by David McRobbie

That was the Daily Express headline on or about the 29th October 1961, giving its front page report of what happened when a crew member deliberately started a fire aboard the British tanker, Regent Eagle. The event happened late at night and exactly midway on a voyage from Aruba to the UK.

My late brother, Gordon and I had both been to sea as engineers. While he kept at it for a few more years, I settled in Australia and took up another line of work. As ex-Merchant Navy men will, we often swapped stories of our times at sea, which is how I learned about that voyage into terror.