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Dunkirk: Blockbuster breathes new life into forgotten ship
Skylark IX helped save hundreds of lives on the French coast before retiring to Scotland.
In 1940, a little passenger boat named Skylark IX bobbed on the water alongside hundreds of ships off the coast of France.
An open boat with no cabin, she began her life in Dorset in 1928 but would soon become part of the miracle of Dunkirk.
A flotilla of lifeboats, fishing boats and yachts were assembled to assist with the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the north of France in the midst of the Second World War.
Making around three return trips while under constant fire, Skylark IX safely delivered more than 600 soldiers to the larger boats farther out at sea during Operation Dynamo.
Yet some 70 years later, the boat that had saved so many lives had sunk to the bottom of the River Leven, neglect forcing her below the surface, the fresh water keeping her preserved.
For the locals of Dumbarton, pulling Skylark IX from the depths became their mission, not only to honour those it had saved but also those who never came home from the war.
Now, with help in the unlikely form of One Direction fans, who had heard of the little ship unable to take part in a flotilla as part of a scene in upcoming blockbuster Dunkirk, Skylark is being restored to her former glory.
"They saved our lives and put themselves in danger as well, as simple as that," explained Dunkirk veteran Frank Hannaway to STV in 2012.
"All the civilians, the young lads and some girls in one of them. Yeah, it was very important."
For Frank, who sadly passed away in 2016 at the age of 98, the most important reason to raise and restore Skylark was to help younger generations understand what the country went through years before they were born.
Yet Skylark IX herself had her part in history unrecorded for a number of years.
After taking part in the Dunkirk flotilla, she remained on the coast of Dorset in Poole as a shallow water minesweeper, placing anti-invasion obstacles around the harbour.
Her crew erected decoy wooden huts on Brownsea Island, filled with coal and sprayed with oil that would be ignited when the German bombers flew overhead, searching for the Admiralty Armaments depot at Holton Heath.
Skylark went on to lead a more peaceful life thereafter, travelling the country through Morecambe and Burntisland before arriving in Loch Lomond, where she would remain for decades, the only little ship from Dynamo to live out her days in Scotland.
Sporting a more modernised look, her actions in France may have been forgotten forever had it not been for Charles Fairman, who was touring Scotland in 1987.
He recognised her as the ship he commanded in Poole as a petty officer with the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in 1941, having first seen her the previous year at Dunkirk and later ferrying a yacht to Felixstowe in Suffolk.
The discovery of her heroic past led owner John Sweeney, who operated cruise liners on the loch, to invite Dunkirk veterans to travel on her each year on the anniversary of Operation Dynamo.
The men would travel along the water and hold a small religious service, placing poppies into the loch to commemorate those who did not return.
Changing hands in the coming years, the old boat soon fell into disrepair.
In 2010, the veterans took to the water in a new boat for their annual service, taking a detour by Skylark as a mark of respect.
The next day, Skylark was found submerged at the mouth of the loch, having sunk overnight.
Brian Warren, an honorary member of the Dunkirk Veterans Association, spoke of his sadness about the sinking in 2012.
"Devastated, like everybody else I suppose, who has had a relationships with the boat," he said.
"You didn't expect it to end up below the water line."
For two years, Skylark lay on the loch's floor, the freshwater helping to preserve her from further decay.
After a huge publicity drive, locals in Dumbarton were able to raise her from the seabed with the help of the Royal Navy and began devising a plan to save her legacy.
Brian added: "In some respects maybe because it's the 70th anniversary it may have helped us with the sunken ship because of the publicity of Dunkirk and were hoping for a lot of support and were getting some as well."
In 2013, the Skylark IX Recovery Trust was formed by volunteers determined to bring the little ship back to life.
She was transported to the River Clyde boatyard then to the Scottish Maritime Museum in Irvine, where she waited to be restored.
Out of water, her paint chipped and wooden slats damaged, an unlikely hero came in the form of One Direction fans.
Dunkirk, the epic drama, which stars singer Harry Styles, inspired fans to get behind Skylark IX's restoration plans.
Setting up a fundraising page, which Styles' mother donated to herself, fans raised £6000 to help return the vessel to her former glory after hearing of the little ship's crumbling fate.
Harry later thanked fans for the gesture in a radio interview, calling the initiative "incredible".
"It's great to have [the film] in tangible cultural heritage," agreed David Mann, of the Scottish Maritime Museum.
"It's also fantastic to have the objects and the vessels and the collections that we have to tell the story so that we can relate to them. So that stories aren't lost, they're maintained."
Mary Burch, one of the members of the Skylark Trust, believes the little ship, which offered hope to hundreds of soldiers, is offering the same to locals in Dunbartonshire some 80 years on.
Partnering with drug recovery programme Alternatives, clients who use the service are being trained in woodwork and it is hoped they will learn to operate the boat and offer tours once Skylark is restored to her former glory.
For now, backers are helping to raise the £1800 required to help proceed with the first stage of restoration.
"Andy Cochrane who is chair of the trust, comes up with a fabulous idea every year and this year they are going to climb, ten of these lads and lassies with Andy, they are going to climb Ben Lomond on Sunday," Mary explains.
"Not just scaling Ben Lomond but they are going to carry Skylark's propeller, so no mean feat.
"There's not a lot of her left but we always say the essence of Skylark, the men that she saved, the blood, the tears, the joy of being rescued, is there within that little boat and worth restoring that piece of history."
As Frank Hannaway recalled: "Of course, the most important thing of all is to remember some of those as well who, as far as I know, didn't come back.
"So that's the important pa rt, that's what we've got to keep remembering, the lads who never came back."
With plans to have Skylark IX fully restored by 2020, the members of the trust are confident that they can return her to the shores of Dunkirk to mark the 80th anniversary of Operation Dynamo and bring her home.
Additional reporting by STV reporter Bruce McKenzie.