Warrior DLS History
Wartime
MV warrior is a motor vessel commissioned in 1912 by the admiralty as naval pinnace and was built by camper and Nicholson in Gosport.
The early details and plans for WARRIOR’s construction were sadly lost during a bombing raid over Portsmouth during the second world war when camper and Nicholson’s boat yard was completely destroyed.
Her own early naval service records, including her involvement in the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940, were also destroyed when an incendiary bomb struck her while she lay, still under naval command, on the river Theams at Greenwich just after her involvement in operation dynamo.
At that time WARRIOR served as a coastal defence vessel and was used by Commander C.A. Lund RN to instruct naval officers in navigation and seamanship at HMS KING ALFRED in 1942.
In 1940 a flotilla of about 850 private boats were assembled along the south coats of England and then sailed from Ramsgate to Dunkirk in northern France between 26 May and 4 June 1940 as part of Operation Dynamo. These little ships rescued more than 336,000 British, French, and other Allied soldiers who were trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk during the Second World War.
Approximately 850 private boats and 20 warships participated in Operation Dynamo, not all were documented or known. Over 200 ships were sadly lost during the evacuation Dunkirk.
After WWII
After the war, Warrior has had five owners. Stanley Crabtree had her entirely refitted at Dickie's Yard, Bangor, Wales, in the late 1960s. In earlier days she had a fine figurehead of an Indian warrior which was maintained faithfully in its original colours even when Warrior was painted in battleship grey. Sadly, she lost this figurehead during her restoration.
John and Mary Hornshaw purchased WARRIOR in 1972 from Stanley Crabtree at Glasson Dock, Lancaster, and in May 1973, John and his son Michael and a professional skipper sailed WARRIOR through the Bay of Biscay to Gibraltar. John and Mary lived on WARRIOR in the Mediterranean, exploring from Palma de Mallorca to the Greek Islands, and Malta, and the Spanish mainland coast. In 1985 they brought the vessel back across the Bay of Biscay on their own, and lived onboard in Torquay until selling the vessel in May 1989.
21st century
She then came under the ownership of Dennis Wells. The vessel’s lower hull wasn’t re-planked, its all completely original so we can remove that but the sheathing part is correct. The upper helm, despite being rebuilt over the years, retains its original shape, however the saloon behind the helm has changed over the years, from a totally open rear deck to a full saloon.
Under new ownership from October 2010, she explored the French waterways. In-spite of much work being done in the life of the little ship, by 2022 she was moored up on the bank of the river Rhone where two brothers Clive and Oliver Elsden and a friend Simon Chaplin found her in disrepair.
At the beginning of 2022, WARRIOR came under ownership of Simon Chaplin, and two brothers Clive and Oliver Elsden who are next in line to restoring this Little Dunkirk Ship to her former glory and ensuring her history is not lost forever.
Technical specifications
Type: .Motor yacht
Construction: Double diagonal teak on oak
Length: ..64ft 8ins
Beam: .14ft 10ins
Draft: ..5ft 10ins
Displacement: .40.39 tons
Engine: .2 x Gardener 6lx b’s