SEVENTY YEARS AGO Thursday May 29, 1952
Liverpool stowaways land in Kintyre – put ashore from US bound American ship
‘It was smashing while it lasted.’
That was how two Liverpool stowaways expressed their opinion of a trip on board the American cargo ship Seagale which they thought was to take them from Liverpool docks to New York, but, instead, they found themselves drinking tea and eating biscuits in a little farmhouse on the chin of the Mull of Kintyre hills late on Monday night.
The stowaways are Christopher Logan, 15-year-old apprentice shipping clerk, the younger son of an electrical engineer of 92 Union Crescent, Liverpool, and 16-year-old Thomas Noon, eldest son of a stevedore of 58 Ennismore Road, Liverpool.
The two boys, who said they had planned their stowaway scheme in a club at The Old Swan, Liverpool, told a reporter that they spent Monday in the cabin of the ship’s captain.
They said he radioed a number of ships to discover if any vessels on his course were bound for Liverpool.
Unable to transfer the boys to another ship, the captain, according to the story, decided to put them off in one of the ship’s lifeboats.
Said Logan, who was wearing a chequered shirt – a present from the crew: ‘When the ship was two miles off land, the captain gave orders for one of the boats to be lowered and we were told to go into it.
‘About seven of the crew came across with us. We had to paddle ashore.
‘We climbed up the hill and saw this farmhouse and made for it and here we are.’
The two boys landed at Borgadelmore Bay and climbed the 800-foot hill of the same name. It is a rocky and desolate terrain.
Mr and Mrs John Leitch made them comfortable in their little croft until the arrival of the police.
The younger stowaway was the most talkative. He said this was his second attempt to stowaway.
When he was 14, he tried to stowaway on a cargo ship from London – the Dashwood – but was caught before she sailed.
He said that he and Noon met at the club where they played table tennis and danced.
On Sunday night they were both ‘flat’ without any money. So they went down to Liverpool docks where two dockers told them that the Seagale was two hands short.
The boys said they were very anxious to join the Merchant Navy. They had tried in vain at Liverpool and were hoping to join the Merchant service in New York.
They had tried to join tugs, whalers and other ships, but they said: ‘Our luck has been out every time.’
Said Noon: ‘We have always wanted to go to sea. That’s our ambition and one day we will.’
The two boys did not seem to look depressed, though a greater problem faced them: how to return to Liverpool by land.
That problem was solved by news from the Liverpool Police that money to cover the fares of the two lads to their homes had been advanced.
The Campbeltown Police, who had been host to the two boys, gave the money to pay for their travel and they, in turn, will be reimbursed by the Liverpool Police.
Inspector Robert J Mackay told the Courier that there would be no proceedings taken against the boys at Campbeltown.
After being hospitably cared for by Bar Officer Alan McDougall at Campbeltown Police Station, they left yesterday morning by bus to catch the 1:45 pm Glasgow train for Liverpool.