A Mission of Mercy
My first trip on the Caronia as a 17yr old, was under the command of the late Captain William E. Warwick, for this North Cape Cruise. It was the 12 July 1964, and the bush telegraph had indicated that Caronia was on her way to rescue a fisherman injured on a trawler.
We had crossed the Arctic Ocean and around 5 hours away from Hammerfest, so we were in the Norwegian Sea and still well within the Arctic Circle. There was plenty of anticipation for our arrival at the North Cape around 12 hours later, with the midnight sun and possibly the Northern Lights - what magic!
However, there was excitement aplenty by the time I managed to get up to the foredeck to see what was going on. It was a very chilly, grey and overcast day, with quite a strong wind; the type that gets into the corners. So, there was quite a choppy sea and a swell that made it look as if it would be impossible to transfer a guy on a stretcher away from a small fishing boat.
The swell alone meant that the vessel would be pitching some 4 to 6 feet up and down alongside the tender gangway that had been lowered to the starboard side of D deck.
Turning Caronia on a Sixpence
All us doubters up on deck, hadn't reckoned on the skill of those “up top”. Once we'd arrived at the scene, the most incredible thing happened. Just moments after coming to a complete stand, there was an unusual shudder beneath our feet. Yet, we were neither moving forward, nor backward.
Looking back along the superstructure we could see that slowly, and with increasing speed, Caronia started describing an arc in the water as if she'd been anchored and turned to starboard. This huge liner was, more or less, being turned on a sixpence. The Captain would simply have described it with just four words; “We created a lee”.
As Caronia's bulk turned, it left a glassy and almost totally becalmed stretch of water on the starboard side that allowed West German shrimp trawler “Hoffnung” to come right alongside. A resounding cheer went up across the whole ship as the casualty was deftly transferred aboard.
[Above:] Coming alongside
[Left:]
The fishing boat leaves after the rescue
[Both photos: © Peter Stevens 1964]
Apparently, he'd injured an arm in a pulley. With a surgeon and hospital facilities on board the man would be discharged once Caronia had arrived in Hamburg.
On North Cape cruises back then, Caronia was specially equipped with extra radio equipment to “listen in on the Soviets”. We can only speculate, was this trawler one of the vessels being “listened in on”?
If you can contribute any information, do please get in touch…
