Note: The images are stills from the 1940 film Contraband, which featured H.M.S. Fervent during her involvement in Contraband Control—the searching of neutral vessels for any goods bound for Germany. They are part of just a handful of images and film that capture Ramsgate's harbour during wartime.

The images also depict the Eagle Café, which was requisitioned shortly before the outbreak of war. Both the café and the East Pier, also shown, were in constant use throughout the evacuation, as explained below.

Within the former Eagle Cafe, which had been requistioned prior to the outbreak of war, at the end of the East Pier, a sub-routing office and chart depot were established. During the operation, they provided approximately 1,000 charts to vessels—around 600 of which had the routes pre-marked for those without parallel rules, dividers, or, in some cases, even pencils—alongside roughly 500 sets of routing instructions.

During the evacuation, three routes were used by vessels. The shortest, Route Z (39 nautical miles), followed the French coast but exposed ships to bombardment during the day. Route X (55 nautical miles), although safer from surface attacks, passed through heavily mined waters and could not be used at night. The longest, Route Y (87 nautical miles), took longer and had the highest risk of attack from German vessels and aircraft. It followed the French coast before heading north-east and then turning west to Britain.

A member of the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS), Dorothy Pascoe, was involved in the replication of these charts. She was recommended for an award at the end of the operation by Ramsgate’s Senior Naval Officer and Commanding Officer of HMS Fervent, Captain Phillimore. Following the evacuation, he wrote:

‘This WREN is the Secretary’s assistant and she remained on duty night after night with very little sleep, attending to typing, duplication, and issuing of all operational orders—besides, during the day, performing her routine work. Sailing orders for vast numbers of craft, with maps of Dunkirk Harbour quays, were produced on the duplicator and issued to vessels taking part. She had to be forcibly sent home in the early hours of each morning.’

A provisions store was also established at the Eastern Pierhead, staffed by two naval ratings and supported by a working party who remained on duty day and night for seven days. A motor launch was moored alongside to deliver provisions to vessels unable to berth directly in the harbour.

At this point in the harbour’s history, visiting vessels had to moor directly alongside the harbour walls and pier arms. Crews and service personnel were required to climb up and down ladders to board or disembark. Wounded personnel were hoisted out of vessels on stretchers—particularly the Neil Robertson type, designed for extracting casualties from confined spaces on board, such as engine rooms.