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)

Turbines of the new Burbo Bank off shore wind farm lay in the wake of a maintenance boat in the mouth of the River Mersey on May 12, 2008 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Workers repair a damaged road, in the aftermath of an earthquake, near Anamizu, Japan on January 3, 202. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

Pakistani youths cool off in a stream during hot weather on the outskirts of Islamabad on April 29, 2016. Pakistan's Meteorological Department has forecast hot and dry weather in most parts of the country with the highest temperatures recorded at 41 celsius in the southern Sindh province. (Photo by Aamir Qureshi/AFP Photo)

A man carrying vegetables is stopped by police at a barricade on a road during a 21-day nationwide lockdown to limit the spreading of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Chennai, India, March 25, 2020. (Photo by P. Ravikumar/Reuters)

Revellers react in a water fight during Songkran Festival celebrations, in Hong Kong, China on April 9, 2023. (Photo by Lam Yik/Reuters)

In this August 31, 2017, photo, mock fish are displayed to offer to the ancestors during the “Hungry Ghost Festival” in Hong Kong. Countless hungry and restless ghosts are roaming Hong Kong, and the world, to visit their living ancestors, at least according to Chinese convention. In traditional Chinese belief, the seventh month of the lunar year is reserved for the Hungry Ghost festival, or Yu Lan, a raucous celebration marked by feasts and music. (Photo by Kin Cheung/AP Photo)

A mother reacts as she pleads with police to allow her daughter to pass a checkpoint for cancer treatment after she arrived from Hubei province at the Jiujiang Yangtze River Bridge in Jiujiang, China, February 1, 2020. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)