The story of this come back of Radio Caroline starts around the year 1980 and 1981.

An Icelandic trawler was found left over from fishing around Greenland and owned by Ross Fisheries, the ship was now too big for there fleet of which had grown smaller, and was found somewhere around Scotland way. The Caroline organisation bought this ship to have it converted in to a Radio Station,

They were rumours of it going to Southern Ireland, but this never came off, in the end, the trawler ended up in Spain at a place called Santander, and the conversion took place from a fishing vessel to a Radio Ship. I visited the Ross revenge over there and at first the ship was painted pink of all colours (the colour of healing) , with a huge red and white mast.

The studios at first were being erected on the back of the ship, as can be seen on the photo’s I took at the time, then one can only assume that the studios would be better off if fitted within the ship its self. The station was going to be re-named MV Imagine after a song by one of the Beatles, but was later changed back to its former name MV Ross Revenge, the hull of the ship now painted in a bright red.

The Ross Revenge left the harbour in a bit of a hurry, with still the studios not complete, the reason for this was to bring the ship in safe international waters to stop any further delays possible from the side of disturbed authorities or outsold former backers of the project. It is known as the radio ship sailed for the Northsea she came under surveillance from Nato jet fighters, who seeing the mast wondered if it was a some sort of spy ship.

The Ross Revenge dropped anchor in the Knock Deep, not very far from were the MV Mi Amigo was before she drifted back in 1980, still with no name painted on the ship. A lot of anoraks were certain that this was the promised return of Radio Caroline.

The station was due to start broadcasting on the 14^th of August some 16 years since the British government outlawed offshore radio, but test were not finished, and it was not until the18^th that music started and the19^th of August that the station opened up at 11am with DJ Tom Anderson saying good morning this is Radio Caroline broadcasting from the Ross Revenge in English and Dutch on 319mtrs and announcing that official programming would commence at 12 o'clock.

Then it was on down past the coastal towns and left out to the Knock Deep, one of the other things you came across was an automatic light ship, then made our way to were the MV Mi Amigo had sunk some three years ago and all you see now was the mast sticking out of the water. We then tied up to the mast for breakfast, and one of the guys decided to take a swim around the mast (The mast stood up for a total of six years a reminder that the Mi Amigo was still there) The total journey time out to the ship on a good day was around 3 to four hours. The next thing to come into sight was the new Caroline ship with its 300ft mast towering in to the sky.

As one got nearer and for the ones on their first trip it was an amazing sight to see a red and white former Icelandic trawler with this gigantic red and white 300 foot mast hardly moving at all, since there is 300 tons of concrete for the ballast, and as we tied up to the ship and climbed up the rope ladder to get on board, and after varies tour of the ship the mess room, galley, engine room, studios, transmiter hold, generator room etc then it was either tea or coffee, and just lay out on deck chatted to the Dj's, including the ones on air, and all in all had a good time.

Then it was time to say our goodbyes get in to our 80ft boat and a trip around the ship before we headed for home past the mast and forts and back to Sheerness a long day but worth every minute.

In June 1984 we were back at sea taking anoraks to see both Caroline and the pirate ship Laser, while Caroline was pumping out album music, Laser was pumping out pop music, so much so that teenagers of the day that used to listen to BBC R1 were forsaking it for Laser. The Government was not to happy about having two pirates off the South East coast, either were the BBC seeing their audience figures in the South of the UK drop. Weather you were a new kid on the block or an oldie the pirates were the one's to listen to free choice and all that.

Both ships were anchored a mile from each other, and the all American pop ship Laser where on board all the music came from cassettes, even though there were twin turn tables, this vessel was much smaller with a mess room the size of the galley on board the Ross and galley size of a toilet and shower units, the studio was around the same size of the main studio on the Ross, and the sleeping quarters were down stairs near the transmitter, which had two 20kw transmitters joined together. The Arial T shape masts were made of aluminium and metal. Not the best of structures to make a mast compared to the Caroline 300ft metal mast structure, also the ballast was sand, so hence it bounce about a bit in rough weather.

The summer months were ideal for trips out to the two radio ships, visiting either Laser first then over to the Caroline ship, but as autumn was acoming all trips were suspended until next year, unless there were some good days, but sometimes you found going out in fair conditions and then only to find one had to fight their way back in a force 7, and in a 90ft boat. Unless you were seaworthy was not much fun for those who were not, being sea sick over a pitching boat and getting covered in spray at the same time and arriving back cold and damp and worse for wear, well some did, I was allways OK, another thing was trying to take photo shots with one hand and holding onto some thing with the other hand as our boat pitched and rolled.

In november 1984 Radio Caroline started a second service on 576 AM for a better signal while using a low power transmitter. The main transmitter on 963AM was hired by Dutch Radio Monique during the daytime. While Laser was confronted with antenna problems and later with serious surveillances by the DTI.

During the spring of 1985 the Government decided to act by placing a boat between the both radio ships and monitoring there supplies, of which the crew on Laser mocked them. As for the guys on the Ross they took it in their stride and left them to it (large supplies came in from Holland). All thought they did announce when the DTI ship had left and came back, but Charlie Wolf of Laser went over board with nightly half hour live to the listeners what they had been up to and all that. Even us when we went out to the ships that summer we were watched etc, even thought it did not stop us going on board, and several times we were chased by them, and as we were not carrying any illegal goods like a loaf of bread for them it did not bother us.

Her sister ship came along side and the anchor was pulled up, and with Laser having been off air for the past few weeks made her way into Harwich harbour, where a write was nailed to her mast. The following morning Caroline came on the air on 558 Khz. That was the end of All Europe Radio 558. Radio Caroline Continued.

After the towing in of the Laser ship in November 85, the Radio Caroline ship was the only pirate station left on the high seas, it was in early January of 86 that force 9-storm 10 gales hit the east and South East of the UK, on the 6^th of January in the evening, and apart from causing havoc at sea it also caused havoc on the mainland as well, at sea Ferry boats were in trouble and later that night the Ross Revenge home of Radio Caroline was dragging her anchor in storm force 10 gales, the lifeboats were busy that evening-night, here is an extract from that evening when a lifeboat went to her aid.

During the summer of 86 boat loads of anoraks were coming out to the Ross to see their favourite DJ and to look around the ship, about this time Caroline had to leave its 963AM frequency because of Radio Sweden doubling its power. A switch was made to 819 Khz for Dutch Radio Monique and the "progressive" CAROLINE OVERDRIVE album service.

During the summer of that year the Ross Revenge had to be moved to a new anchorage to the South Falls, so the nearest point of land was Margate some 16miles away (due to law a 12 mile zone out of the coast was declared the border for international waters), and mile from the main shipping channels of the North Sea, hence the anoraks had further to travel to see the ship, we used to call it left turn at Margate then bear South South East, from that vantage point you could see the big white ferry boat on its trip to Vlissingen Holland a 7hr trip from Sheerness Kent.

On October 16th of 1987 the storm of the century was to hit Europe, it started late that evening and on the Ross the weather started to get rough, around midnight it was a storm 10 and increasing with howling winds, things on board were mighty rough for the Dj on the air, around an hour later the storm was now at hurricane force and the records on board were being flung all over the place, it was time to put on storm tapes as it was becoming impossible to stay in one's seat, through out the night the Ross was battered by the winds and 50ft foot waves. On land there was complete mayhem where 150 year old trees were uprooted etc. By the morning the gales were still raging, out in the Northsea the Ross Revenge 300ft tower had remained intact but was weakened by the hurricane with some stays that had come adrift, but the station remained on the air, sorting out the records that had decided fall out the night before had to be put back in there rightful places.

The weather at sea never abated for weeks, so it was impossible to attend to the mast, which needed the stays to be welded back into place. In mid November the Ross Revenge was in a second storm, the winter storms just kept coming, although not as severe as the hurricane it was around 0200hrs in the morning of the 25th with 30 to 40 foot waves, howling winds and the Ross was being hit broadside on, hence it was leaning sometimes at an angle of 30 to 40 degrees both sides, as the winds continue to batter the ship at that angle, around half two in the morning the transmitter decided to switch it self off, so for the crew and DJ's was to either stay in one place, which was in the wheel house watching the needle swinging from side to side, at one point it nearly went to 45 degrees, the difference between riding a storm head on is not so bad as from side to side.

Around early hours of the morning there was a loud crack the 300ft mast had gave way, leaving the Ross leaning at a dangerous angle, so with cutting tools and safety gear on they attempted to cut the mast away from the side of the ship, and after the mast had been cut away the Ross returned to a less dangerous angle. Now with the mast gone the ship bounced a bit more in the weather then it used to, less stable.

It was around this time once the weather had abated enough for a supply tender to get out with food etc. and a make shift mast. For two weeks Caroline was off the air, until a make shift mast was erected and even then once back on the air the station was on a very reduced power of 1 kw, how far the signal reached in land I am not sure, perhaps anyone who was listening at that time could let me know, I could pick the station up as I was living in Kent.

Caroline's position as The Rock of Europe was lost and Radio Monique stopped her activities. It would take many months, efforts and important changes to recover from this blow.

During the summer of 88 more sections were being added and two set of 170ft masts were erected at sea, and the one's used after the tower collapsed into the sea these also were dumped over board as well and the station was nearly back on full power, and all was well again, winter came and went and was less harsh then the 87 one. It was coming up to Easter and Radio Caroline was broadcasting on three frequency's 558 (Caroline), 819 (For a Dutch Radio819 & Viewpoint 819 Religious & Caroline Overdrive Album format), and on shortwave at 6105khz, this frequency was being used during the day for the gospel programmes of World Mission Radio, so in the evening time Caroline could be heard on two AM and the short wave frequency. At Easter of that year Radio Caroline celebrated twenty-five years of broadcasting, playing certain records for varies persons including Ronan, and varies records for its loyal band of listeners. In the summer the power on 558 AM was doubled. This was the last step in a succesfull recovery. Radio Caroline was fully operational once again.

It was getting on to one ‘clock that afternoon and the theme tune was being played every few minutes now with the latest updates, of which included taken off the Dutch DJ’s and English, but they declined as it was possible that the Ross the home of Radio Caroline could have been towed to a port, so they stayed put. Later on that evening it was reported by a few IRN stations and also Ronan the owner was interviewed on one of the news programmes about the happenings.

So now when would Radio Caroline be back on the air. A few weeks later there was a mass rally in London and a lot of Caroline fans donated varies items like records etc to the station.

It was one weekend in early October and I was messing around to see if there was anything on the dial, of which I did daily from October and I heard varies records played on 558 and saying this was a test transmission so I left it on and Caroline Martin later played the theme Caroline was back.

Our last trip out to the ship was late September of 1991 were we also took a film crew with us, little were we to know that in November of that year in storm force gales the Ross Revenge broke her anchor and started drifting to wards the coast, there was something odd about this as the coastguards did not inform the Radio Station, in fact it came to light that they were told not to by the DTI. The Ross Revenge drifted on to Goodwin Sands and was being battered by the storms, the ship was at some point leaning at 40% angle, at daybreak an air sea rescue helicopter winched the remaining Caroline DJ’s off the listing ship.

For 3 days tugs tried to pull the Caroline ship of the sands and on the third attempt it did and was towed in to Dover Harbour

THE END

©Barry Crompton