Chrysler built one of their small 4-berth motor yachts for racehorse owner Dorothy Paget, installing one of their own petrol engines capable of pushing the boat to 20 knots. In 1938 the boat was shipped to England to compete in speed trials off the Isle of Wight. After the trials, the boat was acquired by a boat operator at Shanklin and used to take people for trips around the bay. In 1939 she was bought by the popular British comedian, Tommy Trinder, but he didn’t seem to have much time to use the boat, leaving it to his brother Fred to bring it to London. Fred only got as far as Shoreham along the south coast when the Navy requisitioned the boat for Dunkirk. At Dunkirk, her shallow draught meant she was used mostly to transport troops to the larger ships waiting offshore before finally returning to England with a ‘full load’ – but she survived. Little is known about how she spent the rest of the war, but in 1945, Trinder re-named the boat ‘Chalmondesleigh’ after the imaginary friend he often mentioned in his act – and had this name painted along the side of the vessel. Pronounced ‘Chumley’, the name was later shortened to this spelling. Apart from Dunkirk, Chumley appears to have stayed on the Thames apart from a few coastal trips. Fred did once take her to France, although he had no passport and his ‘crew’ was a three-man musical comedy act then appearing at the London Palladium – all wore admiral’s uniforms and had no navigating skills. They determined where they were by using binoculars to read the names of hotels on shore, then looking in guide books to find the name of the town! Chumley was sold in 1949 and noting more was heard of her until 1959 when she was part of a boat sale at Wargrave-on-Thames. She was in a poor condition but in the bilges were still the shell heads and pig iron used as ballast for the trip to Dunkirk in 1940. By 1968 the boat had deteriorated but two brothers undertook a remarkable restoration such that the boat was able to participate in the 1995 ‘Return to Dunkirk’. In 2000 she was acquired by John and Margaret Hoskins who have refitted the vessel throughout, and Chumley is now a regular participant at events around the south of England.
