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Caroline's Dutch Era
Dutch drinking songs and barrel organ music. Caroline joins the Netherlands
radio scene and finds herself alone again
The Mi Amigo was rushed out to sea before the authorities could detain her,
for being in poor condition. Much time passed until the generators and broadcast
equipment could be made serviceable. Before the ship went for auction, engineer
Peter Chicago soon to become a Caroline legend had removed vital electrical
equipment which needed to be reinstalled. In the early days Mi Amigo was often
unpowered and unlit. However when the transmitter was energised it gave a
powerful 50Kw signal covering most of Europe.
Caroline fans were delighted. Other organisations were less pleased. By 1972
Radio Veronica had been operating off the Dutch coast for twelve years from the
converted lightship Borkum Riff and later from the more modern ex trawler
Nordeney. Surprisingly there had not been a proliferation of Dutch offshore
radio and this, together with the fact that Veronica used only moderate
transmitter power and had an impeccable reputation, had prevented the Dutch
government from considering hostile action.
In mid 1970 however Veronica had been joined at her anchorage by the ship
Mebo 2, transmitting Radio North Sea.. Having been part instrumental in creating
a Conservative government in the UK the owners of R.N.I. had expected. indeed
had allegedly been assured that the previous jamming of the signal instigated by
the Labour government would cease. In fact it continued until the Mebo 2
admitted defeat and relocated off Holland. Veronica were sufficiently concerned
to maintain their own monopoly and carefully achieved status that they paid
R.N.I. to go off the air but this arrangement fell apart when record companies
made a better offer for the station to recommence transmitting. Motivated by
rage, Veronica directors Bul Verwey and Norbert Jurgens paid to have the Mebo 2
sabotaged so that she would be obliged to enter port, Late in the evening of May
15th 1971 an explosive device set the engine room and stern of the radio ship
ablaze.
Veronica's perfect image was destroyed, especially as the perpetrators were
soon arrested and immediately implicated Verwey and Jurgens. Further the attack
did not even achieve its object as the fire did not harm the transmitting
equipment. Mebo 2 stayed at her anchorage and the damage was repaired at sea.
Ronan
O'Rahilly in a 70s groove!
| Now a third station, Caroline had arrived which was the last thing that
Veronica wanted but for a very long time the equipment on the Mi Amigo was so
unreliable and funds for repairs were so short that Caroline was off air more
than it was on. While broadcasts were possible, Ronans movie Gold was heavily
promoted but with no discernible effect. The film never went on general release.
Various fortunate events kept Caroline operating. Veronica briefly hired the
Mi Amigo when their own ship was driven aground in a storm. Then since Caroline
was never going to be viable as an English service, deals were struck to hand
over some air time to Dutch broadcasters, though this made Radio Caroline a '
Dutch' problem and actually set burning a slow fuse that was not to explode for
a further fifteen years. The best remembered Dutch service to operate from the
Caroline ship was Sylvain Tack's Radio Mi Amigo a wild mixture of Dutch pop
tracks, drinking songs and barrel organ music. His involvement provided
financial stability and ensured that an overnight Caroline service could
continue even if it created no revenue. The Mi Amigo was made into a reasonably
reliable operating unit. although the entire period of the ships time off the
Dutch coast and indeed the remainder of her life at sea was one of make do and
mend. The original transmitter mast collapsed soon after the ship returned to
sea, as did a replacement erected soon after. When generators installed within
the ship failed, replacement units were craned on to the open aft deck.
The situation settled down with Dutch language and style radio during the day
and English Caroline programmes at night, but sadly the elements that destroyed
the UK offshore radio boom were also now present in Holland. From just Radio
Veronica with a 10Kw signal on one non contentious frequency, the Dutch
government now also saw the Mi Amigo with one 50Kw and one 10Kw transmitter on
board which were sometimes used together for experimental stereo broadcasts
requiring two radios. Further, the Mebo 2 had a transmitter capable in theory of
100Kw plus FM and two short wave channels and lastly there was the vessel
Janine, home of Radio Atlantis. Another station Capitol Radio on board the King
David was not at sea since technical imperfections, money problems and the
incompetence of the operators collapsed the project after only a few weeks on
air but this did not guarantee that some other group might not gain control and
use the ship.
 Thus Netherlands drafted its own anti pirate law which in spite of intense
public protest made progress toward becoming law by August 30th 1974. The other
stations announced as before their intentions to close but Caroline and Radio Mi
Amigo insisted that they would continue. Sylvain Tack was sufficiently
determined, to choose exile in Spain to keep his station operating
On the afternoon of August 29th the Mi Amigo summoned a tug to assist in
raising her anchor and attempted, using her own ancient main engine to head away
from the Dutch coast. After some hours of steaming where virtually no progress
had been made. a tow was requested and the ship headed towards the UK.
O'Rahilly had always wanted the ship close to England rather than Holland.
This had been the basis of his original dispute with Gerard Van Dam. Only the
convenience of tendering and the requirement of his Dutch customer for the best
possible signal on the continent kept Caroline off Scheveningen. Now the Dutch
law negated these considerations and Ronan concluded that when day dawned on the
first morning that the Dutch law was in force it may be prudent to be out of
sight and out of mind. Similarly he did not wish to be in sight of the British
and so instead of the usual pirate anchorage off the resort of Walton Essex,. Mi
Amigo was delivered to a desolate anchorage in the Knock Deep at the mouth of
the Thames Estuary. visible from neither the Kent or Essex coasts. At this
location and ostensibly operated and supplied from Playa De Aro in Spain, Radio
Caroline and the ship commenced their next six lonely, difficult but remarkable
years.
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