(Also known as Olga Patricia)

Above: Laissez Faire (Olga Patricia) as USS Deal, 1954

 (photo Les Wright)

Left: Laissez Faire as the Earl Conrad Jnr, 2008

After Radio 355 had closed the Laissez Faire sailed on 19th August 1967 to Vlissingen, The Netherlands. The vessel then set sail for Miami, where she arrived on 1st September 1967 with the mast broken - claimed by the crew to have been caused by a hurricane.

There is something of a mystery about what happened to the ship between 1967 and 1974, when she was re-named Akuarius II. There are strong rumours (and records from former Radio London owner, Don Pierson) that the ship was used as a secret relay station off the coast of Cuba. Also somewhere along the line the identity of the ship at Lloyds Register of Shipping has become meshed with her sister ship Olga Princess.

In 1974 the ship was re-named again as the Earl Conrad Junior, and used as a  menhaden fishing vessel off the coast of  Virginia, USA, She was scrapped in Mississippi in June 2011.

• Norwegian Radio Historian Svenn Martinsen has undertaken detailed research into what happened to the Laissez Faire after 1967 and his findings can be found at http://www.stellamaris.no/chapter10.htm

Right: Laissez Faire (Olga Patricia) being fitted out in Florida 1966

Above: Laissez Faire after she arrived back in Florida, September 1967

The Olga Patricia (formerly FS-263, Deal and Don Carlos) was built in New York and commissioned  by the US Army on 16th August 1944.

On 6th September 1944, she left New York for the Southwest Pacific where she operated during World War 2.  On 12th October 1945, the Coast Guard crew was removed and she was decommissioned.

She was acquired by the US Navy at Apra, Guam on 2nd March 1947 and commissioned as  USS Deal on 3rd August 1947.She was reclassified as a Light Cargo Ship on 31st March 1949.

With the outbreak of war in Korea, Deal operated as part of the 7th Fleet in logistics support of the United Nations forces and visited other ports in Japan, Formosa, the Pescadores, Okinawa, and the Philippines until 28th February 1955 when she returned to the United States.

She was de-commissioned on 8th September 1955 and arrived at Astoria Bay on 13th April, 1955 to be laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet.

Deal was sold on 18th December 1961 and became a cargo ship, (re-named Don Carlos), in the Caribbean banana trade.

On 8th January 1963 she was again re-named - as Olga Patricia, registered in Columbia and chartered by AD S. Cargo Ltd. of Miami.

In 1966 she was purchased by Viscaya Inc. and fitted out as a radio ship at Dade Drydock Coporation’s shipyard at Dodge Island, Biscayne Bay, Miami.

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Thanks to Martin van der Ven for allowing us to use some additional information from the Broadcasting Fleet section of the Offshore Radio Guide  in this Gallery

Ships - The Main Fleet