# Marconi Mariner



## Tony Selman (Mar 8, 2006)

Through the good offices of an ROA member having a clear out from his house in Aberdeen I have taken possession of a large number of Mariners from January 1958 to December 1974. I haven't checked every issue but I think they are all there. The scale of the storage was a little greater than I had allowed for and has created a few problems in my study, and with my wife.
I was not a GTZM man but wanted to store the Mariners rather than see them go to a skip. Many of them contain a separate little booklet "Radio Officers Movements". If any of you ex Marconi men want any info you think was in there I will gladly have a look for you and scan the page and send it if you wish.
Tony


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## Tony Selman (Mar 8, 2006)

I have got space for them for the moment Malcolm but I am not sure whether that will be the long term plan. Any move from here will be to Sandford Mill for two reasons. Firstly I think they should reside in Chelmsford which is their home base so to speak as a MimCo magazine, secondly, the radio room at Fort Perch Rock has now closed after a dispute with the owner.


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

Great find, Tony. Thank God for hoarders.

Sorry to hear that FPR has closed - I had an interesting visit last year - but I don't think it would be a suitable home for the magazines anyway. Is Sandford Hill open to the public?

John T


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## Tony Selman (Mar 8, 2006)

trotterdotpom said:


> Great find, Tony. Thank God for hoarders.
> 
> Sorry to hear that FPR has closed - I had an interesting visit last year - but I don't think it would be a suitable home for the magazines anyway. Is Sandford Hill open to the public?
> 
> John T


John, yes it is but a quick look at this shows the hours are very restricted. I have been once with the ROA and it was great with huge amounts of Marconi kit and a working radio amateur station. I thought it was open more often than this but maybe a Chelmsford local can advise.
http://friendschelmsmuseums.btik.com/SANDFORDMILL

The FPR thing was a disaster. It was a great place to visit and had some excellent kit and superb volunteer ex R/O's running it. They used to bring a lot of business in and were granted free of charge use of the premises. I personally gave them some equipment as did many others. The owner was (allegedly) having financial difficulties and wanted to charge them £200 a month rental, subsequently reduced to £100 but this was way beyond FPR capabilities so with great reluctance they closed. The infuriating thing is that the kit is still standing there because due to some legal hang up the equipment on site belongs to the owner. I think I have the facts broadly correct but someone more closely involved can correct me. The end result is that the situation is a bloody disaster for marine radio and nothing can be done about it.
Tony


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

That's a shame after all the work those people put in. Who actually owns the site and what exactly does he expect to get by hanging on to the equipment?

I'm pretty sure we had to pay to get into the place, i.e. the whole rock, not just the radio station bit.

John T


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## Ron Stringer (Mar 15, 2005)

SN Member freddiethefrog is a leading light in the Fort Perch Rock radio adventure and could give you chapter and verse, I am sure.


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## Tony Selman (Mar 8, 2006)

Ron is correct in that freddiethefrog (John) was very active at FPR. Haven't seen him on here recently. If we do not hear from him I will get chapter and verse from someone else I know was actively involved.
John, you would have paid to get in - £3 or £4 from memory. There is some interesting stuff there about Thetis and the Luftwaffe and it was worth a visit. The equipment situation infuriates me and all FPR R/O's I know and everyone tried very hard to repatriate it. Just cannot understand the owner's attitude and it is no use whatsoever to him. I have been expecting him to come back to someone and say either come back please I have made a mistake, or will you buy the kit from me. Whilst he paid nothing for it I would give very serious consideration to the ROA buying it if the price was right.


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## freddythefrog (Dec 15, 2007)

Hello R651400 and Tony and Ron and JohnT.
Tony is completely correct on the facts he has stated above, the owner seamed to have had financial problems and wanted to start charging the FPR guys £250
a month for displaying the radio gear which had by this time been FREE as the equipment we put in was under agreement with the present owners father
(now deceased) R.I.P. provided we all volunteered our time for FREE and did the place up with repairs and decorating and showing the visitors around for FREE which we all did around twice a week and informing visitors all about life as an R/O in M.N. We also had an amateur radio station working from there.
We all used our own pocket money to buy bits and pieces needed for repairs, upgrades etc so think it was a real cheek to ask us for money---we were all volunteers and had no source of income at all from there and so could not and would not pay him.This is the reason all the guys had to leave.#
The equipment in there apparently was signed over to the OWNERS of FPR provided that FPR stayed in the family name of DARROCH.
However the equipment that I personally donated "to the guys who were still running it when I left"I did NOT sign over to the owner but belongs to the "guys" who are now on the lightship PLANET, GB2LBL callsign.
Nobody from the group wants to go back to the fort as they were all left quite upset after the hardwork and effort put in by all the guys.
Whether anyone is interested in going and confronting the owner of the FPR
and getting out the gear I personally provided is another matter alltogether.
I personally am having health problems at present so cannot get involved
but would be willing to write a letter with a list of gear I donated to go to
the R.O.A. or Ex R/O's who have somewhere to display it to the public and would be willing to go and unistall,take away and reinstall at a suitable venue
instead of it lying rotting in FPR. Obviously this would need to be discussed with Stan MCnally and the guys on the Planet lightship for the permission and 
to take it from there.Hope everyone understands the situation a bit more now. Cheers to all 73's de FTF
PS I believe the "memory room at FPR" has been trashed.


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## freddythefrog (Dec 15, 2007)

*F.p.r.*

Hello R651400
Many thanks your good wishes.
Yes it would be great if some group of guys could get the radio equipment out and to display it somewhere else so as Marine Radio
as we knew it is not lost forever!!
cheers 73's de FTF


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## andysk (Jun 16, 2005)

This is an appalling story, FtF I do hope the stress is not prolonging your medical issues. Maybe an alternative site for the equipment could be Bletchley Park, even if only for storage until a more suitable location could be found.


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## freddythefrog (Dec 15, 2007)

*F.p.r.*

Hello AndySK
Yes it is a very sad ending to the marine radio museum at FPR.
Maybe someone needs to attempt to do something about it.??
What about the R.O.A maybe making FPR an offer for the equipment
maybe would be a good idea and then store it at Bletchly park until a suitable venue could be found for permanent display.
What would Tony Selman think about getting the radio gear out
and storing it as you said Andy.??
What about asking all R.O.A. members and non members from SN
all donating say £20.00 each and hence put in an offer for it.
The owner always seemed to be skint and it maybe worth a try.
Regards 73's de FTF


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

Has the owner of Fort Perch got any right to the equipment? It's not his is it? Come to think of it, why the hell does he want it?

How about that massive maritime museum complex over on the Liverpool side - would they be interested in it?

John T


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## Duncan112 (Dec 28, 2006)

The museum in Wales is "Internal Fire" at Tan Y Goes in Cardigan. The curator / owner, Paul is a member on here, can't remember his user name at the moment.


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## Tony Selman (Mar 8, 2006)

I have been hanging back thinking that rtf's suggestion would come along, or something like it anyway. It has been in my mind for a few days now to see if we (ROA) could do something, I had not thought about a collection on SN. This is not going to be easy and we have no idea what is in the mind of the owner who appears to be something of a loose cannon. As John says why the hell does he want it as it is no commercial use to him.
I am going to do two things. Ask a trusty ROA member to investigate if the owner would be willing to talk about the ROA repatriating the equipment and if so and most importantly at what price. This will most likely be outrageous. We then get into a significant scenario of If's: If the owner is interested, If the price is even remotely sensible to even commence negotiations, If the ROA membership will approve the expenditure, If it happens how do we remove it and keep costs under control, If it was viable would the historic FPR members still be motivated enough to start again,If it happens where will the new home be. ???????
Let us assume for the sake of discussion that all preceding if's are satisfied, what about the last one? My feeling is it has to be on Merseyside as that is where all the historic expertise was and this will keep transport costs within sensible bounds. To my mind a top quality working radio set up in the Maritime Museum would be perfect and an attraction to the museum, they may or may not agree. The only other place I can think of is the former Bar light vessel Planet, well known to many former FPR members and shown in the recent video posted by Ron Stringer. The owner there may be interested but whether the relevant amount of space (and power) can be found is another matter.
The ROA annual reunion is on the Wirral in April and dependant on what happens between now and then I can easily make this an agenda item.
I don't think anyone should get their hopes up, there are a significant number of bridges to cross before this idea is going to get off the ground and if I had to guess price will be the biggest one.


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## Ron Stringer (Mar 15, 2005)

Duncan112 said:


> The museum in Wales is "Internal Fire" at Tan Y Goes in Cardigan.


http://www.internalfire.com/index.php


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## freddythefrog (Dec 15, 2007)

Hello Tony and all
Firstly in reply to Tony's suggestion of the Liverpool Maritime Museum.
They are not interested at all there, A full KH consol and Main Transmitter has on two occassions been rejected, it was offered for Free and a KH man was going to install it for Free and go down and explain it to the customers but was rejected as not being of interest to them.They are more intersted in Yachts there so that one unfortunately is out of the question.
The Planet lightship as far as I know has the stern room where the temporary
radio station was for the Lusitania event I understood was to be made into
more sleeping accomodation, I do not think there is any more room left to put the gear in.
The only costs in removing the gear would really be in Hiring a couple of long wheelbase transits and the petrol for them.Obviously the physical shifting of the gear would need half a dozen young at heart strong guys used to heavy lifting!! We are all getting on a bit now!!
Still think its a great idea for Tony to get an enquiry going to see how the land lies so to speak.Think you better liase with Stan Mcnally and the Planet Guys.
Thanks Tony cheers 73's de ftf


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## freddythefrog (Dec 15, 2007)

*F.p.r.*

Tony Selman has said he going to contact a few guys and look into the matter in some detail
cheers 73's de ftf


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## david.hopcroft (Jun 29, 2005)

This is going off thread somewhat, but as it is under the Marconi Mariner title, I wondered if any of former HQ people had seen this obituary in the Telegraph today. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obi...enant-Commander-Michael-Marwood-obituary.html

David
+


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## Ron Stringer (Mar 15, 2005)

david.hopcroft said:


> I wondered if any of former HQ people had seen this obituary in the Telegraph today.
> 
> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obi...enant-Commander-Michael-Marwood-obituary.html
> 
> David


I have the vague impression that he came to us when we took over AEI's radio business. No mention in the obituary of him working there, though. 

He was Administration Manager at Elettra House, a job which would have made little demand on his listed attributes.


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## Tony Selman (Mar 8, 2006)

Gentlemen, I have received an update via a stalwart that was originally involved in setting up the radio equipment at FPR. He called a volunteer that was still active at FPR and was told that the radio room and the Titanic room are open to the public although the equipment is not working. He also stated that many of the original volunteers were not interested in repatriating the equipment and were happy with their new home on the Planet light vessel.
Based on this the owner is even more unlikely to be interested in selling the kit therefore I am withdrawing any potential interest by the ROA in removing the equipment, which in my opinion under the cir***stances will be a lost cause.


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