The magic elephant on a magic boat ....

It was if by magic that the renamed mv Fredericia suddenly appeared off Harwich on March 27, 1964, and when everyone looked, they found that it had departed from a dock at Greenore in the Republic of Ireland.

So who paid for that ship, and who took it to Rotterdam where it stayed for some time? Who put those imported Texas transmitters on board, and after a lengthy stay in Holland, who paid for the ship to be taken to Greenore?

The answer from the mountains of books and articles and newspaper reports is "Don't know".

But we do!

Here is a skeleton outline of our timetable about the mv Fredericia  which is currently being assembled. It does not begin in 1963, but that is where this short version commences.​

• August 14, 1963 - The motor vessel Fredericia was retired as a DFDS Danish ferry boat, and taken to Copenhagen for storage.
• December 30, 1963 - The former ferry boat mv Fredericia was sold by DFDS.
• January 1, 1964 - It's buyer was Cross Channel Container Services Ltd who renamed the vessel Iseult. Irish Cross Channel Container Services Ltd., was a spin-off from Weatherwell Ltd., a company primarily owned by Aodogán O'Rahilly. This new venture had been formed with participating help from his daughter Iseult, and his son, Ronan. The ship was given the eponymous new name of his daughter Iseult and registered by Panamanian lawyers under the corporate name of Astrenic S.A. Cross Channel Container Services Ltd has an earlier history which we will be covering. The first export shipment by Weatherwell Ltd to England, had begun in a very limited way on a chartered vessel that left the partially opened Port of Greenore on Wednesday, July 13, 1960. The Port was operated by Irish Customs who had reoccupied their original building now situated on the site of Weatherwell's development area.
• January 8, 1964 - The mv Isuelt was then towed from Copenhagen, Denmark to Wijsmuller's facilities in Rotterdam, Netherlands. However, Cross Channel Container Services Ltd ran into financial difficulties and they had to sell the vessel to another owner. The ship was then transferred from Astrenic to Alraune. With this infusion of funds from the sale of the ship, Aodogán was able to move ahead with part of his plan to acquire more property and develop the site at Greenore. It had been a former railway terminal and ferry boat property which adjoined the waterfront close to the maritime borders that separate the independent Irish Republic from Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom. Aodogán's master business plan was to demolish the existing buildings on the site, and then to build a new factory for Weatherwell Ltd. His plan was two-fold: He would promote the reopening of the port, and then use the waterfront to start a new container and passenger service between Greenore, Ireland, and Preston, England. But Aodogán was still strapped for money.
• February 13, 1964 - Fredericia departed from Rotterdam and at first headed for the Isle of Wight, but another deal was struck with Aodogán O'Rahilly and the ship was redirected to Greenore instead. The Fredericia arrived either on February 14, but more likely February 15, 1964. The ship was at Greenore for less time than it was at Rotterdam. The work performed at Greenore provided additional funds for Aodogán who needed them to expand his business. When Allan Crawford also brought his leased ship mv Mi Amigo to Greenore for fitting out, Aodogán made even more money from the twin radio ship project.
• February 15, 1964 - Fredericia was renamed Caroline, and when its purpose became known as the home of a future offshore radio station instead of becoming a reactivated ferry boat, the hands-on employees at Dundalk Engineering Works who were performing the conversion work, walked off the job. Work on both ships was being supervised at Greenore by rigger Harry Spencer from the Isle of Wight. Spencer had to then get help from Aodogán O'Rahilly to get the work restarted. Aodogán O'Rahilly introduced Spencer to a local Catholic priest who in turn used threats of hell fire and damnation on his parishioners to motivate them into going back to work on the ships.
• February 27, 1964 - Planet Productions Ltd., is registered as a shoestring operation in Dublin, Ireland.
• March 27, 1964 - The renamed motor vessel Caroline dropped anchor off Harwich, England and the following day it began broadcasting under the call sign of Radio Caroline. It was managed by Jocelyn Stevens. While the station sounded like a clone of a music station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation, Jocelyn Stevens had an overlapping business plan that fused several interests together. That plan will be explained in due course.
• June 5, 1964 - Greenore Port Unlimited Company was registered in the Republic of Ireland, and given company number 21631. Aodogán O'Rahilly's plans for a ferry and container service had now finally limped off the ground.​

​This timeline will be expanded with additional material, much of which has already been published on this Blog as original research, but not in a universal timeline. Our existing timeline page will be gradually revised to include this content.

More tomorrow!