In 1940, between May 26 and June 4, 338,226 Allied soldiers were rescued from the French port of Dunkirk, where they had become trapped by encroaching German forces. A massive mission to ferry them back across the English Channel was launched, undertaken by a flotilla of vessels both civilian and military. Hundreds of yachts, fishing boats, tugboats, Thames sailing barges, speedboats, steamboats, and lifeboats were enlisted to bring men from the beach in an operation codenamed ‘Dynamo‘. You might have seen this in the film.
[jwplayer gvkTjsCy]
In a similar-ish and much less cinematic fashion, on November 12, 2018, a bunch of surfers helped ferry supplies from a billionaire’s yacht to residents of Malibu affected by Camp Fire.
Camp Fire started on November 8, 2018, in Butte County, Northern California and has so far burnt through 130,000 acres, destroyed over 8800 buildings, and taken 48 lives. It has been named the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California’s history.
As reported by the LA Times, billionaire Howard Leight offered up his boat, the 143-foot Leight Star, to ferry an estimated 3,000 bottles of water and almost 400 litres of petrol to Paradise Cove, Malibu, to deliver them to the survivors of the fire that ravaged the area.
This is Howard. It’s his boat. He’s been pretty jazzed about this whole ordeal. Really happy to help. He said he’s lived in Malibu 50 years. His boat has a hot tub and a helipad. pic.twitter.com/JZza20CKcT
— Benjamin Oreskes🦅 (@boreskes) November 13, 2018
Once there, they used a number of dinghies they’d bought themselves to deliver supplies to ashore, with their efforts aided by a bunch of surfers and kayakers:
In the most Malibu thing ever, here’s a bunch of surfers getting supplies off a 150-foot yacht for residents who stayed behind to save their houses from the #Woolseyfire pic.twitter.com/Mi8Cd0qroM
— Brianna Sacks (@bri_sacks) November 13, 2018
#Woolseyfire pic.twitter.com/AtPTt50fpO
— Benjamin Oreskes🦅 (@boreskes) November 13, 2018
How fucken good are people sometimes?
The full report by Benjamin Oreskes, the LA Times reporter who was on the boat, is pretty wild, with a number of people jumping ship to get into an area that local law enforcement had closed off, and you should definitely give it a read.
