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The Ross Revenge returned to the end of Southend Pier on21st June 1999. She crossed the Thames Estuary from Queensborough towed by the tug Horton. She arrived in the early evening and work commenced to get the ship ready for the public. She is now open and the entrance to board the Ross is £3.00 plus it costs another £2.00 to get onto the pier which includes the train ride.
The Ross Revenge came to the aid of several of the traders on the pier during the week ending 3rd August. The pier had a power cut leaving the ice cream sellers without fridges during a hot spell plus the burger stores without cookers etc, so by running one of the smaller generators on board the Ross, the engineers managed to restore power to the end of the pier
One of the highlights of the stay in Southend is a restricted service broadcast on 1503 KHZ which commenced on 26th July 1999.
I visited the Ross Revenge on 8th August 1999, it was the first time I had seen the ship since the Docklands Broadcast, as she has spent her time at Queenborough which is a long way from my home in Norwich.
Caroline presence at the end of the pier was advertised in the Pier Railway station with this poster. As I visited at the weekend, the broadcasts during the day were not live from the ship but the Astra 1c Satellite service from the Maidstone studios being relayed to Southend on 1503khz.
Unfortunately the day I choose to go to Southend was very dull and wet. Here the Ross's bridge lights certainly stand out from the gloom.
The ship was moored further up the pier to where she was on the previous visit
The stern of the ship certainly looks better after the repaint. However it seems strange not to see the ships name on the stern.
I wondered if the reason for this could be that the ship is not registered with a State because of the detention order
The bow of the ship now looks very smart.
Certainly the hard work by the group of volunteers has paid dividends
