Radio Caroline North DJ Martin Kayne was on shore leave when his station was towed away:

MARTIN KAYNE, RADIO CAROLINE NORTH

During February 1968 things on board seemed very normal. Despite some quite frightening storms the Offshore 3 tender was by now reaching us every other week with sufficient fuel, food and a changeover of radio staff and marine crew. What passed for normal at the time was disc-jockeys doing four hour long shows or reading the news all day and doing the final show from 6 to 8pm, so little time existed to get bored. Recreation was watching TV, our only contact with the outside world, plus reading fan mail and drinking the odd bottle of Heineken. I am certain nobody aboard knew anything about the impending events of March 3rd until the scenario unfolded. I had left on shore leave just a few days earlier with every intention of returning to catch the tender at Dundalk in a fortnight's time. It was while at my mother's flat in Camberwell in London, I was made aware of a TV report showing the Mi Amigo being towed from its anchorage. The following morning the news broke that both ships were being towed, possibly to Amsterdam. Sadly the rest is now history, but I still think the stand against the closure of the offshore stations without a realistic commercial alternative was well worth making, even if it did risk British nationals facing the possibility of a heavy fine or imprisonment for their endeavours.   The inevitable question is why did I join Radio Caroline with the explicit intention of defying the government and the law? Well I was nothing more than a young radio anorak and the opportunity to become an offshore pirate seemed irresistible. After a stint with Radio Essex on Knock John fort I later found myself working with the legendary Tony Windsor at Radio 355. I enjoyed this marine broadcasting life so much I never really wanted it to stop. So joined Radio Caroline North, even though I was more of a middle-of-the-road presenter than a rock DJ. Nevertheless the audience appreciation of the ‘Continuing Voice of Free Radio’ was absolutely incredible. I wouldn't have missed it for the world!

Martin Kayne hosting a somewhat atypical Caroline show of music from stage and screen at lunchtime on Christmas Day 1967. This is an edited version of a recording shared on The Offshore Radio Club Forum by Paul de Haan. Our thanks to him (duration 3 minutes 45 seconds)

The last DJ to present a show on Radio Caroline South was Andy Archer. He has kindly given us permission to reprint this extract from his memoirs:

ANDY ARCHER, RADIO CAROLINE SOUTH

The closure of Radio Caroline in March 1968 was both swift and unexpected. I presented the last programme on the station “sitting in” for Carl Mitchell who was on shore leave. His show was the only one on the station which was at the cutting edge of the music of the day with no requirement to play plug records. It was a joy to be given the freedom to play the likes of Vanilla Fudge, Buffalo Springfield, The Doors, Velvet Underground and Tim Hardin. After the show, I drank a couple of beers with Johnnie in the messroom before going to bed.   Just after five o'clock an ocean going tug, The Titan, tied up alongside of the Mi Amigo. Its captain, accompanied by three heavily built no-nonsense Dutch sailors, leapt on board and handed Captain Perdok a letter from Mr Eissenloeffel of the Wijsmuller Tug Company. They were under orders to tow the Mi Amigo to Amsterdam for what the letter described as “essential repairs and a full inspection of the ship's hull to establish seaworthiness”. The Titan's captain had obviously been well briefed on the layout of the ship. After a brief conversation with our captain, he went to both studios and clumsily removed the microphones. Roger Day, who was in the studio preparing his breakfast show was given a few minutes to clear the studio of any personal effects before the door was padlocked. The duty radio engineer Ray Glennister was then ordered to switch off the transmitter. With the exception of Roger, the rest of the disc jockeys were fast asleep in our bunks unaware of what was going on above. It was Tex the cook who woke us all up and told us to make our way to the messroom. Half asleep, my initial thoughts were that there must be some sort of emergency. Little did I realize the gravity of it. We were told in no uncertain terms that we were to remain in the messroom or our cabins below deck until we arrived in Amsterdam. Just after 7 o'clock, an engineer on board The Titan severed our anchor chain using an oxyacetylene torch. Within minutes we were being towed away from our mooring in the direction of the Dutch coast. It was a very misty morning and visibility was down to about a couple of hundred metres which made it impossible for “Uncle Bill” (shore contact Bill Scadden) or anyone else on land noticing what had happened and raise the alarm. The perfect conditions for a hijacking.   We discussed the possibility of one of us creeping up to the bridge out of sight of the two ‘heavies’ that had remained on board and alert Uncle Bill on the ship-to-shore radio. Although sympathetic, Captain Perdok reminded us that he was under direct orders to make sure we remained indoors. Throughout the voyage across the North Sea, we all took turns monitoring the BBC's radio stations and Hilversum 3 to find out if our departure had made the news bulletins. We had no inkling at the time that the Wijsmullers had efficiently achieved a double-whammy. Our sister ship the Fredericia had succumbed to the same fate. Radio Caroline North was also undertow and she too was heading for an uncertain future. It was only when we arrived at the port of IJmuiden in the early evening and continued our journey along the Noordzeekanaal into Amsterdam to the amazement of passers-by that the news was finally broken. When we came to a halt in the Houthaven, we were boarded by police officers and customs officials who examined and stamped our passports. Upon hearing the news, Robbie Dale*, Stella and Nan had raced from the office to be on hand for our arrival. Robbie then explained the reasoning behind it all. He had just spoken on the telephone with Arthur Wijsmuller. To our surprise, we learned of colossal unpaid bills amounting to over £30,000 to the tender company, which had simply been ignored by Ronan O'Rahilly and Philip Solomon.   The British government under Harold Wilson had done everything within their powers to silence Radio Caroline and had failed. It was sadly ironic that it should be finally silenced as a result of our management's bad business practice.     * Webmaster's note: Andy remembers Robbie Dale meeting the Mi Amigo in Amsterdam. Could he be mistaken about this? As we have seen, Robbie and Stella were in Spain at the time and only found out about the closure from Johnnie Walker's telegram, sent after the ship had docked.

Andy Archer sitting in for Carl Mitchell on the midnight-2am show early on Sunday 18th February 1968 (duration 2 minutes 41 seconds)

Roger Day was just about to go on air with the Caroline South Breakfast Show when the boarding party arrived:

ROGER DAY, RADIO CAROLINE SOUTH

My memories of March 3rd:   Doing my usual pre show ritual. Shave, shower, etc. when a tug came alongside. Nothing unusual in that, they often came alongside to have a drink with the Dutch crew. When I asked what they were up to they said ‘we are towing you to Japan!’ The usual insults were exchanged and I headed for the studio. I think it was engineer Don in the studio who played back to back music 5.00 to 5.30.   Sat in the air chair and was about to play The Fortunes (theme) when the Mi Amigo captain and the tug captain came in to the studio and told me to stop broadcasting. When asked why, they said we are towing you to Holland. I asked could I announce to the listeners what was happening and they forcibly said no. To this day I regret not just opening the mic and saying we need help out here. It would have been worth a broken nose.   So the transmitter was turned off and I woke the other guys who were mostly asleep.   Then the tug attached tow ropes and they cut the anchor chain. Think that was the moment I knew we weren't coming back. If we were, they would have put it on a marker buoy.   Many tears were shed on the trip to Holland as we knew the dream was over. On arrival we all got paid and given an air ticket back to the UK.   I still wonder why, if we were in financial trouble, we didn't mention it on air. I'm sure the listeners would have sent donations to keep us going.

With many thanks to Martin, Andy and Roger.
 
More memories of March 1968 over the page.
 
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