‘Cachalot’ is a member of the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships (ADLS) and listed amongst the vessels requisitioned to assist in the evacuation of Dunkirk, 1940, known as ‘Operation Dynamo’.

In ‘The ships that saved an army’ by Russell Plummer, pub. 1990, ‘Cachalot’ is recorded as being owned by ‘Mr Spurling’ at the time of Operation Dynamo but there is no reference to his source. There are also no references to who owned ‘Cachalot’ in 1940 in either the Lloyds Register or her Certificate of British Registry. Our research indicates it could have been a man named Hubert Somervell, but this is unverified.

‘Cachalot’ has taken part in events run by the ADLS, including the 1990 ‘Return to Dunkirk’. In 2007, just after she sank and became a restoration project, we sailed to Ipswich aboard the Dunkirk Little Ship ‘Trimilia’ in company with another Little Ship, ‘Fedalma II’ both of whom had berths in the Tidemill Yacht Harbour, Woodbridge.