Radio Caroline at Sea
Curtain Call
Issue: 2 Date: 21st March 2012
A tender service in 1988 followed by the last pictures taken aboard the Ross Revenge in the ships final summer & last months at sea
1. The 'MV Caroline' 1964
From the original Radio Caroline ship the 'MV Caroline' ('Fredericia')
2. The 'MV Ross Revenge' oil painting by Peter Hudson 1990 depicting the lattice masts built at sea in early 1988
To the 'Ross Revenge' last few months as an Offshore station last moored around 14 miles North West of Margate at approximately 51 27'23" North 01 48' 49"
(On this visit 51 39' 85" N 01 33' 51" E)
The following photographs taken in the summer of 1988 on an engineering service call to correct a minor transmitter fault before the 1989 raid
3. The MV Ross Revenge Starboard side
With the loss of it's 300' mast on 24th November 1987 twin towers were erected at sea; the forward mast made from part of the ships cod liver oil pipe and aft a Versa Tower
4. Glyn Richards with videographer Nigel Harris
Above filming a documentary on Caroline
5. The MV Ross Revenge Starboard side
6. The MV Ross Revenge Port side
7. The MV Ross Revenge Port side
8. Tender approach starboard side of MV Ross Revenge
9. The late Dave 'the fish' Turner owner skipper of R11 'Fairwind' (Ramsgate) last of the ships tenders
New mast sections on deck having been transported to the Kent coast by means foul and fair were then shipped out on 'Fairwind'
10. How things have changed the shambles of the engineers work bench
Transmitters to the left Generator room door right
11. 50 KW RCA Ampliphase AM Transmitter
12. 10 KW RCA AM Transmitters
13. TX Cable runs
The minor transmitter fault fixed, the station returned to the air
14. MAN AC Generators
15. MAN AC Generators
16. Looking forward from rear deck at Versa Tower
A third fibre glass mast was added on the stern behind the Versa Tower but this proved to be useless
17. From fo'c'sle (Forecastle)
18. Looking along Starboard side
The ship was raided and stripped of her TX & Studio gear on 19th August 1989 by Dutch & UK authorities, she returned on 1st October 1990 using a collection of bits and pieces cobbled together
19. Dutch studio
20. Dave the fish with Antenna sections
That sign again - 'Take that Invicta'
21. 'Fairwind' from the bridge wing
22. Leaving the ship ...
23. ... to continue a little longer
24. Intact for now
From here on it kicks up rough .....
The second series of photographs taken during the last summer & final time at sea before what was to be the final closedown from the Offshore station on 5th November 1990
25. Looking like Mike Watts it's actually Paul Johnson on aft deck
The last closedown was on 5th November 1990 but the ship stayed at sea, tendering continued from 'Fairwind', 'Dreamboat Annie', RiB & what we'd became known as the 'Whitstable Navy' throughout 1990 & 1991
26. Stashed drink supplies
27 & 28. Ross Revenge Port side & with the station off off air, playing around on the mast
29 & 30. Deck view & a breather from a spot of painting
31. Ships mast from forward antenna mast
32. Deck view from bridge
33. Olau Hollandia
34. Port side
35 & 36. South Falls Head at its worst - rough
37. Port roll
38. Ross Revenge portside in choppy sea
The Ross was cruelly snatched from her mooring on 19th November 1991, grounding but miraculously surviving the Goodwin Sands
Salvaged she was towed into Dover Harbour (Granville Dock)
39. Aground on the Goodwin Sands the crew are rescued by RAF Helicopter
40. Battle Ship
The Government had been trying to blow the ship out of the water for four decades, but it was the elements that dealt the final blow
The Ross Revenge a Short History & Specification
The Ross Revenge was built in 1960 by AG Weser' Werk, Seebeck, Bremerhaven, West Germany
Named M.V Freyr owned by the Icelandic Fishing Company Isbjorninn the trawler M.V Freyr could accommodate a crew of up to seventy
The ocean going ship has a range of around 12,000 miles suitable for the worlds seas
Sold to Ross Fisheries in 1963 she was converted & ice strengthened as a side trawler: Fishing No GY718 & renamed Ross Revenge she saw action during the 'Cod Wars' with Iceland during 1978
The Ross Revenge was sold on to Silas Victor Oates in 1979 to be converted to a motor salvage ship registered in Guernsey Channel Islands working until 1981
Destined for the scrap heap she was found languishing in Cairn ryan breakers yard West Coast six miles from Stranraer, Scotland
31/12/10 - The breakers
yard at Cairnryan was a former major military port during the war which was
built to serve the Atlantic traffic just in case Liverpool or the South coast
ports were put out of action by enemy bombing. The village accommodated armed
and civilian personnel some 10,000 strong
During the late fifties cargoes of disused ammunition were ferried to Cairnryan
by rail (it had its own military railway line), loaded onto very old ships
which were no more than hulks, and then towed by tug to Beaufort's Dyke between
Ireland and the Isle of Man where the ships, laded with explosives, were sunk..
Some fifty years later boxes of explosives started to appear on the shores
of Western Scotland. So much for the environment!! The press reported that
the post war activities at Cairnryan were the best kept secrets of that time.
Nonsense! Living in Cairnryan they should have asked us, for back then at
six years of age, we knew exactly what was going on! - Tom Lees
Ernst Kunz from Austria a director of Seamore Company, Liechtenstein brokered the ship to the Grotham Steamship Line, SA Panama for £28,500 who amended the vessel to a floating radio station in Santander, Spain in 1982
Said to become the M.V Imagine, after the John Lennon classic song, she boasted a single lattice 310' antenna said to be the tallest mast ever fixed to a ship, later replaced by twin 110' masts to take a conventional washing-line array
Anchoring in the International Waters of the Knock Deep the M.V Ross Revenge recommenced broadcasts as Radio Caroline spending almost 8 years at sea
Ship Specification:
Call sign Golf Mike India Uniform, from 1982 HP-4344
Registration from 1982: 9625 - Poxt
Fitted with direction echo sounding device-radar
Length 221'8", 67.61 Meters
Beam 34'01", 10.39 Metres
Draught 18', 5.49 Metres
Gross tonnage 978
Net Tonnage 428
Deadweight 578
Main Engine NV Werkspoor 2050 BHP Diesel oil 4SA 10 cylinder 390 x 680 with hydraulic coupling & variable pitch propeller
Fuel & Water bunker 200 tons each
Top speed just over 16 Knots
Ships: Two 6 Cylinder Deutz 250 KVA DC Generators
One 3 cylinder MWM 30 KVA DC Generators
Emergency: One 2 Cylinder Lister 5 KVA Generator
One 6 Cylinder P6 Perkins KVA AC Generator
Broadcast: Two 6 Cylinder turbo charged MAN 175 KVA AC Generators
One V12 Twin Turbo charged MAN 500 KVA AC Generator
Emergency: One 4 Cylinder Perkins 20 KVA Generator
Transmission: One 50 KW RCA Ampliphase AM Broadcast Transmitter (serial # 101)
Two 10 KW RCA AM Broadcast Transmitters (one was used for Short Wave)
Oban Optimod signal processing from main studio
With thanks to Captain Graham, Lloyds Ship Register, Terry Vacani, John & Paul Johnson for their contributions to this feature
See tribute to Dave 'the fish' Turner