A piece of WW2 history brought to life thanks to a ‘Victory 80’ award

The Museum’s Boatbuilding Workshop is currently a hive of activity with our team busy building a replica of a WWII S.N.2 Special Operations Executive (SOE) boat. With the generous support of a ‘Victory 80’ award, we can now further explore and document the people involved, uncover more about the role the boats played during the war, and reveal Cornwall’s connections to clandestine missions. The award was funded by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and awarded by Museum Development South West with thanks to support from Arts Council England.

During the second world war the Helford River was a critical launching point for daring SOE missions into occupied France. Brave operatives would navigate small boats to within a kilometre of enemy coastlines, before being rowed ashore aboard the S.N.2 to inhospitable beaches, delivering crucial supplies to the French Resistance.

The S.N.2 replica is being built using original plans discovered at the National Maritime Museum Greenwich. The design features an innovative cold-moulded, double diagonal construction that was cutting-edge technology for its time. This innovative building style was made possible by the development of new adhesives and used in both boat and aircraft construction of the time, to produce lightweight and extremely rigid forms.

The generous grant received from ‘Victory 80’ will help us in the following ways:

Allow us to share the story with more people

The completed boat will be brought out of the Museum to go on public display during major Falmouth events such as the Sea Shanty Festival, Falmouth Classics and the Oyster Festival. During these events attendees can meet the team behind the build and find out more about the boat and the operations it would have performed, allowing us to share this fascinating story more widely.

Uncover more about the people involved in the WWII special operations

We will capture the history of the people involved through their families by carrying out an oral history project. We’ll capture and collect ‘family memories’ of the SOE operations in the Helford and Falmouth area, enriching future exhibitions and kept within the Museum’s archives for researchers and historians.

Create a touring exhibition

The research from the oral history project will form the basis of a temporary exhibition held within the Museum in 2026. Our ambition is for the exhibition to tour so we can further share the stories we’ve captured and the memories we’ve unearthed.

We’re not stopping here! We have other exciting plans for the boat so keep an eye out on our social media channels to find out more.

We would like to thank the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Museum Development South West and Arts Council England for enabling us to fully explore and tell this fascinating Cornish story.