In the sixties Alec Fry was working for a photographic magazine. This entitled him to a Press Pass, of which he made full use.
In 1965 he approached Radio Caroline's management to ask if he could visit the Caroline South ship, the mv Mi Amigo, to take some pictures. They agreed.
At that time Caroline shared their tendering service with Radio London so personnel from that station feature in his photos too.
Alec was lucky with his timing. Not only was the sea as calm as a millpond that day but it was also the first (and only?) time that Caroline staff were invited aboard the Radio London ship, the mv Galaxy, and Alec was there to
capture the moment with his camera. The tender stopped there first before continuing on to the Mi Amigo.
His photos have never been published before and we are very grateful to him for allowing us to reproduce them here. Please note that these photos are all copyright Alec Fry and should not be used elsewhere without his permission.
Thanks to the brilliant detective work of correspondent Alan Field we now know that the photos were taken on Tuesday 9th March 1965. He says “the only clue is the front page of the Daily Mirror that Pete Brady is
reading in the pic halfway down the second page. I checked it against thumbnails of originals on the British Newspaper Archive website.” Many thanks to Alan.
Radio London's Dave Dennis climbing down the ladder onto the tender, Offshore I, in Harwich harbour.
Caroline engineer Joe Neal climbs down to Offshore I while the tender Captain steadies the ladder at the top and Radio London engineer Russell
Tollerfield does the same at the bottom. Thanks to George Saunders for identifying Joe.
Radio London's ship, mv Galaxy.
The tender tied up alongside the mv Galaxy.
Water and fuel being pumped aboard the Galaxy.
Dave Dennis hands his suitcase up to Mitch, the ship's steward. |
