TV historian’s attempt to rescue stranded Britons thwarted by French

A Dunkirk-style rescue mission launched by television presenter Dan Snow to bring stranded travellers home from France was scuppered by French officials. The historian and transatlantic adventurer set out across the English Channel on Sunday morning with a fleet of speedboats to help those effected by flight cancellations.

Many Eurostar services are sold out and ferry firms have been inundated, with passengers queueing for up to three hours to secure foot passenger tickets. Mr Snow, 31, who last year presented a documentary on the Little Ships of Dunkirk, invited stranded Britons via Twitter to reserve a place on his boats.

He had planned to run a continuous ferry service back to Dover throughout Sunday – a 40 minute trip across the 26 mile stretch of the English Channel. Any profits would go to the Help for Heroes charity. But French officials only allowed him to use three boats to rescue 25 people.



Arriving back in Dover, Snow said he was "disappointed" to have left so many people behind. "The French shut us down – it's a real shame. I'm really a bit disappointed and feel bad for all the people we left behind.

"I got a lot of text messages saying 'where are you? We are at the rendezvous point'. I feel really sad about that."

Asked why the operation had been halted, Snow said: "They didn't like the idea of all those RIBs turning up and taking Brits back. They just told us they didn't like us doing it and said it was bad competition for the ferries."

There's a news video here.