‘Count Dracula’ rises from grave to mark Dunkirk anniversary
A DUNKIRK veteran’s son has been united with a little ship which saved his father 77 years ago.
Sgt William Wilson was one of 712 soldiers plucked from the beaches by the 50ft vessel – named Count Dracula – during the evacuation.
Now, the decrepit timber craft has turned up at a boatyard owned by Sgt Wilson’s son, David, for restoration.
Mr Wilson is helping to return Count Dracula to its former glory in time for the 80th anniversary of the evacuation in 2020 when the original “little ships” will return to Dunkirk. The restoration project is costing £200,000.
Count Dracula already had a remarkable existence before Dunkirk as it was built for the German navy in 1913.
Kaiser Wilhelm II gave it to Admiral Franz von Hipper who used it as his launch boat on the SMS Hindenburg in the First World War. It was even at the Battle of Jutland. When the German fleet was scuppered at Scapa Flow in 1919, the boat was salvaged by the Royal Navy. It became a private yacht and Carl Greiner, its London owner, gave it the name Count Dracula.
In June 1940 he sent his son Alan to take her to Ramsgate, Kent, to be part of the flotilla of “little ships” destined for Dunkirk. With two 35ft lifeboats in tow, Count Dracula lifted 702 British and 10 Belgian soldiers over the course of the evacuation.
David Wilson, 79, who runs the boatyard Wilson’s of Hayling in Hayling Island, Hampshire, said: “It’s the boat my dad came back from France in at Dunkirk. My father only spoke a few times about Dunkirk but he told me Count Dracula was the boat which rescued him. It is an amazing story and this boat has a remarkable history. It’s incredible that it has now turned up in my boat yard after all this time.”
After the war, Count Dracula was used as a houseboat before being abandoned on the Thames Estuary.
The boat was salvaged and owned by the same person for 30 years before he sold it on ebay three years ago.
Kevin Kilkenny, whose great uncle was also evacuated at Dunkirk, bought the boat and with the assistance of restoration expert Derek Abra is attempting to return it to its former glory at Mr Wilson’s boatyard.