Dunkirk 85: Meet Tamzine!
Today marks 85 years since the start of the Dunkirk evacuation! A group of restored ‘little ships’ escorted by the Royal Navy from Ramsgate have been reenacting the historic event by making the exact same journey. As well as having the Royal Navy involved with this rescue mission from the German advancement into France known as Operation Dynamo, ‘Little Ships’ were civilian vessels ranging from fishing trawlers to lifeboats to leisure yachts. Speaking of ‘little ships’, let me introduce you to a special someone: Meet Tamzine! She’s a little fishing boat built in Margate in 1937 and worked off the coast of Birchington that was involved in the Dunkirk evacuations. She was known as a local hero after being towed back from Dunkirk by a Belgian fishing boat and having a recognisable Viking-like stem, local boatmen took her back to her owner covered in blood, but luckily undamaged. Unfortunately for some ‘Little Ships’, some suffered shrapnel damage or were pierced by bullets. When I first s...