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 Minion character dressed in a Christmas theme is pictured in Times Square during unseasonably warm weather on Christmas Eve in the Manhattan borough of New York, December 24, 2015. (Photo by Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

A traffic police officer directs vehicles at a street junction during sunset in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, August 25, 2016. (Photo by Dita Alangkara/AP Photo)

A person rides a swing hanging from a crane with hot air balloons fly in the background in Nevsehir, Turkey on October 14, 2021. Tourists and those who want to take photos set up swings on the cranes they rent and then have their photos taken in the setting created by hot air balloons in the backgrounds. (Photo by Behcet Alkan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Valeria Gonzalez Maidana of Paraguay performs in the final round of the first Budapest Ballet Grand Prix in the National Dance Theatre in Budapest, Hungary on November 23, 2023. The international ballet competition was launched by the Hungarian Dance University, a leading training facility of Hungarian professional dancers, to promote ballet and dance art in Hungary. The competition offers young dancers an opportunity to compete and gain exposure in the international dance scene, and provides scholarships and career opportunities for the most outstanding dancers. The event runs from 21 to 24 November. (Photo by Tamas Vasvari/EPA)

Visitors browse in the starry Art Museum. Shanghai, China, May 13, 2020. The exhibition hall uses a large number of mirror devices, combined with the layout of acousto-optic, to create a visual scene and spatial effect. (Photo by Costfoto/Barcroft Media via Getty Images)

Peerapong Butakul, a transgender person also known as “Bee”, waits backstage during a rehearsal ahead of the reopening of Tiffany's show after closing for almost three years due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Pattaya, Thailand on August 31, 2022. (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)

People smear black ash with hands onto each other to wish for good luck and fortune during a traditional festival of the Yi ethnic minority in Qiubei County, Yunnan province, China July 18, 2017. (Photo by Ren Dong/Reuters/CNS)