On Tuesday 18th November 1969 Eppleton Hall was alongside at Mindello in the Cape Verde Islands on her voyage from Newcastle, which she had left in September, to San Francisco.

Eppleton Hall A/S in Mindello.

She had steamed up to the harbour the previous day and hoisted international code flag G “I require a pilot” but of a pilot there was no sign. Her master Captain Scott Newhall recalled “With no signal from the shore about fifteen minutes later I rang the engines ahead and the Eppleton Hall slipped slowly into port past the Mindello breakwater.

The puzzle of where to tie up was almost immediately solved. Standing at the end of the jetty was a tall, dark figure, holding up a placard reading “TIE UP HERE”. And so Eppleton Hall found a safe harbour in the Cape Verde Islands and was taken in hand by Old John.”

To be continued.

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