When I wrote "The Mi Amigo was dry-docked again in March 1968, for reasons that have never been made clear, or at whose expense" (sorry about typo before) I didn't mean the physical reason, but the reasoning behind further costs in dry-docking, adding to already unpaid debts.
Who ordered this work.. Wijsmuller, the US owners? I always wondered. And for what reason? A potential sale?
Always wondered why Bollier and Meister didn't show interest when the Galaxy deal fell through. There was a far better main transmitter and antenna system on the Mi Amigo than on the Galaxy, and on the Mebo II come to that. 
Previous Message
Ian, I expect the owning companies of the ships were dissolved, as soon as these problems appeared. Tends to be the usual behaviour - builders of dodgy homes often do it, then set up again with a new company.
No doubt Ronan was hoping to blag some money out of new backers in 1968 - of course this did not happen, he had to wait until after the Auction of the ships, to re-gain ownership of the Mi Amigo.
But yes, it would be interesting to know why the Mi amigo was dry-docked in 1968 - perhaps to do with the area of the ship that was lengthened around the engine room area - interestingly, it was this area that sprung lots of leaks in the late 1970s - perhaps inferior steel was used? Or the welding was sub-standard?
Peter Moore, any ideas about all this? Previous Message
I notice Ronan says "the ships have been at sea continuously for three years". Well I suppose that is a numeric average.
In fact the Mi Amigo has been at sea for two years after dry-docking in 1966 and the Fredericia (Caroline) for at least four years, with its last dry-docking unknown but no later than 1963.
The Mi Amigo was dry-docked again in March 1968, for reasons that have never been made clear, or at whose expence.
It is assumed at this point the Americans were still owners and that they would have been liable for harbour dues via Wijsmuller.
It is not known if/when this ended, with the sale in 1972 probably that of an abandoned vessel.
Unless anyone knows better. Previous Message
Just found out one of my newspaper archive accounts allows me to clip and share clippings publicly.
Radio Caroline ships towed into Amsterdam 04 Mar 1968, Mon Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com Previous Message
Well, my memories of March 3rd 1968 are zero, but I would like to contribute with memories of a few years later.
I had been listening to the offshore stations for around a year and a half when on August 31st 1974 RNI, Atlantis and Veronica left the air. The latter I heard only the one time but Atlantis and RNI were regulars for me. My home on the west coast of Scotland was something of a radio wilderness with no landbased pirates that I could easily hear on medium wave and a parochial sounding ILR station.
As a 12 year old my musical tastes were developing rapidly and thats where post MoA Caroline came in. I had never been a big Caroline fan during the Mike Hagler era. As mentioned elsewhere I probably didn't "get it" due to my young age. However after the Mi Amigo returned to England the programmes seemed to become more commercial with the likes of Tony Allan and Dave Owen. I remember loads of Barclay James Harvest, Stevie Wonder and of course, George Harrison.
I don't remember being that upset when RNI went, I think due to the fact that all the talk pre closedown was that "we will be back". I assumed that I would be able to listen to the new RNI from Italy at least on short wave.
I also remember being excited about the news that Atlantis was due to return just before Christmas.
Of course neither station returned as had been predicted so Caroline and Mi Amigo were my listening choices thereafter.
Message Thread | This response ↓ 
March 3rd 1968 - Freddie Archer 2/3/2023, 12:25:11
« Back to index
on 6/3/2023, 13:32:48, in reply to "