Radio Caroline 1970s History 11

Radio Caroline 1970’s - History (11)

Throughout this period too the number of taped American religious programmes broadcast by Radio Caroline continued to increase steadily with a total of thirty one different organisations buying airtime, providing the station with its only real source of revenue. Whilst essential financially the increased airtime allocated to these broadcasts undoubtedly had a detrimental effect on the station's audience levels - claimed to be 3.9 million in early 1980, although in reality it was thought to be nearer 750,000.

Gales and heavy seas returned to the North Sea on 19th March 1980, but Radio Caroline's Dutch Service, now containing mostly pre-recorded programmes, continued as normal with listeners unaware of the drama unfolding that day on board the Mi Amigo. The first hint of a problem came at 3.28pm when Dutch programmes were interrupted for an announcement in English. The message "number 59, 60 and code 7 within three hours" was read out "for the office" and repeated again an hour later. Then, every hour from 5.00pm onwards the code numbers were broadcast at the top of the hour.

The code numbers were, of course, meaningless to the majority of listeners but for those actually involved with the operation of the station they indicated something was seriously wrong on board the radio ship.

When the English Service of Radio Caroline started at 7.00pm none of the regular programmes were aired, just continuous music and the hourly coded messages for the office. The enormity of the problems being experienced by the crew on board the Mi Amigo only became fully apparent at midnight when Stevie Gordon and Tom Anderson came on the air to announce they were abandoning ship.

What had been happening earlier in the day was that the radio ship's anchor chain had broken at about 1.30pm and she began to drift. The crew worked for two hours to lower the emergency anchor, which they succeeded in doing, but the Mi Amigo had by then hit the edge of the Long Sand sandbank. Apart from the coded messages no announcements or pleas for assistance were broadcast to listeners and anyway the situation at that time seemed stable enough with the ship having settled firmly on the sandbank at low water, a scenario which had been experienced many times before by the Mi Amigo and her crews.

The Coastguard Service had been advised of the problem over the emergency channel and they arranged for a lifeboat to be placed on stand-by. A short while later, at 6.15pm, with weather conditions deteriorating, the Sheerness lifeboat, Helen Turnbull, was launched and waited about a mile from the radio ship until it could get closer once the tide started to rise. For about two hours the crew of the lifeboat, now only 50 yards from the Mi Amigo, tried to persuade the four men on board to leave.

About 9.30pm, with the tide rising, the Mi Amigo was being repeatedly pounded on the sandbank in the heavy seas and Force 9 easterly gales. Without warning she started to take in a huge volume of water and for a while the crew still refused to leave the vessel, preferring instead to try and sit out the storm and hope the emergency pumps would be able to cope until a tender arrived to tow them back to their normal anchorage.

Although during her 18 years as a home to so many radio stations the Mi Amigo had experienced countless such dramas, the situation this time deteriorated so quickly that the pumps could not cope with the volume of water cascading in through holes in her hull.

In the end the crew had to abandon ship in such a hurry that they didn’t even have time to pack their personal belongings. The station's master tapes, which had been packed in a waterproof bag also had to be left behind. It took the lifeboat nearly an hour to get the four men and Wilson II, the ship's canary, off the sinking radio ship. The crew of the lifeboat repeatedly risked their lives in mountainous seas to successfully achieve this rescue operation.

The Mi Amigo's generator had been left running to provide power for the abandoned vessel's navigation lights, but as they headed for land the crew of the lifeboat reported seeing the radio ship's lights go out. Three hours later the rescued crew were landed at Sheerness and interviewed by police, acting on instructions from the Home Office. Police later announced that the DJs would not face prosecution.

At first light Mi Amigo wreck mast on 20th March 1980 an RAF helicopter flew over the area and reported that the Mi Amigo had sunk, with only some superstructure and the 134' aerial mast remaining above water. Within a few days Trinity House had marked the wreck with buoys and issued an official warning to shipping in the area.

Almost immediately after the sinking plans were announced to try and re-float the Mi Amigo using giant air filled bags and a floating collar. A number of personnel connected with Radio Caroline also talked positively in press interviews about the station returning "within a matter of weeks".

Plans to attempt a salvage operation were soon shelved, however, when divers inspected the wreck only a matter of weeks after the sinking. It was discovered that the ship had settled firmly on the bottom of the sea-bed and, reportedly, was in danger of breaking up. Further inspections were made by divers during the early summer months of 1980, but with salvage costs estimated to be in the region of £32,000 and donations of only £5,000 having been raised the re-floating plan was finally dropped altogether.

Almost as soon as the Mi Amigo had sunk representatives of Radio Caroline were stating publicly that the station would return to the air from another vessel and it was reported that the station's backers had been looking for a new ship anyway, even before the Mi Amigo had gone dow Trinity House buoy marking Mi Amigo wreck n. However, the money to purchase a replacement vessel was not available, or forthcoming, and the plans were shelved. A new ship was eventually found, as was financial backing, and Radio Caroline returned to the airwaves in 1983 - see Radio Caroline 1980’s

Abandoning ship announcement March 1980

Coded announcements for the office on land

Above: Only the mast remained visible after the Mi Amigo sank in March 1980

Below: a Trinity House buoy marks the wreck of the Mi Amigo

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Evening Standard

20th March 1980

Daily Mail

21st March 1980

Ipswich Evening Star

20th March 1980

Daily Mirror

21st March 1980

Daily Telegraph

21st March 1980

Later in 1980 the British advertising trade magazine, Campaign, used the sinking of the Mi Amigo and the consequent temporary closure of Radio Caroline in a promotion for its forthcoming feature on commercial radio

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