Appeal to secure future of Grimsby trawler and pirate radio base

The ship is now moored in Essex

Campaigners want to raise £125,000 to help repair a former Grimsby trawler which became the base for a pirate radio station.

The Ross Revenge was originally built in Germany in 1960 and became part of the Grimsby fishing fleet in 1963.

With the decline of the industry, the ship was eventually purchased as a new base for Radio Caroline in the 1980s.

Currently moored in Essex, Ross Revenge is the only pirate radio ship still afloat.

Charity MV Ross Revenge (Home of Radio Caroline) said it hoped the cash raised would enable it to pursue National Lottery funding for further preservation work.

Radio Caroline station manager and charity chairman Peter Moore said they needed to get the ship into dry dock for repair work and painting.

He said he also had an ambition the trawler could be "a real ship again one day and travel under her own power".

"I just think if I could get her looking like a new pin it would be grand to sail her into the Humber."

Dennis Avery was a deckhand on the Ross Revenge in the 1960s and hopes she will be preserved

Radio Caroline was founded in 1964 to play pop music all day at a time when traditional broadcasting played little.

Based on a ship in international waters, it was rendered an illegal, or pirate, station under the 1967 Marine Broadcasting Offences Act.

It continued to broadcast from Ross Revenge until it ran aground in 1991. Since then the station has been based online but was granted a medium wave frequency in 2017.

Mr Moore said it was as much about preserving her fishing history as her broadcasting links.

"It is one of only a couple of surviving British super trawlers," he said.

Dennis Avery worked on the trawler as a deckhand in the 1960s and said the vessel had been "unique" and hoped she could be preserved.

"She was the biggest ship we'd ever seen in the port and nobody knew what it would be like to work on her," he added.

Ron Telford said Ross Revenge was an important part of Grimsby's fishing history

Ross Tiger, a sister ship of Revenge, is preserved in Grimsby as part of the town's Fishing Heritage Centre.

Tour guide Ron Telford said Ross Revenge had "plenty of history" in the town.

"Ross Revenge is the parent ship of our port, she was the biggest in the world," he said.

Surviving the 1991 wreck, Ross Revenge is now maintained by volunteers and has been placed on the National Historic Ships Register.