sailing barge tollesbury

For the last fifteen years S.B. Tollesbury has been in our own private ownership. She has been our home. sometimes challenging to live with but always rewarding and we will certainly miss our time on her. It was a big decision to move her into the trust but necessary in order to invest the money needed to save this historic Dunkirk veteran for the future.

A small summary of her Dunkirk story is copied below, taken from the National Historic Ships database. You can find the full history here .

In May 1940 ‘Tollesbury was being taken up the Thames near Erith when a naval launch came alongside and instructed the skipper to proceed to Cory's jetty for orders. There, Lemon and his young lad of nineteen were given the choice to leave the ship or to volunteer to evacuate the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk. Neither of them hesitated, so Tollesbury was commandeered as part of Operation Dynamo and sailed across the channel to Dunkirk. Although their orders were to run aground and abandon her for use as an embarkation platform, Lemon re-floated her and eventually carried more than 200 soldiers off the beaches.’

Her WW2 story is amazing but there are also other more recent brushes with danger that she somehow survived, gaining along the way, the reputation of being a lucky ship. We plan to restore Tollesbury back to full sailing condition, when she will become a floating theatre venue, taking her story of bravery, valour and deep humanity, to communities throughout the Southeast go the UK, and maybe even back to Dunkirk.

We’d love you to follow her next journey and support us in making this project a reality. You can join our S.B. Tollesbury Facebook group here, and you can follow us via the UK Culture Trust Facebook and instagram accounts linked in the header of this page.

We look forward to having you aboard…