The ex-trawler Ross Revenge served in the 1980’s as the offshore radio broadcasting ship for the legendary (and unsupressable) Radio Caroline.  This role came to an end in the early 1990’s when she ran aground and was towed into harbour.  Now she serves as a Heritage Museum, also occasionally used as a filming set and for occasional legally-licensed broadcasts.

Meanwhile, Radio Caroline, of course, continues...

I was delighted to be asked on board to video the latest major broadcast engineering work: the taking-down of the “Temporary” dual radio masts at fore and aft of the ship.  These had been erected in the mid-1980‘s at sea, no mean feat, following the collapse of an original 300 foot high mast.  The photo above, taken on an iPhone and cleaned up in post, shows part of one of them.

Fast-forward to now (the time of writing) and “The Lady” (in Red) is berthed at the secure port of Tilbury, Essex, UK.  And official Health & Safety inspectors have dictated that these temporary masts could be unsafe to public, who could not therefore visit the museum.  So the masts had to come down.

In some ways a sad day, but also a day to let go of the mast and move on... to a new era with a brand new single central broadcasting tower.  More on this can be read in Horizon Magazine.