Dunkirk ‘Little Ship’ runs aground at resort on holiday weekend

A boat that helped save stranded troops from Dunkirk during the Second World War became the scene of a very different rescue after it ran aground in Scarborough.
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Some 95 passengers were led to safety from the pleasure steamer Coronia by lifeboat and coastguard crews after the boat became beached on a sandbank in the South Bay on her way back to the harbour yesterday.

Humber Coastguard watch assistant Dave Bayford said: “Nobody was hurt or injured and there was an ordered transfer of passengers with no panic. The boat resurfaced with no issues.”

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Rescuers were called to the scene at 1pm and the operation took around two hours, he 
said.

The vessel, which was built in 1935, was one of the Little Ships that helped to rescue 900 Allied troops in the Dunkirk evacuation of 1940.

She was bought by Scarborough and Whitby Conservative MP Robert Goodwill in 2011 after her future in Scarborough came under threat over unpaid repair bills.

The Conservative MP leases it to skipper Tom Machin, who owns and runs sister ship Regal Lady.