Island Life Magazine Ltd April / May 2016 | Page 31

INTERVIEW

“A coach took us
to ESSO House in
London where we
were paid off in
wads of £1 notes…
I felt rich!”

Tony’s current project

it was like a giant roller coaster” he says.
“The view from the bridge I will never
forget – the waves coming up behind us
were as huge as mountains”.
Miraculously, the emigrants were finally
safely delivered to Sydney, Australia – and
Tony went on to do another trip on the
same ship. “Glutton for punishment or
what?” he laughs.

His own Suez Crisis!
He also recounts his time on the ESSO
London tanker – what he describes as
another disaster zone.
“I seemed to get all the ropey ships as
this one was in danger of falling apart!”

Still aged only 18, he was faced with
dodgy boilers that were in danger of
blowing as it set sail for the Persian Gulf
via Suez.
Then the ship found itself as ‘piggy in
the middle’ between British and Russian
Naval forces and had a close encounter
with a low-flying jet.
The biggest drama was when the
ship hit fog in the Suez Canal and the
Egyptian pilot managed to swerve the
vessel into a bank, knocking off its rudder
and propeller and leaving it stranded
there, blocking the entire canal to any
other traffic.
The ship was towed by the oceangoing Dutch tug, Wheitsy and a smaller

London-style tug which broke down
during the operation, leaving engineers
to do repairs during a full gale.
Finally the ESSO reached the port
of Bari in Southern Italy where it was
dismantled – literally with the crew still
on board!
When Tony and the rest of the crew did
leave the ship for return to London, it was
by air, in a Dacotta. It took off from a field,
narrowly missing a hedge and landed at
Southend Airport in thick snow, slithering
to an abrupt halt.
“A coach took us to ESSO House in
London where we were paid off in wads
of £1 notes… I felt rich!” he says.
For Tony, it was then onto a mail train to

“We didn’t take him
seriously at first but
on his third visit he
showed us half of
a model boat and
asked us to build a
36-ft version to carry
40 passengers.”
Built for Eddie Richards at Yarmouth and
paid via a grant from White Fisheries
www.visitilife.com

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