THE SEA ROVER INCIDENT

Stop or we shoot - no? OK! BANG!

By Andy Gilbert

This is the tug Sea Rover (1971) ex Neptunia (1966) ex Rode Zee (1949).

The date is 5.3.1981. The former salvage tug Sea Rover had been chased up the channel by several English and French customs launches and a gunboat. She was suspected of drug running.

Now, at this point in all the movies, the chasing ship's skipper shouts through the megaphone "Heave to, or we fire!" and when that doesn't work, he turns to the gunnery officer and says "Put a warning shot across her bows." Next you see a view of the plume of water shooting up in front of the boat being chased. She promptly stops.

Well this wasn't the movies and Sea Rover didn't stop, not even when they opened fire on her. And I mean really opened fire. She ended up full of bullet holes and a few shell holes too! Her starboard lifeboat was even set alight and destroyed by the gunfire. Eventually Sea Rover did give up and was subsequently escorted into Newhaven, where teams of Customs officers descended on her searching for drugs.

This naturally caused a bit of a stir at Newhaven, not least among the members of the local and national press. Former Port Manager Gordon Burke tells me that the BBC sent none other than their intrepid reporter Kate Adie to cover the item. The photo of the BBC team shows cameraman Mike Edwards and sound recordist David Clitheroe on the scene.

In addition to Les Harris's colour photo and my own archive photo of Rode Zee, I'd like to thank Newhaven Museum for permission to post just some of the photos from their Album #21. Well worth a look next time you pop in!