# Diligence.



## Cpt Dick Brooks

The Diligence was a classic Brixham sailing trawler, of about 80 feet in length overall. She was rigged as a ketch, although the fidded main-topmast had been removed many years before. Her elderly owner, 'Diligence John', mostly sailed the little ship well reefed, as he mainly handled the vessel with only his overweight wife as crew. He sometimes had a young local islander work on deck for him.
The Diligence resembled Noah's ark, as between him and his wife, they had a menagerie of animals on board. He had a large Alsatian, while she favoured a couple of yappy pooches. There was a monkey generally swinging about in the rigging, or sleeping in some shaded spot on the deck. There seemed to be cats and kittens running wild all over the deck, and there was a large cage containing a collection of budgerigars and canneries by the stern. There was a perch fixed by the main companion-way with a multi-coloured parrot tethered to it that someone had taught to say 'pieces of eight' as you walked by.
When the Siemstrand ferry had stranded on the reef outside the harbour in Union Island, causing the loss of much of her cargo of Heineken beer to the party atmosphere of the salvage operation by all those who helped recover the vessel, the brewery in St. Lucia chartered Diligence to carry a cargo of beer down through the tourist resorts of the southern Grenadines to make up the short-fall.
I met up with him a few days after the salvage operation of the Siemstrand at Union Island. I had decided to stay on for a few days to dive on some on the outer reefs, looking for lead keels from wrecked yachts. Diligence anchored outside the harbour, waiting for high tide so he could proceed to the coastal berth and unload some of his cargo. With a couple of my crew, I paid him a visit and enjoyed a can or two of broached cargo from his hold. After dropping off a ton or two of Heineken beer, 'Diligence John' got under-way for the tourist resort on Petit-St-Vincent, through the narrow passage leading from the anchorage east of Union Island to the southern Grenadines.
The following morning, after dropping off more beer at the P.S.V. resort hotel, he headed south to make deliveries at the resorts on Cariacou and Canuan Islands, before continuing on to his final delivery at St. George's Harbour, in Grenada.
Whether it was a case of mistaken navigation, a strong current counter to the normal west-setting ocean current through the Windward Islands, or some metal object had off-set his compass, but Diligence ended up on the reef on the western side of the Lesser Grenadines while approaching the small town of Hillsborough at night. Within minutes, the old pitch-pine planked on oak framed hull was breached, and 'Diligence John' and his wife were in a pitiable state. With no working radio, he fired off what rockets and flares that he had on board and waited for help to arrive.
The islanders showed willing and went out to him in their open outboard-powered fishing-boats. They took the elderly couple off their stranded ship, allowing them to collect all their personal effects together, along with all their animals. When the rescue of all on board was completed and they were given the generous hospitality of the small village, the islanders set out with gusto upon the wrecked ship.
Running their small fishing-boats in a continuous shuttle service between the shore and what was left of old Diligence, they stripped her down to a skeleton until only the marks on the reef were left of her passing. Of course, the cases of beer were the first loads to be taken off, to fuel the spirit of the salvages as well as any fuel for their outboard motors. All the spars, sails and rigging were carefully removed, to be used in their own inter-island sailing cargo boats, or sold on to various boatyards. Even the cast-iron billets of her ballast were recovered and sold to the boatyard at Bequia for the schooner, 'Water Pearl' that they were building for Bob Dylan. Every piece of wood and fittings were salvaged for their own boats or houses, or used as firewood in their cooking stoves.
I don't know what happened to old 'Diligence John' and his wife, let alone their menagerie of animals, as I shortly left the Windward Islands with Debut and headed for Antigua in the Leeward Islands. They, like the Diligence herself, would be long-gone by now. Whether he made it back home to Holland, or his wife back to England, who knows! May they rest in peace. Cpt Dick Brooks.


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## Leif Gustafsson

Hello
That was a very interesting article about Diligence. I was the owner of ship and restore her in Sweden 1965-69. At the 3th of September 1969 we started the sailing for West India.

We sold Diligence to a man in New York named Baxter but he never paid for the ship. He sailed away short after and I never here'd from him. In 1980 I was sailing around in Virgin Island and heard that Diligence was wreck in Cannuan. But I don't know so much about it until I read your notis.

The Picture Diligence in Virgin Islands 1970

Regards


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## Cpt Dick Brooks

*For Leif Gustafsson.*

Good to her from you, Leif, and about the ex-Brigham sailing trawler, Diligence. She must have been a wonderful little ship in her day. My second ship was the French ex-tuna yawl, Biche, and I bought her from The Royal Belgian Yacht Club in Zeebrugge in 1967. She had been used as an accommodation ship for the previous twelve years, and was in a bit of a state. I also spent four years refitting her, before setting up a tall-ship charter business. But with the collapse of the economy after the Arab/Israeli war in the early seventies, I sold her and bought a 110 foot Lowestoft trawler, Dauntless Star. After fitting her out as a dive-support vessel, I took her out to Dubai and eventually sold her. She was converted into a water tanker, and I worked her as master for the Arab shipping company that bought her on a two year contract. Once we started taking water to the new port under construction at Jebel Ali, she was better known as The Whisky and Water Supply. After completing my contract, I returned to the UK and bought the 189 foot Hull trawler, converted her as a dive-support vessel and full salvage ship, then took her on a twelve year voyage around the tropical world. All the best, from Cpt Dick Brooks.


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## chadburn

So, the question remains Dick, was the chap you knew who had the 'Diligence' called Baxter?(Smoke)


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## Cpt Dick Brooks

*For chadburn.*

Good to hear from you, chadburn. I never knew what the surname of Diligence-John was, only that he was Dutch. Both him and his wife, who was English, were in their sixties... and that was back in 1979. As I previously wrote, he ran the little ship like a floating zoo, with various animals walking, swinging and flying all over the place. Any visitor on board was of great interest to them, and if you were still for any amount of time, they would be all around you... sniffing and scratching, and wanting to be picked up. Both Diligence-John and his missus were of portly build... going on for 280 pounds... and they weren't that tall either. That's all I know about them, other than they were really friendly and always made sure that you had a drink in your hand when you called aboard for a visit. All the best, Cpt Dick Brooks.


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## chadburn

Thanks for the answer Dick just wondered (Thumb)certainly your sailings make interesting reading. Did you ever come across John Bloom the former washing machine man and co founder of Radio Caroline on your travels on the other side of the Atlantic? Regards.


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## Cpt Dick Brooks

*For chadburn.*

Good to hear from you, chadburn. No, I never heard from this guy. Most people you meet while cruising the world you only know by their nick-name, or first name , at most. I would have liked to meet him, as I was a fan of Radio Caroline in my youth, only having Radio Luxembourg before that, for music for young people. It faded in and out, as we all crowded round our first transistor radio, back in the early sixties. I often took my fishing parties around the ship when nothing was biting, as it was only a few miles south of our most popular fishing place of the Outer Reef. Most other fishing-boats joked that I had a mooring out there, but there was a good upwelling of the current, bring up plenty of food for the fish. I've seen the film, The Ship That Rocked, many times, as the Ross Revenge was the next class of Hull Trawler after the Renovia class, which Debut was the first. She was the third ship to be Radio Caroline in 1983, starting after their second ship... Mi Amigo, I think was her name... sank off Walton-on-the- Naze. There is a photograph of the Duke of Edinburgh being shown around the main deck of Renovia... aka Debut... on-line back in 1951 in Grimsby dock, saying she was the pride of the Renovia Fleet. All the best, Cpt Dick Brooks.


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## chadburn

He had his Motor Yacht '1520 AD' built in the N.E. I was involved in the design and constuction of this vessel as a 'govvy' job between trips.


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