HOW RON HAD THAT SINKING FEELING

                                                    “Do we really have time for a toast?”

 

 You wouldn’t know it at first glance, but this original cartoon by Brian Thomas* was his fun take on a major drama in Carrick Roads in 1959, when the Mitera Marigo was the last ship to sink in that stretch of water. I recalled the event in a Falmouth Packet column in 2012 and reproduced the piece below, together with the cartoon, in my book REFLECTIONS, published in aid of Cancer Research, two years later.   

 

Memories of the last ship to sink in Carrick Roads were stirred when I caught up with Ron Hicks, former Falmouth Mayor (1986-87) and long-serving Customs officer.

 

Ron, now living in Fowey, celebrates his 90^th birthday next month and I’m ghost-writing his autobiography.  Here’s the extract recalling that sinking feeling during the last moments of the Greek freighter Mitera Marigo (9,200 gross tons) in May, 1959.

 

“The Mitera Marigo had been in collision with the German freighter Fritz Thyssen and had moored to the Cross Roads Buoy in the Carrick Roads . . .  but it wasn´t long before she was taking on too much water for the ship to handle. 

 

“I was with colleague Ron Batten and initially we did the normal boarding routine, but it was very apparent that the vessel was sinking. 

 

“The ship’s steward came on the scene and asked us if we would like a drink.  I said:  ‘Yes, please, there’s just time for a drink, and then the ship will sink!’  ‘WHAT?’ he replied.  At this, everyone made for the lifeboats. 

 

“When we got back out on deck to re-board the customs launch Mongoose, we found her floating at a higher level than we were!  Ron and I were almost the last off.  We motored around the bow and then began to head back to Falmouth.  

 

“It was dark now and I put a searchlight onto that bow as it went down.  Then, approaching from the other direction, I heard an authoritative voice shouting:  ‘Keep the light on her.’  

 

“It was Captain Frank Edwards, the Harbour Master.  The only problem was – there was by now no longer a bow to keep that searchlight on.  ‘SHE’S SUNK!’ I shouted back.” 

 

* I am reproducing extracts from REFLECTIONS – the columns and cartoons – on an occasional basis throughout this year to mark the 10^th anniversary of my retirement and the start of my fund-raising for Cancer Research UK. To date, I have donated around £25,000 to the charity from the sale of my books and, latterly, my paintings.

 

For previous extracts from Reflections, see blog dated December 30, January 12 and 26, February 27, March 16.