THPV BEMBRIDGE — the oldest pilot cutter in Europe, built in 1938 at Smith's Dock for Trinity House London. The only surviving vessel that took part in both the Dunkirk evacuation and the Normandy landings.

Born on the River Tees

10 March 1938 — at Smith's Dock in South Bank, an industrial town on the River Tees in north-east England, a steel beam is laid on the slipway. It is the keel — the backbone of future vessel number 1040.

The client is Trinity House London — one of the oldest maritime institutions in the world, founded in 1514 by King Henry VIII. For over 500 years it has been responsible for lighthouses, navigation buoys and pilotage in British waters. Its famous members have included Samuel Pepys, Winston Churchill and Prince Philip, who served as Master of the Corporation from 1969 until his death in 2021.

Bembridge is to be something new — Trinity House's first ever motor-powered pilot cutter. All previous cutters were steam-driven. This one, with two British Polar diesel engines producing 740 HP combined, represents a technological breakthrough. She carries the number "No. 1" on her hull — the first of a new class.

What exactly was a pilot cutter? A floating base for maritime pilots — experts in local waters who boarded incoming vessels and guided them through shoals and reefs. Bembridge lay at anchor at a designated station at sea, and pilots lived aboard for weeks, waiting for a call. Hence the 24 berths, radio station, galley and provisions for long watches.

Construction takes four months. On 14 July 1938 the hull slides down the slipway into the water — the launch captured on glass negatives that survive to this day. In September Bembridge completes sea trials, reaching 11.8 knots. On 6 October she enters service at Cowes on the Isle of Wight, serving pilot stations at the Nab Tower lighthouse and the famous Needles rocks.

Dunkirk, a Bomb and Normandy

26 May 1940. The German army, using blitzkrieg tactics, had cut off 338,000 Allied soldiers at Dunkirk on the northern coast of France. The only way out — by sea. Winston Churchill ordered Operation Dynamo — a desperate naval evacuation. Literally everything that could float was mobilised: destroyers, minesweepers, fishing boats, private yachts and Trinity House pilot cutters.

For eight days Bembridge sailed back and forth across the English Channel under Luftwaffe air attack and artillery fire. In total, 338,226 soldiers were evacuated — the Dunkirk evacuation went down in history as one of the defining moments of World War II.

A year later, in 1941, during a Luftwaffe raid, a German bomb struck Bembridge in the stern. It passed clean through the hull structure and failed to explode.

In 1942, tragedy struck on board — a crew member, Jack Sounders, took his own life below decks. Ever since, successive users of the vessel — both during the Essex Yacht Club years and after the purchase by Magemar — have reported unexplained phenomena: falling mirrors, scattered charts, the sound of footsteps. The crew regards Jack as the ship's friendly ghost.

6 June 1944 — D-Day. The Normandy landings — the largest amphibious operation in history. Over 156,000 Allied troops crossed the Channel and landed on five beaches: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. Bembridge, as an experienced pilot cutter familiar with these waters, was mobilised for Operation Neptune — the naval component of the invasion.

Dover, Dungeness and the Queen on Board

After the war Bembridge undergoes a refit — the number of pilot berths increases from 6 to 18 as maritime trade booms. The vessel is transferred to the London District, based in Dover. For over 20 years she alternates between two pilot stations: Dungeness — a rocky headland in Kent with its iconic lighthouse, and Sunk — the busiest and most dangerous station at the mouth of the Thames.

In the 1960s Bembridge experiences her most prestigious moment. At Portsmouth — the Royal Navy's main base — a NATO fleet review takes place. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip spend the entire day on board the pilot cutter. Standing on the bridge, the Queen receives the salute as dozens of NATO warships pass in line, dipping their ensigns. Prince Philip, the future Master of Trinity House, feels right at home on the vessel.

In 1967 the era of pilot cutters comes to an end. Fast shore-based launches prove cheaper and more efficient. Bembridge serves a final role as mother ship at Ryde Pier on the Isle of Wight — symbolically, where she began service 32 years earlier. In 1968 she is officially decommissioned.

Oil, Regattas, a Nightclub and Ruin

After decommissioning, Bembridge changes owners and incarnations faster than any other vessel of her class. First she briefly serves as a maritime school for troubled youth (1971–72). Then she is bought by Cosag Marine Services of Great Yarmouth — and the strangest chapter begins.

This is the time of the North Sea oil rush. In 1969 the Ekofisk field was discovered off Norway, a year later the Forties field off Scotland. Cosag converts Bembridge into a survey vessel — removing the aft superstructure, fitting a derrick, converting cabins into workspace for Decca surveyors. Bembridge takes part in monitoring the construction of the Ekofisk–Teesside pipeline — the first subsea oil pipeline in the North Sea.

In 1976 the vessel is bought by Essex Yacht Club and moored at Leigh-on-Sea — a charming fishing town in the Thames estuary. For 28 years Bembridge is the heart of the club: meetings, regattas, parties.

After leaving the club, for two years a nightclub operates on board — the press openly calls it a "go-go club". Bankruptcy follows. The vessel ends up on the River Medway near Gillingham with plans for conversion into a restaurant. The plans collapse. Steel rusts, timber rots. Bembridge heads straight for the breaker's yard.

Rescued at the Last Moment

The Polish branch of the Belgian company Magemar is looking for a headquarters. Instead of an office in a tower block, they dream of something that reflects the maritime character of a logistics firm. Online, they find Bembridge — a rotting hulk without engines, with a holed deck. But the hull, that steel backbone from 1938, is still in good condition. This is confirmed by Jeffrey Wood — an 85-year-old Briton who worked at Smith's Dock as a 14-year-old apprentice.

Magemar buys the vessel in January 2009, literally at the last moment before scrapping. On 14 February the Polish tug MT Argus from Szczecin sets off with Bembridge in tow. Route: the Thames, the English Channel, the North Sea, the Kiel Canal, the Baltic. A storm en route. The passage takes 5 days. On the Świnoujście–Szczecin leg, travelling up the Oder, the vessel passes through ice fields — one of the most dangerous moments in her entire history.

Restoration takes 5 years and costs PLN 5.5 million. The goal: to restore the vessel to her 1938 appearance. The aft superstructure and wheelhouse with its original chart table are rebuilt, original windows and storm covers fitted. Through the Ships Nostalgia forum, around 300 people from across the globe — mainly from the United Kingdom — became involved in recovering the ship's history and memorabilia. Thanks to them, the original ship's bell, shipyard plaques, log books and the Trinity House flag returned to the deck.

A Second Life in Szczecin

THPV Bembridge is moored at the Egyptian Quay in Szczecin, at ul. Bytomska 7. On board is the headquarters of Magemar Polska — offices, conference rooms and a private maritime museum with artefacts from the vessel's entire history: an original Joseph Bramah hydraulic press from 1798, a vintage typhon, a 1930s gramophone with a Morse code course, a Flower-class corvette model and the original propeller shafts.

The vessel no longer sails — the hull is too old for engine vibrations and can only be towed. She is listed on the official National Historic Ships UK register (number 2395) and in the collections of the National Maritime Museum in Gdańsk. She is the oldest surviving pilot cutter in Europe and the only vessel in the world to have survived Dunkirk, Normandy, the North Sea oil rush, 28 years as a yacht club headquarters and a nightclub — and found a second life 1,500 km from home.

Visits are possible for organised groups. The vessel has been opened during Museum Night (over 500 visitors in a single evening), Tall Ships Races and European Funds Days.