Hans Knot has passed on this letter sent to a listener by the Captain of the Radio Caroline South ship, the mv Mi Amigo, in 1965. He says: “In 2019 I received a number of boxes of clippings,
photos, notebooks, letters, posters, stickers and so on, all related to maritime history. They included a letter sent by the then captain of the mv Mi Amigo, Captain Visscher, to Ate Harsta in Leeuwarden on 26th of February
1965.”
For those of us who don't understand Dutch, Hans has kindly translated the letter:
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26 February 1965.
Dear Caroline fan!
I can only now find an opportunity to reply to your letter of 13 December 1964! I myself only received your letter at the end of January when I had 14 days leave. In the meantime I have returned and provided your address for membership
(of the Caroline Club). I don't have a picture of the ship, only details of the disc-jockeys, which I include here.
Caroline has no night-time broadcasts. It has 7 (Dutch) crew members, 2 (English) transmitter technicians and 4-5 disc-jockeys of various nationalities, from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and England.
There are two Caroline ships. The very first one (the ship's name is also Caroline) where we started, was at Harwich and is now at the Isle of Man as Radio Caroline North. It has 9 Dutch crew members and two Swedish transmitter
technicians. We hear very little about them.
The other one, Caroline South, the ship's name Mi Amigo, is the smaller and is now at Harwich, Frinton to be precise, and that's the one that can be heard in Holland and Belgium. Very early on we were on the air as ‘Atlanta’,
that was in May 1964. Shortly after that it became Caroline South and the first ‘Caroline’ went north, the Isle of Man. Close to us is also the ship Galaxy, an old American minesweeper, which serves as a radio ship (Radio
London). Although I don't know much about radio and music or fans myself, I thought ‘let me answer this letter’ and send it with what I have of Caroline stuff.
With greetings,
A. Visscher.
P.S. After more than a year, 13 months working on these radio ships, I got a Caroline pin badge just last week which I am enclosing with this.
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This is a Caroline pin badge similar to the one sent to Ate by the Captain. Photo courtesy of Colin Nicol.
Among the other papers and items of memorabilia that Ate Harsta passed to Hans Knot were some early Caroline and Atlanta charts. You can find them here (and following pages).
With thanks to Hans and Ate.
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