Saturday, 5 March 2016

LIGHTSHIP CORMORANT / LADY DIXON - Chapter 138



It has been a bad couple of weeks for Simon, culminating in the loss of his dog Molly. She was about 14, although as he rescued her (Battersea Dogs’ Home), her exact age was uncertain. His laptop also bit the dust. It never rains……
   Meanwhile he hopes to see a very confident wet-blaster, who declares that he can overcome any problem to get below decks cleaned up.  I hope that does not mean that he expects Simon to pay ‘whatever it takes’!!
     More history. The Andrew N. Thomas I spoke of last time, joined Arnold Swanson and John Thompson on the "Voice of Slough" project. At that time Thompson had a small boat called 'Ellen' in Scotland.  Then Swanson broke away - with Andrew N. Thomas - and set up Adanac using Lady Dixon and a former WWII 'N' series 5kW transmitter as later used by BBC Third Programme. This venture crashed with the 'invasion' of the GPO who confiscated all the radio equipment. That was the end of the Lady Dixon’s pirate radio career.  I have not yet ascertained what she looked like at this stage in her life, but 30 years later she still had her mizzen and was painted bright red – not to be confused with the red of Trinity House lightships (Photo 1381). 

Incidentally, I do wonder why Irish Lights insisted in painting their lightships black – not a colour easily seen on a dark, foggy night!!
David

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