Roy Spalding
“…we had a full cargo of some 6,000 tonnes of iron ore…â€
The Story
Working on a bulk carrier ship that frequently crossed the Atlantic had become second nature to Roy. This particular night blustery night in the middle of the ocean started as any other yet within a short space of time, everything would change…
Comments
Name: Alastair Bradley
Date: 18/01/2008
Comment: Fascinating story - but what happened next?
I assume the crew survived (per rescue photo) but did the ship survive?
Name: Roy Smyth
Date: 18/01/2008
Comment: Hello Roy, I nearly died off when I heard your voice on Radio Ulster. The last time i seen you was the day my wifes brother and i stopped at a pub in comber after being out in a canoe all day in strangford! we were absolutly parched!! would love to hear from you once again. please keep in touch i have so many questions.
Name: John Ball
Date: 23/01/2008
Comment: Roy,
Being interested in ships generally and doing quite a lot of motor-sail cruising, I found the story of the experience of your ship breaking up at sea quite something and running cables round the ships hull must have been an extremely difficult job under the circumstances.I presume this happened in 1963?
A few days after hearing your story I happened to be reading Acts chapter 27 in the New Testament about a ship at sea in a storm and was amazed when I read that the sailors passed ropes round the ship to hold it together just as you did! That was nearly 2,000 years ago and so it must have been a life saver even then. That story makes interesting reading, too.
Where and when were you rescued by the helicopter and what happened to your ship and cargo?
We do our cruising from the lightship 'Petrol' based near Whiterock in Strangford lough.
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