HERE we go with more flashbacks than a reversible torch, and this week in our time machine we're going back to the late 1960's, when Mary Hopkin told us, "Those were the days" and Hugo Montenegro's Orchestra and Chorus described us as ..."The Good, the Bad and the Ugly ."
I will leave you decide which category you were in, as we ease gently into the opening item.
This week, in TRM Trawler Corner, we're remembering the steel sided trawler, Dicketa LT 463, built in 1966, in Hessle, Yorkshire..174 tons..89'..a vessel that was owned by W.H. Kerr (Ships Chandlers) , Skippered by Bruno Linke, and landed at Milford from May 1966 until 1970.
One thing I've learned from writing these little pieces over the years is that a trawlerman's life was never dull, and no two trips were ever the same, be it because of the mood swings of the weather, or the "surprise packages" that were often hauled up in the nets.
These two cuttings from the Irish Times prove my point.
July 1967. "When the British trawler Dicketa was operating off Tuskar Rock lighthouse off the Wexford coast, a member of her crew, Mr John McGoff, of Milford Haven, was stung in the hand by a poisonous fish, the lesser weaver, (see pic of the fish) which had been hauled up in the net. The trawler landed Mr McGoff and he was taken to Wexford County Hospital and detained."
And then from April 1968. "Two pieces of metal wreckage picked up in the nets of the Milford Haven trawler Dicketa were passed to the naval corvette L.E Macha and landed at Rosslare Harbour for examination. Aer Lingus announced last night that one of the pieces was 8" by 3" and the other 3" by 2". They said they were picked up about 10 miles East of Tuskar Rock lighthouse.
They were painted red on one side and on the other grey with a red stripe. Captain Jack Miller, Aer Lingus P.R.O said following a preliminary investigation, it seems most unlikely that the pieces were part of the crashed Viscount.
All day yesterday the sea/air search for the 39 bodies still missing was continued.
(Aer Lingus Flight 712 crashed en route from Cork to London on 24/3/1968, killing 61 passengers and crew. The plane a Viscount 803 named St Phelim crashed into the sea off Tuskar Rock. Although the investigation into the crash lasted 2 years, a cause was never determined."
As well as a pic of the Dicketa, here is also one of the doomed Flight 712 Viscount.
And sticking with the late 1960's, I am adding an extra pic this week, it is of the Dick Hampton gang who worked on the Gulf rail line, which Richard Watts wrote about a few months ago. Richard kindly provided the photo and these names.
BACK ROW: Ernie Bolton, Jackie Phillips, Site Engr; SECOND ROW: Brian Thomas, Eddie Matthias, Alan Rees. THIRD ROW: Jock Hatt, Fitter, Brian Jenkins, Bobby Curtis, Pat Molloy.
FRONT ROW: Norman Williams, Jack Llewellyn, Danny Sullivan, Ganger. Dennis Giles, Foreman, Ron Bowen, Steve Lamb, "Big Jim" McAllister, Raymond Warlow, Site Fitter, Howard Charmaigne.
Now for our teasers. Five letter words beginning and ending in H. I reckon there are only 8
in the dictionary (someone is sure to tell me if I am wrong), hutch, harsh, hatch, heath, hunch, humph, hooch and hitch. A few gave me HORAH and HAIGH, but they are not in my dictionary.
Here are the scores: Joyce Layton - 8, Margaret Jones - 7, Anne and Jets Llewellyn - 7, John Glover – 6, Elinor Jones - 6. Thanks to all who took time out to tell me.
No poser this week, back in a fortnight.
I will finish with a huge thank you for the amazing response to last week's TRM, and Pill's Brian Phillips' incredible Rath pool model. So many loved it, including the delightful Veronica Burgoyne, who rang to say what wonderful memories it brought back.
And with that, I bid thee farewell 'til the next one.
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