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)

US marines watch the mushroom cloud from an atomic explosion rise above the Yucca flats, Nevada during a US nuclear weapons test. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images). USA, 1945

Astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. walks near the Lunar Module during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity July 20, 1969 on the Moon. (Photo by NASA/Newsmakers)

Japan's delegation gather to sign the formal surrender document on the U.S. Navy battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay in a September 2, 1945 file photo. (Photo by Reuters/US Navy)

English-French actress Jane Birkin shopping with a basket bag in Paris on June 4, 1970. (Photo by WATFORD/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images)

Retired 90 year old Frank Foss of St. Petersburg, Florida, with his home made banjo, made from a frying pan, a length of wood and some strings. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images). 2nd July 1972

In this composite image Actress Sophie Marceau has an embarrassing moment as her top falls down while she enters a screening of “Where the Truth Lies” at the Grand Theatre during the 58th International Cannes Film Festival May 13, 2005 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

Sally Rand dances on a beach in St. Petersburg, Florida, February 17, 1936. (Photo by AP Photo)