1930 ~ 1939
1930 ~ December
‘The Motor Boating World and Auxiliary Yatching’ magazine article announcing a new J.W.Brooke & Co. Ltd. 52FT Fast Motor Cruiser.
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1931
‘Dab II’ was built for Mr.G.J. Smart, Westcliff on Sea, by J.W.Brooke & Co. Ltd., Lowestoft in the old North yard.
Yard number:- BYC 430 Delivery:- 1st June 1931 Price:- £3,800 |
1931
Mr. Smart took delivery of Dab II Tender To, a Brooke Empire Runaround
Yard number:- BYC 357. |
1937Sold to, the trumpet player, Mr. Lloyd Shakespeare,
Leytonstone. |
1938Sold to Claud Hardie DSO, St Mawes.
Mr. Hardie was at the Battle of Passchendaele 
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1940 ~ 1949
1940
Operation Dynamo
Dab II was taken to Dunkirk by Lieut. R. W. Thomson RNVR (Roy William), who crossed the Channel no less than three times in six days. On his last return journey he brought back a load of Dutch soldiers, from the City of Breda, who had fought a gallant rearguard action westward of Dunkirk. Returned to Ramsgate harbour, Breda next to Omega ADLS of Twickenham Yacht Club. |
1943
Brookes replace the original Brooke 40/100 engines with two Gray Six-91 engines, supplied ‘free issue’ presumably from the War Department.
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1945Dab II was returned to Claud Hardie who then decided that her name was unsuitable for a ship of her size and distinguished war record. He thought it might be unlucky to change a ship’s name altogether so he called her ‘Breda’, which ingeniously retained all the letters in her original name and commemorated the Dutch soldiers which she had rescued.
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1949Sold to Capt. A.J. Colt, Salcombe.
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1950 ~ 1959
1954Sold to Jack Alderton and moored on the River Deben at Waldringfield, Suffolk.
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1958Sold to Mr & Mrs M.V. Beer – Portmadoc, North Wales. (and Mr Beer’s brother)
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1960 ~ 1969
1963
Engines replaced with two Parkside diesels.
1967
The Prisoner
Under Mr & Mrs Beer’s ownership, with her hull painted blue and an extra saloon!,
Breda appeared in two episodes of Patrick McGoohan’s ‘The Prisoner’ as ‘MS Polotska’ in ‘Checkmate’
and in ‘Many Happy Returns’ as the Gunrunners’ ship. The exterior sequences were filmed at Abersoch
(on the Coast of North Wales) with all the interior and close-up shots filmed at a replica at MGM Studios, Borehamwood.
Under Mr & Mrs Beer’s ownership, with her hull painted blue and an extra saloon!,
Breda appeared in two episodes of Patrick McGoohan’s ‘The Prisoner’ as ‘MS Polotska’ in ‘Checkmate’
and in ‘Many Happy Returns’ as the Gunrunners’ ship. The exterior sequences were filmed at Abersoch
(on the Coast of North Wales) with all the interior and close-up shots filmed at a replica at MGM Studios, Borehamwood.
1970 ~ 1980
1970Sold to P.R. Munton, Aldershot.
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1974Sold to Peter & Lesley Farrant, Teddington.
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1980Breda appears in ‘Jukes of Piccadilly’ a TV comedy-thriller focusing on ‘Brinsley Jukes’ (Nigel Hawthorne), owner of an exclusive tea emporium, who indulges in his hobby of private investigation.
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1990 ~ 1999
1990Mr. Francis Figgins returns to France for the 50th anniversary of the evacuations
aboard Breda in which he served from 1941. 
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1991Starring role in the Channel 4 movie ‘Close My Eyes’ alongside
Clive Owen & Alan Rickman 
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2000 ~ 2010
2003Sold to Simon & Penny Brown, Twickenham.
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2006Breda is accepted on to the National Register of Historic Vessels.
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2006Simon & Penny Brown acquired ‘Flame’, the tender that was built for Breda’s sister ship ‘St. Joan’.
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2012
Queen’s Diamond jubilee Pageant
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