Endeavour , Leigh-on-Sea

Husband arrived back from Glastonbury at 5am this morning after driving through the night. The kids were so pleased to see him.

It's a rare treat for him to be home during the week so we went down to Old Leigh to eat takeaway chips on the beach, something we really must do more often.

I was pleased to see The Endeavour moored up in full view as I've wanted to get a photo of it for a while but it always seems to be tucked away behind one of the bigger fishing boats.

The Endeavour was one of "the little ships" used to evacuate troops from Dunkirk in WWII and has been renovated by The Endeavour Trust



Taken from The Endeavour Trust's website:

Captained by F. Hall, Endeavour was part of the Leigh Cockle Bawley boats that set of around 0030hrs on 31st May, 1940 for Dunkirk. She travelled across the Channel using her engines to keep up with the convoy of small ships commanded by a Lieutenant from the Royal Navy.

As they neared the French coast they soon attracted attention from the Luftwaffe early morning raids on Dunkirk but the RAF provided air cover and the ships were able to continue. The Endeavour and her fellow Cockle boats played such a full part in Operation Dynamo they were worthy of comment from Admiral Ramsey. Endeavour first took troops from the beach and as the tide was going out she turned her attention to the East Mole and finally went into Dunkirk's inner harbour to rescue troops.

At some point her rudder was smashed and along with Letitia and Renown, they were towed back to England by the coaster Ben & Lucy which had also been ferrying troops of the beach working with the cockle boats.

Endeavour made it back to Ramsgate with a load of troops.