_ H O O _ M A R I N A
The most interesting part of Hoo Marina (colony of houseboats, sailing barges and motor fishing vessels) in Hoo St Werburgh is sailing barge graveyard in the River Medway. They were used as transportation for locally sourced clay to the cement works. The lucky ones would have ended up in later life as houseboats. All the sailing barges rotting in the surrounding salt marsh were built more than hundred years ago. The most famous wreck buried in mud here is wooden Thames sailing barge Ena, one of the ships from Operation Dynamo, constructed in Harwich in 1906. This historic vessel was sailed out to Dunkirk on 31st May 1940 to help with the evacuation but her crew were forced to abandon her in deep waters. British troops without any sailing barge experience were able to board Ena and sail her back to the UK. 80 years later at the end of her life Ena lies abandoned and derelict in the River Medway.
