The Coronia and Regal Lady were built in the 1930's. The Regal Lady was built at Great Yarmouth. During the 1930's the majoirty of people stayed in Britain for their holidays. Their holidays would be a couple of days at the seaside. Many of them enjoyed a trip on a boats. During the 1930's many pleasure craft were built powered by coal or diesel engines. In September of 1939 World War Two broke out. The Coronia was requisitioned by the Admiralty and re-named HMS Watchfull after the base she was linked to. She had a little gun emplacement on the foredeck. In January 1940 the Regal Lady was requisitioned by the Admiralty.
In May 1940 there were 450,000 British soldiers in France and Belgium fighting the German army but they were pushed back to the coast in northern France, Dunkirk. During the 2nd week in May 1940, a call went out asking for as many little boats to go across the channel and collect our soldiers. It was called Operation Dynamo. 700 went across to Dunkirk to bring the army back, they were called the Skylark Navy. It took 7 days to complete the evacuation. We know the Regal Lady went across 3 times, under her previous name 'Oulton Bell'. The Coronia was flat bottomed with a 4ft 6 inch draft so could run onto the beaches for the soldiers to get off the beach and take them out to the bigger destroyers and ferry's that were anchored about a mile off the beach.
380,000 soldiers were brought back and we think the Regal Lady, as she i known now, brought back 1,200. Sir Winston Churchill and Admiral Ramsey thought they would only get 45,000 back, but because of the little ships they managed to get many soldiers home. In 1943 there was a build up to D-day and the Regal Lady was involved in taking American troops from the Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary into Glasgow. Both boats were decommissioned in 1946. The Coronia came up to Scarborough in 1951 and was re-named the Yorkshire lady and the Oulton Bell to Regal Lady in 1954. Regal Lady was coal burning until 1955. In 2018 Coronia was moved up to the Tees whilst Regal Lady stopped work in 2018 but has now been refurbished as a Dunkirk Museum (2020).
