“Only Britain could put on something like this, with the significance that it has got. It is a great honor to be here — and a damn good adventure as well.”
So says Peter Draper, skipper of the Caronia, a 1920s Cornish fishing boat that helped rescue troops from the beaches of Dunkirk in 1940 during World War II.
It has taken him and his 18-year old son Lewis six days to make it from their moorings in Chichester, West Sussex, to London. But they would not have missed it for the world.
Their wooden vessel will be one of about 1,000 boats forming the Thames Jubilee pageant, a flotilla that will sail 13 miles from Hammersmith to the Old Royal Naval College, on Sunday.
The event is the story of Great Britain this weekend with wall-to-wall coverage.
Click here for the full report by the BBC while The Daily Mail has published a gallery of photos of the illuminated Tower Bridge and participating boats and diagrams of the planned parade procession. Click here for that report.
