Grappler

Important context

These are vessels recorded as having some association or possible involvement with Operation Dynamo. This is not a definitive list of participating ships, and inclusion does not establish that a vessel reached Dunkirk, evacuated personnel or otherwise took part. A source record may exist because a claim was investigated, qualified or rejected; for example, an Orde entry may expressly state that the vessel did not participate. Always review the underlying records and source notes before drawing a conclusion.

The archive and its metadata are still being compiled and are presented as a work in progress. Entries may be incomplete, change as additional material is processed or appear in more than one source record.

Historic logs, handwritten documents, later indexes and transcriptions may contain spelling or identification differences. For example, NIAIAD ERRANT, MAID ERRANT and NAIAD ERRANT refer to the same vessel under variant spellings. Search cautiously, try likely variants and check for multiple records before drawing conclusions.

Cross-collection links and record counts should be treated as candidate matches rather than confirmed vessel identities. Matching may involve case and punctuation normalisation, partial-name or OCR text matches, aliases and associated metadata. A Roman-numeral suffix such as I, II, III, IV or V may be omitted, separated or mistranscribed, causing a base name to match a different numbered vessel. With multi-word names, a candidate may also be returned because only one distinctive word matched. Verify the complete name and numeral against vessel type, dimensions, builder, ownership, dates and the underlying source before merging or relying on records.

Also known as

No aliases recorded.

ORDE: 0 · SCSL: 0 · Lloyd’s: 0 · Red List: 0

Help complete the archive

Do you have a photo of this vessel you can share?

Contribute photographs of Grappler to the archive for editorial review. Submissions remain private and will only be published following approval by an administrator.

1. Upload photos 2. Describe 3. Validate email

Select photographs

JPG, PNG or WebP; up to 12 photos and 20 MB per image. Images upload privately to S3 before description.

Uploading photographs securely…

I confirm that I am the copyright holder for every selected photograph and permit OperationDynamo.navy to store, review and publish approved images under the contribution terms.

Validate your email Your name Email address

We will email a 24-hour validation link. After confirmation, the photographs enter administrator review. If you later create an account with this address, they will be linked automatically.

Already have an account? Log in before uploading to link new photographs immediately.

← Back

ORDE Registry

0 records

0 potential matching records have currently been identified.

Further indexing may identify vessel particulars, reported movements, participation assessments, named personnel and source references. The absence of a current match does not establish that no relevant source exists.

We are compiling and checking transcriptions, metadata, vessel-name matches, source references and reuse permissions before publishing further detail. This work helps prevent incomplete OCR, historic spelling variations or unverified associations from being presented as established fact.

Account registrations and access to these developing records are temporarily unavailable. Existing account holders may log in, and everyone can join the newsletter for publication updates.

Small Craft Service List

0 records

0 potential matching records have currently been identified.

Further indexing may identify service-list entries, vessel metadata, source-page references and protected full-size document images. The absence of a current match does not establish that no relevant source exists.

Account registrations and access to these developing records are temporarily unavailable. Existing account holders may log in, and everyone can join the newsletter for publication updates.

No Small Craft records.

Red List (1939–40) — OCR

0 records

0 potential matching records have currently been identified.

Further indexing may identify OCR text matches, source files, page references and digitised page imagery. The absence of a current match does not establish that no relevant source exists.

Account registrations and access to these developing records are temporarily unavailable. Existing account holders may log in, and everyone can join the newsletter for publication updates.

Ship Details

These details have been aggregated from multiple sources and may include contemporary records, later recollections, claims or assertions for which no corroborating evidence has been identified. Inclusion does not establish that any account or assertion is accurate. The information may be incomplete, out of date, disputed or incorrect and should be checked against the underlying source records and independent evidence before being relied upon.

Ship type: Naval Tug

Lloyd’s Yacht Register (1939)

Source: Lloyd’s Register Foundation, Heritage & Education Centre, Lloyd’s Register of Yachts 1939, digitised via Internet Archive. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Images have been converted, resized and watermarked for web display; machine-generated table OCR has been added.

No Lloyd’s records.

Document Collections — Tagged Pages

6 pages

Imaged document collections containing pages whose OCR text or table data has been tagged with the name Grappler. Open a collection to view the page images and transcriptions.

TNA ADM 199 792

TNA

View matching pages →

Source: The National Archives, Kew, ADM 199 792. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.