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)

A member of Kun Seng Keng Lion and Dragon Dance Association, demonstrates a dance with an ox mask designed for Lunar New Year at a training centre, during an interview with Reuters, in Muar, Malaysia on February 5, 2021. (Photo by Lim Huey Teng/Reuters)

A Sadhu or a Hindu holy man sits on the banks before taking a holy dip at Sangam, the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers with the mythical, invisible Saraswati river, during the “Maha Kumbh Mela”, or the Great Pitcher Festival, in Prayagraj, India, on January 13, 2025. (Photo by Adnan Abidi/Reuters)

People paly with fireworks during Parrandas de Camajuani, Cuba on March 22, 2025. Two neighborhoods of the city, San Jose, represented by a toad, and Santa Teresa, represented by a goat, fight with carnival shows that involve the whole town in a party with bands, huge floats and fireworks. The Parrandas de Camajuani with more than 130 years, are recognized as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity since 2018. (Photo by Yamil Lage/AFP Photo)

Alaa Shabat lives with her six children in a tent erected inside the Austrian cemetery in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on November 13, 2025, after her husband became ill and unable to work. (Photo by Tariq Mohammad/APAImages/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Forest guards chase away a rhino that strayed into a residential area after floods forced animals to escape the Kaziranga National park in Nagaon district, in the northeastern state of Assam, August 15, 2017. (Photo by Anuwar Hazarika/Reuters)

A woman collects water from a stream outside the village of Tsemera in Ethiopia's northern Amhara region, February 13, 2016. (Photo by Katy Migiro/Reuters)