Radio
Ship Mi Amigo 1977 till 1980
3 photo's of the Mi Amigo on
17th December 1977.
Welcome
to The Mi Amigo 2 page, on here are pictures taken by Martin Wallice,
Nick Richards (who's now on Corks
96 FM) and myself which have layed unseen for over 26 years now. Thanks
to Martin for finding them. Please remember they are all copy righted.If
you wish to use them please email Roundsandsounds
The photo's we're all taken
between December 1977 and April 1980, they are in no year order. Before
you look at anymore, here is an article I wrote for Horizon
Mag about my time on the Mi Amigo
I
first went out to the Mi Amigo in December 1977 with Albert Hood on one
of his weekly sight seeing trips to the ship.
My first thoughts about the ship was it did look a bit rusty but seemed very stable with that almost 200 feet of radio mast at the front of the ship.
On that first trip I did not stay just going out to have a look, but I was hooked at that point thinking I want to work on the old girl at some stage.
I went out sight seeing on several occasions in 1978, finally going out with Albert to have a look at the ships generators in autumn of that year and staying on the ship.
That winter of 1978/79 the station was off air, but things on board at first were not too bad, we had one of the ships small generators running 24 hourd a day, and plenty of food. Water was the only thing we had to watch what we used.
That first trip I was on board for about 13 weeks, on board at the time was Tony Alan, Peter Chicago, Roger Matthews and Busby (Richard Thompson)
Early January 1979 I came ashore, and my time aboard the Mi Amigo almost came to an end then as mid Jan the ship was abandoned and almost sank in an Easterly Gale.
Peter Chicago managed to get a boat to go out to the Mi Amigo the next morning and got aboard before she was boarded a then could have been towed away by the authorities. Peter was on his own for over 24 hours when the likes of Mike Barrington, Tony Alan, Myself, and some other helpers went out with some new pumps for the ship.
The ship was in darkness when we got along side but she did seem to be riding the waves ok. Once onboard we set to work to get one of the ships generators running once again and start pumping the water out.
Water had come in from several leaks in the ships plates around the engine room at the stern of the ship. Some of us fixed them using concrete while the others on the ship set about clearing the cabins and the record libery and English studio below decks which had flooded to about half way up the starboard side. What made the mess worse was the water that seeped through the whole ship was mixed with oil and diesel.
After about 12 hours or so we had pumped the whole ship as dry as we could and from then on we set about washing all the records in fresh water that had been submerged in the oil etc, There was about 3000 of them that needed cleaning I remember Tony Alan did most of that, the rest of us started cleaning and re painting the cabins, record libery and the English Studio.
Trouble was at this time we had very little diesel, water or food on board, and only power for cooking, so about 2 hours a day, rest of the time the ship had no electric power. Our night lighting was with Hurricane lamps, they tended to go out well the deck ones did in storms, remember we are talking about February and March 1979 here and we did have some very bad weather at that time, around Valentines day we had one very bad North Easterly storm 10 to 11, but the ship held out ok, taking on water again but very little I'm glad to say.
Early April 1979 the weather was very good so we got to work on chipping and painting the deck housing and side of the ship.
We had been told to get the ship ready to go back on air around Easter 1979. Good Friday was very calm, but nothing came out to us and much the same on the Saturday, which I remember as being so calm 2 of us even went in for a swim. We had dinner that evening about 7 and we thought nothings going to happen this Easter now.
Then around 8ish we heard a ships hooter, we went out on deck and a rather large boat was coming along side, there I noticed Tom Hardy and Peter Chicago. Once Chicago came on Board he announced to us we were going back on air in the morning at 10am.
We just about had One good working Generator in the engine room which would run the 10kw TX but not the 50kw, and the Cummings on the back deck which was not one of the ships most reliable generators but would with a kick and shove some times work and that would power the 50kw ok.
Peters first attempt to put the TX on ended in a flash and bang and Peter saying 'Oh Bugger'. One cup of tea and a cake later and a little more cleaning inside the transmitter and we were back on air with Tony playing Fool if you think it's over.
That summer and autumn of 1979 things got better all the time on the ship with the Dutch service daytime and English service night time and in between the religious recorded shows which brought in a lot of money.
We had loads of food especially chickens that year as one of the owners of the Dutch service had a chicken factory.
There was talk late 1979 of the all day English service starting up again once the Man generators had been repaired, that was going to happen around March/April 1980 but as we know it was not to be. March 1980 and the old girl could hold out no more and sank just off the Long Sands in the North Sea.
My first thoughts about the ship was it did look a bit rusty but seemed very stable with that almost 200 feet of radio mast at the front of the ship.
On that first trip I did not stay just going out to have a look, but I was hooked at that point thinking I want to work on the old girl at some stage.
I went out sight seeing on several occasions in 1978, finally going out with Albert to have a look at the ships generators in autumn of that year and staying on the ship.
That winter of 1978/79 the station was off air, but things on board at first were not too bad, we had one of the ships small generators running 24 hourd a day, and plenty of food. Water was the only thing we had to watch what we used.
That first trip I was on board for about 13 weeks, on board at the time was Tony Alan, Peter Chicago, Roger Matthews and Busby (Richard Thompson)
Early January 1979 I came ashore, and my time aboard the Mi Amigo almost came to an end then as mid Jan the ship was abandoned and almost sank in an Easterly Gale.
Peter Chicago managed to get a boat to go out to the Mi Amigo the next morning and got aboard before she was boarded a then could have been towed away by the authorities. Peter was on his own for over 24 hours when the likes of Mike Barrington, Tony Alan, Myself, and some other helpers went out with some new pumps for the ship.
The ship was in darkness when we got along side but she did seem to be riding the waves ok. Once onboard we set to work to get one of the ships generators running once again and start pumping the water out.
Water had come in from several leaks in the ships plates around the engine room at the stern of the ship. Some of us fixed them using concrete while the others on the ship set about clearing the cabins and the record libery and English studio below decks which had flooded to about half way up the starboard side. What made the mess worse was the water that seeped through the whole ship was mixed with oil and diesel.
After about 12 hours or so we had pumped the whole ship as dry as we could and from then on we set about washing all the records in fresh water that had been submerged in the oil etc, There was about 3000 of them that needed cleaning I remember Tony Alan did most of that, the rest of us started cleaning and re painting the cabins, record libery and the English Studio.
Trouble was at this time we had very little diesel, water or food on board, and only power for cooking, so about 2 hours a day, rest of the time the ship had no electric power. Our night lighting was with Hurricane lamps, they tended to go out well the deck ones did in storms, remember we are talking about February and March 1979 here and we did have some very bad weather at that time, around Valentines day we had one very bad North Easterly storm 10 to 11, but the ship held out ok, taking on water again but very little I'm glad to say.
Early April 1979 the weather was very good so we got to work on chipping and painting the deck housing and side of the ship.
We had been told to get the ship ready to go back on air around Easter 1979. Good Friday was very calm, but nothing came out to us and much the same on the Saturday, which I remember as being so calm 2 of us even went in for a swim. We had dinner that evening about 7 and we thought nothings going to happen this Easter now.
Then around 8ish we heard a ships hooter, we went out on deck and a rather large boat was coming along side, there I noticed Tom Hardy and Peter Chicago. Once Chicago came on Board he announced to us we were going back on air in the morning at 10am.
We just about had One good working Generator in the engine room which would run the 10kw TX but not the 50kw, and the Cummings on the back deck which was not one of the ships most reliable generators but would with a kick and shove some times work and that would power the 50kw ok.
Peters first attempt to put the TX on ended in a flash and bang and Peter saying 'Oh Bugger'. One cup of tea and a cake later and a little more cleaning inside the transmitter and we were back on air with Tony playing Fool if you think it's over.
That summer and autumn of 1979 things got better all the time on the ship with the Dutch service daytime and English service night time and in between the religious recorded shows which brought in a lot of money.
We had loads of food especially chickens that year as one of the owners of the Dutch service had a chicken factory.
There was talk late 1979 of the all day English service starting up again once the Man generators had been repaired, that was going to happen around March/April 1980 but as we know it was not to be. March 1980 and the old girl could hold out no more and sank just off the Long Sands in the North Sea.
Now for the
pictures. The Ships Transmitters, she had 1 50kw and 2 10kw's
The Ship had 5 generators,
2 MAN V8's a Cummins all used to power the 50 and 10kw TX's. A Henshaw
that would power just the 10kw, and a very small emergency Honda for pumps
and lighting
In
the late 70's on the station we promoted the Caroline Roadshow which you
could go along to in many parts of the East and South Of the UK. The Roadshows
played to sell out crowds. The Station also had some very nice promotion
girls. For some reason they we're never sent out to the ship!
The
Mi Amigo was a small but very stable ship. but in Gale's she did used
to Rock'n'Roll just a little!
Some
pictures now of me on the air taken on the ship in 1979 while I was known
as Steven Bishop. I became Johnny Lewis when I started Working for Sunshine
Radio in Dublin in 1981.
Looking a bit younger then.
Now for 2 more pictures of the ship, and a North Sea sunset
In March 1980 during a North East storm the ships anchor snapped and she drifted onto the Long Sands off the Kent Coast and sank.
Here are some picture's taken of the wreck in March and April 1980
Sad
photo's. The Mast stayed up till summer 1985. Now to end this page just
a few newspaper cuttings about the ship and it's sinking as well
Got some more interesting
letters and paper cuttings still to come
I Got given some letters sent
out from Radio Caroline in the 60's, these have been given to me by my
good Late friend
Tim
Stewart. Tim's was a very keen supporter and listener of Caroline
for many years, and even came out to the Ross in 1985, he even had a pint
or 2 of the stations home brew beer GBH.
The Mi Amigo 30 years on re union took place in a
London pub on Saturday
10th March with about 30 of us who worked in one form or another the ship
from 1977 till she sank in March 1980.
Former colleagues from Holland Belgian Ireland and from all parts of the UK
attended, including James Ross, Mike Stevens, Tom Hardy, Stevie Gordon, Tom
Anderson, Kate Webb, From Holland Ad Roberts, Dick Verhaul, Marc Jacobs, and
many more.
We talked about the good old days and what the Mi Amigo meant to us, and our
times at sea.
Stories were swapped about what we are all doing now.
Some of us had not seen each other since the late 70's.
After the pub closed most of the guys headed off into London for a good old
curry.
Photo's taken by the assembled crew were swapped, many never before seen.
An idea to put our stories and the unseen photos into a new book to help
keep Radio Caroline on air was also suggested, so look out for that.
It will be worth every pound, or Euro
10th March with about 30 of us who worked in one form or another the ship
from 1977 till she sank in March 1980.
Former colleagues from Holland Belgian Ireland and from all parts of the UK
attended, including James Ross, Mike Stevens, Tom Hardy, Stevie Gordon, Tom
Anderson, Kate Webb, From Holland Ad Roberts, Dick Verhaul, Marc Jacobs, and
many more.
We talked about the good old days and what the Mi Amigo meant to us, and our
times at sea.
Stories were swapped about what we are all doing now.
Some of us had not seen each other since the late 70's.
After the pub closed most of the guys headed off into London for a good old
curry.
Photo's taken by the assembled crew were swapped, many never before seen.
An idea to put our stories and the unseen photos into a new book to help
keep Radio Caroline on air was also suggested, so look out for that.
It will be worth every pound, or Euro
Well
that's it for now, but I do have a few other bit's I'll be putting on
here later.If you have any memories of the Mi Amigo why not let me know
E-mail Roundsandsounds