One of the largest paddle steamers afloat in Britain is the H.M.S. Royal Eagle, former peacetime excursion boat which carried passengers on pleasure jaunts from Tower Bridge to Southend, Ramscate and Margate. Commissioned two years ago as a warship of the Royal Navy, the craft has been in action 52 times against enemy aircraft. The Eagle took part in the evacuation from Dunkirk where she was dive-bombed 48 times and brought home nearly 3,000 British troops. Members of the crew cleaning the paddle boxes of H.M.S. Royal Eagle in London on January 18, 1943. (Photo by AP Photo)

Bystanders look on as workers arrange silver blue fabric, part of the process of wrapping L'Arc de Triomphe in Paris on September 13, 2021, designed by the late artist Christo. Work has begun on wrapping the Arc de Triomphe in Paris in silvery-blue fabric as a posthumous tribute to the artist Christo, who had dreamt of the project for decades. Bulgarian-born Christo, a longtime Paris resident, had plans for sheathing the imposing war memorial at the top of the Champs-Elysees while renting an apartment near it in the 1960s (Photo by Geoffroy Van der Hasselt/AFP Photo)

A woman refreshes at a fountain in Casa de Campo during a heatwave in Madrid, Spain on June 15, 2022. (Photo by Isabel Infantes/Reuters)

Wild Thang, a Pekingese competing in the 2023 World’s Ugliest Dog Contest sits in the waiting kennel before the start of the annual World's Ugliest Dog contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair in Petaluma, California, on June 23, 2023. Scooter was the winner of the 2023 World’s Ugliest Dog Competition. (Photo by Philip Pacheco/AFP Photo)

Canada's Jean-Simon Desgagnes competes in the men's 3000m steeplechase final of the Pan American Games Santiago 2023 at the National Stadium in Santiago, on November 4, 2023. (Photo by Martin Bernetti/AFP Photo)

Artturi Lehkonen #62 of the Colorado Avalanche scores against goalie Jake Allen #34 of the New Jersey Devils in the first period at Ball Arena on February 26, 2025 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images/AFP Photo)

In this photograph taken on September 1, 2024, a tea picker shows her hands whilst she reaps leaves at a plantation in Hatton. The backbone of the economy, Sri Lanka's tea pickers are determined to use their powerful vote to choose a president this month who will change grim working conditions for good. The pickers' main political party, the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), are backing the incumbent Wickremesinghe. (Photo by Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP Photo)

Police officers wield their batons against activists from various student unions during a protest march demanding jobs and better education facilities, in Kolkata, India, February 11, 2021. (Photo by Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters)