In 1940, ‘Cachalot’ took part in Operation Dynamo when she was part-owned by Herbert Charles Norton. By 1951 she had changed hands several more times.

‘Cachalot’ was sent to the beaches of northern France to evacuate allied troops 26 May – 4 June, 1940 as one of the 700 ‘Dunkirk Little Ships’. She is a member of the Association for Dunkirk Little Ships (ADLS) and took part in the 1990 ‘Return to Dunkirk’. She is planning to go again in 2025, the 85th Anniversary.

Membership of the ADLS allows her to fly the flag of St George on the bowsprit and ‘Dunkirk Jack’, House Flag of the Association for Dunkirk Little Ships at the cross trees. The ‘Jack’ is flown under permission of the Admiralty, the College of Heralds and the City of Dunkirk. It consists of the Cross of St. George (the flag of Admiralty) defaced with the Arms of Dunkirk.

Maritime researcher and author, Julia Jones has found some interesting evidence about ‘Cachalot’ and her involvement in Operation Dynamo, including background information about her part-owner at the time, Herbert Charles Norton. In February 1937 Norton joined the RNVSR (Royal Naval Volunteer Supplementary Reserve). This was known as the Yachtsman’s Reserve. Yachtsmen were invited by the Admiralty to add their names to a list indicating their willingness to serve as officers in an ‘Emergency’ (ie war). They were given no pre-war training (unlike the ‘regular’ RNVR) but many of these keen volunteers got together to improve their theoretical knowledge and also their boat handling. Norton was part of the London Division which was particularly innovative in finding ways to develop its members’ skills. It’s even possible that ‘Cachalot’ could have been involved in providing such training. East Coast yachtsmen Augustine Courtauld and Frank Carr gathered groups of River Orwell yachtsmen together to go out to sea and practise station keeping and signalling. But this is speculation.

It seems almost certain that her involvement in Operation Dynamo would have occurred because HC Norton had been commissioned as a RNVR Lieutenant in November 1939 and was posted to ‘HMS Wildfire’, Sheerness. This was the base from which many of the Little Ships were gathered together to support the larger ships; destroyers, minesweepers, troop carriers and the like. Their role was to ferry men from the beaches or the Mole out to the larger ships which would take them home. Norton later served on the ‘St Tudno’, the minesweeper depot ship, usually based in Queenborough and also at Dunkirk. He finished his war service as a Lieutenant Commander working in the Second Sea Lord’s Office in the Admiralty.

The Lloyds Register was not published during the war years, and in 1947 we find ‘Cachalot’ is listed as being owned by Hubert Somervell, living at 97, Clifton Hill, NW8, still with her Stuart Turner petrol engine. Hubert Somervell is also listed as owner in the ‘Alterations and additions to the 1939 Register’ published in 1946 to incorporate supplements from May and July 1939. There is also a gap in the Certificate of British Registry from 1939 to 1947, so we cannot be sure when he purchased her. A Hubert A. Somervell enlisted as a midshipman in 1916 and is listed in the London Gazette on three occasions (1918, 1920 and 1921) as a Royal Navy Lieutenant [retired in 1921]. In the 1939 Register, Hubert A. Somervell is living at 10, Fishpool St. London, now a Clerk in Holy Orders. Could this be the same man who owned her in 1947, having purchased her sometime after she took part in Operation Dynamo?

Kenneth Albert Harwood, Opthalmic Optician and Neauer Messinger, Shopkeeper, both of Guildford, Surrey are listed as joint owners in the Certificate of British Registry from November 1948 until Brigadier Edward Elwyn Nott-Bower purchased her in 1951. These two owners are also listed in the Lloyds Register of Yachts (1949-51).