Cameraman tales: Anon at Rediffusion
Sir Francis Chichester arrived in Plymouth on May 28th 1967, in his yacht, Gypsy Moth IV, after completing his epic single-handed voyage around the world.
He crossed the finishing line at 8.58 in the evening, nine months and one day after setting off from the historic port. Sir Francis was the first person to race around the world, solo, with only one port of call, and that was Sydney.
Thousands of small boats accompanied Gypsy Moth IV into Plymouth Sound 119 days after it set sail from Sydney, Australia, the only stop in the global journey. They let off hooters and sirens. Fire boats sprayed red, white and blue water. The Royal Artillery fired a ten-gun salute.
A crowd of some 250,000 cheered and sang, welcoming home the 65-year-old adventurer who has inspired the nation during the previous year.
At the breakwater, Sir Francis was joined by his wife, Lady Chichester, and son Giles who brought two bottles of champagne on board.
Today’s home-coming was carefully planned and he was met on shore by the Lord Mayor of Plymouth and other dignitaries and driven to the Guildhall.
Later he received a message from the Queen and Prince Philip congratulating him on his achievement. Later still, he was knighted and the Queen used the sword of Sir Francis Drake to dub him Knight.
Image via Wikipedia
Sir Francis had spent almost 220 days at sea and crossed the Atlantic, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, across the Pacific and round Cape Horn – 28,500 miles of dangerous ocean.
The whole proceedings were broadcast live by the B.B.C. The world’s press were there.
Associated Rediffusion, then supplying television broadcasts to the London area, had sent crews down to film the arrival. I do not know what programme they had in mind when they did that.
The story of the anonymous cameraman goes like this:
Cameraman returns to London and fills out his expense sheet. He had been obliged to get seaborne so as to get close to Gypsy Moth as it entered Plymouth Sound. He had put in his expenses a sum to cover “the hire of ocean-going tug” to get to his filming position.
After tendering his expenses, he was called into the office of the accountant. The accountant announced that he had seen the whole event from beginning to end on the B.B.C. and that he had seen the said cameraman in a rowing boat leaving the dockside.
The cameraman said “thank you for that I had almost forgotten”.
The cameraman immediately produced a pad and pen and wrote while he spoke.
“Hire of rowing boat to reach ocean-going tug”.
Can this be true ? Surely you could not make it up.
Main image of the Gypsy Moth IV from Derable via flickr.
© Terence Gallacher and terencegallacher.com, 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Terence Gallacher and terencegallacher.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
For more articles in the Cameraman tales series click here.
