborne called Little Ann , that he'd had restored at Dennetts, while diving in and getting his own hands dirty too on weekends. Breda, at 52ft long, is in a different league. Work started, again at Dennetts, in early 2018. Again, Dennetts was in charge, with Alain contributing his time when he could. The hull alone required 3 new ribs, 35 planks, 30 deck beams, gunwale and beamshelves both sides, a full aft cabin rebuild and a new transom.
Breda’s Owner – Alain Lamens
Just four months later, this was complete and she was back on the water again. Over that summer, the diesel tanks were emptied and cleaned, the hoses, seals and senders replaced, and the two Ford Sabre 135hp six-cylinder diesels - the "blue monsters" - recommissioned, thanks to Jonathan Parker at Parker Marine Services. All bronze items were removed and rechromed, and the gun-metal stanchions were removed, stripped, sandblasted, repainted and reinstated.
That winter, the forward cabin was rebuilt, the forward deck, original teak, was removed and restored and replaced (all 151 planks - "carefully numbered and diagrammed like an elaborate Tetris pattern to aid reinstallation"), the entire hull stripped and the new beamshelves in. This was followed by deck beams, ceiling and two layers of marine ply and epoxy over the entire cabin structure to make it weatherproof. Later, the entire wheelhouse was rebuilt in mahogany, Now it was time to start on the inside.
Down Below
The interior of this Dunkirk little ship is flamboyant, imaginative, unique, and quite in keeping with the 1930s, expressing as it does the curt, symmetrical excesses of the Art Deco movement. "She's a good example of just how far you can take one of these boats," says interior designer Heather Dennett, who works hand-in-glove with husband Steve who, with dad Michael before him, has run Dennetts since 1962. It was born of the desire from owner Alain Lemans to express the Deco aesthetic to the maximum. Alain's original requests were tempered by Steve and Heather's experience, for example in their insistence on a central aisle to enable quick access to the bows when necessary. "Having recently taken Breda across the English Channel in some challenging weather conditions, I'm glad I listened," says Alain. "Luckily none of these practical changes meant I had to give up on the espresso bar or the ice-cube maker!" The result is one of the best interiors you'll ever see on a boat .
It was clearly one of Heather's more enjoyable jobs, and she shows me photos of her and Alain whooping it up in full glad rags at a 'field visit' to London's famous Art Deco Quaglino bar, part of a developing friendship between yard and owner. At Alain's house, he shows us the beautiful, engraved chopping board that Steve crafted for him on the occasion of his marriage to husband Michael - not that Alain will let a sharp knife anywhere near it of course! And later, when we join assorted Dennetts of various ages, friends and yard staff, on the riverside terrace of their house a stone's throw from the yard for Friday night drinks, Alain comes along too. He only lives down the road after all, when he and Michael moved there to be nearer the boatyard. You could say the story of Breda is the story of a friendship between owner and yard. You could say it's the story of how an owner with merely human funds has achieved the extraordinary on a quite relatable budget; or the story of an owner and designer who went out on a limb to create an extraordinary interior. It's all of those, but more than anything, Breda 's tale is about taking an artefact from one of the most dangerous, frightening episodes in recent history and rebuilding it as a monument to joy. Inappropriate? Hardly: it's what Breda was built for. And more than that, the freedom to enjoy life is what the millions of Allies fought the war for.
At nearby Penton Hook Marina, this Dunkirk little ship is alone in a sea of white fibreglass, her rich, stained mahogany varnish glowing in the late afternoon light. She's so perfect, inside and out… the sort of boat that makes you want to kick your shoes off at a hundred paces in fact… that it comes as a surprise to learn that Breda 's future holds some blue-water adventures. "She's happiest estuary and coastal cruising where she belongs," says Alain, as we have a look around the boat, a glorious swirl of mahogany with detailed geometric inlays in burr maple and walnut. Alain, whose live entertainment company was hit hard in covid, did his Day Skipper in the long days of lockdown, and enjoys proper cruising and meticulous passage-planning, and the boat is, after all, still a 52ft cruiser with two double cabins, inside and outside helms, separate heads and a stolid, ship-like demeanour. He and Michael got a sense of the Dunkirk spirit too, when they went on an informal pilgrimage there in 2022. "I got goosebumps going in as people clapped," he remembers. (Michael, who is a serious cocktail aficionado… favourites include the Martinez… was in charge of the actual spirits.) Breda 's future also holds the promise of new engines, when funds allow. The new wheelhouse has a removable section installed to facilitate this when the time comes. For now, Alain fires up the old Ford Sabres and the boat comes alive with a vibration, the sort that sends glasses and crockery shivering slowly to the edges of precipices, where they fall and smash on the cabin sole. Alain has no hesitation about what his dream voyage would be: a recreation of a chapter from the boat's peace years - a journey through the French canals to Mediterranean shores. "If I were retired, I'd go tomorrow," he says. For now though, excitement is building for the 2025 Dunkirk return, a five-yearly ritual for the remaining fleet of little ships. Since the 2017 film, interest in this has grown exponentially. Vessels are in restoration up and down the land, none more so than at Dennetts; and there is the added impetus of having missed the 2020 return for the covid outbreak. Next year, nothing will stop Breda and her sisters from reminding everyone once again, if any reminder is needed, that ships large and small have always shaped nations and decided the course of humankind.
BREDA the Dunkirk little ship
Designed and built JW Brooke, 1931
LOD 52ft (15.8m)
Beam 12ft 7in (3.8m)
Draught 3ft 4in (1m)
Engines 2 x Ford Sabre 135hp
Classic Boat Awards 2024 Winner
You may recognise Breda from this year's Classic Boat Awards… She won the Powered Vessel Under 100ft award!
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A nice story about that boat including a bit of Dunkirk history. I could live on a boat like that, but my wife wouldn't cause then how could she take care of her mini-farm?
Okay, due to the American War of the Politics being in full bloom there's really little use in posting anything else.
Beautiful boat.
How many soldiers did it bring back from Dunkirk ?
I made a search but couldn't find an answer to that question. I did find this article that has a lot more photos of the boat: LINK -> BREDA | The Association of Dunkirk Little Ships (adls.org.uk)
How the hell is it that this seed is still on the Front (Home) Page?