Charting wartime sacrifice and today’s custodians

Our Mission

There are many associations dedicated to tanks, jeeps, or aircraft. Yet few focus on the wartime small-craft vessels — the linchpins of harbour defence, coastal patrol, mine-sweeping, evacuations, and service support. Many are privately owned, unrepresented, highly vulnerable, and without an association.

Our members keep Britain’s wartime fleet alive in memory and in the water. From the small ships that served in headline operations to those that carried out day-to-day patrols, defence and support duties, our work recognises the full breadth of Britain’s maritime war effort. The sections below set out the vessel types, services and operations we represent, and explain how they shape our three tides of purpose linking wartime service to present-day stewardship.

Archival Record & Digital Registry

Living records, vessel files, and newly digitised material make it simple to trace each craft from wartime service to today’s steward, keeping research and remembrance anchored in fact—with new entries already live through OperationDynamo.navy.

Fleet Gatherings & Collaborations

We rally crews, historians, and supporters for restorations, slipway work parties, and hearty pie-and-boat chats that spark new partnerships and flotilla plans.

Custodians & Communities

Members stay connected through our WhatsApp community—a modern take on the scuttlebutt, the water cask on deck where sailors gathered to swap news and stories.

Join our community

Honouring courage at sea — past and present

The Wartime Vessels Association

A living flotilla of remembrance charting wartime service, preserved vessels, and the crews ashore who safeguard their sea stories today.

We are an association — a community of vessel custodians, veterans’ families, historians, and volunteers — working side by side rather than as a distant institution. Every member shapes how we remember, restore, and sail these stories forward.

Explore the Living Story Support the Association

Who is this association for?

The Association brings together vessel custodians, wartime-service descendants, historians, educators and maritime heritage volunteers—all committed to preserving Britain’s small-craft legacy and stewarding it into the future. Below, the four columns define the full range of vessel types, services and operations in which our members may have been engaged:

Royal Navy & Allied Services

  • Motor Gun Boats (MGBs)
  • Motor Torpedo Boats (MTBs)
  • Harbour Defence Motor Launches (HDMLs)
  • Fairmile A, B, C and D-class boats
  • Air-Sea Rescue Launches (RAF Marine Branch)
  • Mine recovery and sweep vessels
  • Auxiliary mine-sweeping craft
  • Boom defence vessels and attendant launches
  • Examination service craft
  • Coastal Forces tenders

Defence & Support

  • Coastal escort and RNPS patrols
  • Thames & Mersey defence operations
  • Mine-laying and mine-sweeping campaigns
  • Rescue tug and salvage operations

Civilian & Auxiliary Services

  • Trinity House vessels (buoy tenders, lighthouse supply craft)
  • RNLI lifeboats requisitioned for wartime service
  • Port and dockyard service launches
  • Police river patrol craft (e.g., Thames Division)
  • Customs and Excise cutters
  • Fishery protection vessels
  • Converted fishing vessels (RNPS “Little Ships of the Minesweeping Service”)
  • Merchant Navy support launches (lighterage, harbour duties)
  • Sea Scout and Sea Cadet auxiliary launches

War Department & Non-RN Services

  • Royal Engineers small craft
    • Bridging boats
    • Assault boats
    • Engineer tenders
  • Royal Army Service Corps vessels (harbour service, lighterage)
  • Fire-floats and fireboats
  • Air Ministry marine sections (rescue, target-towing, transport)
  • War Department stores and service craft
  • Army-operated coastal and river launches

Operations Involving Small Craft

Evacuations & Landings

  • Dunkirk & Operation Dynamo
  • Operation Cycle
  • Operation Aerial
  • Operation Alphabet (Norway)
  • Operation Collar
  • Operation Neptune (maritime component of D-Day)
  • Operation Jubilee (Dieppe)
  • Operation Husky (Sicily)
  • Operation Avalanche (Salerno)
  • Operation Shingle (Anzio)

Special Operations

  • SOE & Combined Operations small-craft missions
  • Cross-Channel raids (e.g., Operation Chariot – St Nazaire)
  • MTB/MGB actions in the Channel & North Sea

News & Updates

View all updates
Featured image for Appeal to Save Former RAF Launch 2748

Community Voices

help wanted raf launch almost lost?

Appeal to Save Former RAF Launch 2748

A community appeal reports former RAF launch 2748 in poor condition and seeks owner contact to explore rescue and completion.

25 Sep 2026 Read more
Featured image for Tahilla: Dunkirk Little Ship Offered for Sale

Fleet Updates

for sale ww2 service historic vessel dunkirk little ship operation dynamo

Tahilla: Dunkirk Little Ship Offered for Sale

Tahilla was commandeered for Operation Dynamo, damaged by enemy fire and retained for Admiralty service until 1948.

21 Sep 2026 Read more

More News

Read More Stories

Visit the full newsroom for the complete archive, community reports, and latest vessel updates.

Go to News Page
Browse the newsroom Share your news

Dates for your diary

Events

View all events
Featured image for RNPSA Annual Memorial Service 2026

Events

In 1 week

RNPSA Annual Memorial Service 2026

The Royal Navy Patrol Service Association annual reunion service remembers the 2,385 men named on the Lowestoft National Memorial who have no grave but the sea. The service begins at 11.00. The Patrol Service operated from its wartime headq...

26 Sep 2026 Read more
Featured image for ADLS Veterans Cruise 2026

Events

ADLS Veterans Cruise 2026

The Dunkirk Little Ships depart Weybridge Mariners Club at 10:30am, travel downriver through Sunbury Lock, then return past Desborough Island and Hamhaugh Island to arrive at the club at around 1:00pm. Supporters are encouraged to wave, che...

26 Sep 2026 Read more
Duke of Edinburgh Approved Activity Provider logo

Duke of Edinburgh Skills

Approved Activity Provider

We deliver a structured online DofE Program for Bronze, Silver and Gold, built around WW2 maritime operations and practical heritage learning.

Students cover wartime coastal forces roles, communication and navigation fundamentals, vessel history and interpretation tasks, and evidence-based project work suitable for DofE Skills submissions.

Bronze: 1 hour per week over 13 weeks, online, and free.

Register now (free) Read more about our DofE programe View our DofE sample activities

Our Maritime Purpose

The Wartime Vessels Association stands as a guardian of Britain’s wartime fleets — from minesweepers and motor launches to merchant lifelines. Through research, restoration, and storytelling, we ensure every craft and crew are remembered with dignity and a seaworthy future.

We serve descendants, historians, educators, and supporters who share a commitment to remembrance, maritime heritage, and life on the water.

Why It Matters

  • Safeguarding Heritage: We stabilise fragile hulls, engines, and rigging so wartime craft can sail or lie proudly in dock.
  • Passing on Skills: Traditional seamanship and boatbuilding are shared through our workshops and custodial mentoring.
  • Telling the Whole Voyage: Digital archives and oral histories chart each vessel from wartime commission to today’s guardians.
  • Uniting Coastal Communities: Remembrance services, flotillas, and outreach bring the maritime story to harbours nationwide.
Wreath placed on the deck of a historic vessel.

Remembrance & Commemoration

Honour the sailors, volunteers, and coastal forces whose wartime service safeguarded the nation. Explore our roll of honour, discover personal accounts, and participate in remembrance events.

The Wartime Vessels Association

In proud remembrance of the men and women who served, and of the crews of the wartime small craft.

Their courage endures through the vessels we preserve and the custodians who care for them today.

Preserving Memory, Honouring Service.

Memorial Pages

Dedicated tributes with biographies, service records, and family recollections.

Virtual Wall

Share messages, photos, and commemorations from around the world.

Vessels & Registry

Search our digital registry to discover surviving wartime vessels, their history, current custodians, and restoration status. Interactive maps and filtering help you trace stories by fleet, theatre, or service.

  • • Searchable vessel records with imagery and oral histories.
  • • Interactive global map of known surviving craft.
  • • Downloadable data for researchers and heritage partners.
View our work on digitising Operation Dynamo Records

Small ships service record registry coming soon!

Archivist examining wartime maritime documents.

Custodians & Communities

“Every ship that survives does so because someone cares.” Meet the volunteers, restorers, and communities who keep wartime vessels afloat.

Read restoration diaries, listen to oral histories, and follow behind-the-scenes photo essays that celebrate craftsmanship and dedication.

Join our community
Read Custodian Stories

Volunteer Spotlights

Profiles highlighting skills, service, and community impact.

Restoration Diaries

Step-by-step coverage of projects supported by the Association.

Community Events

Connect with commemorations, open days, and flotillas.

Skills Workshops

Traditional boatbuilding, seamanship, and heritage training.

Recognition awards

WVA Recognition Awards

Celebrate the custodians, volunteers, educators and partners who keep wartime stories afloat. Members can submit nominations from their dashboard; directors review and announce outcomes each year.

Explore the awards Share a recommendation

Education & Public Understanding

Unlock digitised logbooks, photographs, and oral histories from Operation Dynamo to coastal convoys. Our learning hub supports schools, researchers, and heritage partners with curated resources, and it is our huge ambition to provide KS2 classroom materials alongside Duke of Edinburgh Skills content rooted in this wartime history.

Digital Archive

Search and download high-resolution records.

Learning Packs

Curriculum-aligned resources for schools and museums.

Oral Histories

Audio and video testimonies from veterans and custodians.

Archivist examining wartime maritime documents.

Get Involved

Whether you are a descendant, vessel owner, educator, or supporter, there are meaningful ways to contribute to our mission.

Donate

Help fund conservation projects and educational outreach.

Give Support

Volunteer

Join our network of heritage professionals and community historians.

Register Interest

Share a Story

Contribute a vessel’s history, photographs, or oral testimony.

Submit Materials

Partner with Us

Collaborate on research, exhibitions, and community programmes.

Explore Partnerships

Contact the Association

Get in touch with our board members and curators for press enquiries, research collaborations, or vessel support.

The Wartime Vessels Association C.I.C is a Community Interest Company limited by guarantee, meaning we have no shareholders, operate on a not-for-profit basis, and reinvest every pound into safeguarding wartime maritime heritage for public benefit. This status locks our assets for community use and assures partners that our work is independently regulated and mission led.

Company: The Wartime Vessels Association C.I.C
C.I.C number: 16863284
Address: The Wartime Vessels Association C.I.C, 14 Museum Place (4th Floor), City Centre, Cardiff, CF10 3BH
The Wartime Vessels Association

Send us a message

We treat all personal data with respect and in accordance with our privacy policy.

M.V. Gerfalcon undergoing volunteer-led restoration alongside a quay.

Inspiration Vessel: M.V. Gerfalcon

Built in 1937 by William Osborne Ltd. of Littlehampton, Gerfalcon is a 45-foot mahogany motor yacht that served with the Royal Naval Patrol Service and sailed in the Operation Dynamo evacuation off Dunkirk. While she is not an asset of the Association, her private custodians keep her close to our work as a living memorial to the coastal forces who answered the call in Britain’s darkest hour.

Volunteer shipwrights have renewed 32 planks using traditional oak and mahogany, showcasing the skills we champion. Gerfalcon remains close to our flotilla, supporting remembrance voyages, heritage events, and hands-on training for new custodians.

  • • Builder: William Osborne Ltd., Littlehampton
  • • Wartime service: Royal Naval Patrol Service, Operation Dynamo (1940)
  • • Current role: Inspiration vessel for Association education, remembrance, and volunteer restoration

Community signal flag

Join our community

Stay connected with custodians and supporters.

Join our WhatsApp community Download The WVA App on iPhone Try our Android App