In Whitby Harbour, in the summer of 1991, something extraordinary happened. A humble pleasure boat set sail for the Arctic, crewed by misfits, pensioners and the vicar for Egton and Grosmont.

This motley crew was assembled for a daring mission: to erect a plaque honouring the legendary Whitby whaler and explorer Captain William Scoresby Senior on a volcanic island hundreds of miles north of Iceland. The boat was illegal, the crew untrained and the plan... unhinged.

A joyful, (mostly) true story of British eccentricity and determination, Bea Roberts's play The Whitby Rebels premiered at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, in 2024, directed by Paul Robinson.

'You can see why the true-life story of the Helga Maria put playwright Bea Roberts in mind of an Ealing comedy. It is a tale of British pluck, high-seas adventure and small-town amateurism as a group of misfits comes together to achieve the impossible' — Guardian