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Motor Cruiser 'Viceroy of India' research

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joppyuk1:

There have been some queries, on my home town (Boston, Lincolnshire) facebook page, about any little ships from there that may have gone to Dunkirk in WW2 . Specific attention seems to be focussed on a cabin cruiser named The Viceroy Of India which was moored along the banks of the Witham in the 1950s and 60s. People remember the boat (I passed it on my way to school every day) but not much else.
How can interested parties go about finding more information after all this time?
Thank you for any assistance.

tonyH:
Hi Joppy,
There are some results for Admiralty lists of requisitioned boats that come up under "Operation Dynamo" at the National Archives. There are probably more at Imperial War Museum/NMM. I suspect, however, that they would be very dubious in view of the probable "organised chaos" at the time BUT you could strike lucky.There's also a Little Ships Organisation and various interest clubs that may be able to help. :-))
 

joppyuk1:

Tony, thank you. The son of a previous owner has replied to the facebook page and says the boat didn't go to Dunkirk, so that is solved.. A message to Classic Yacht Brokerage gained the information that she was built in 1935 by Smith Bros of Goole to a W.G.McBryde design, owned in 1939 by a member of the Royal Yorkshire Yacht Club, and was requisitioned in 1939 by the government, probably for coastal patrol work.
I'm now intrigued to see if I can track down the design.

tonyH:
Hi Joppy,
This is one of the fun bits of boatbuilding. Have a look at Goole on the web site. If this page comes up there are references to Smiths and contacts who were involved there. The last entry was quite recent so it may be worth following up! http://goole-on-the-web.azurewebsites.net/main.php?key=9
Tony

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