Vic.
As a kid, Vic used to go down and play darts with the crew of 'HMS Sunlight' and would stand up on the cliffs waiting for it to come back in to port. In 1940 he saw it blown up as it was coming back in to Newhaven.
Also, when the ammunition barge which was driven ashore and exploded under the cliffs, he was in bed at his house in Gibbon Rd, and the ceiling fell on him from the blast!
There are a few bits of scattered wreckage which show on the sounder but we have not dived it. Very silty around the mouth of the river although an old member of our original club did find an engine room telegraph from it many years ago.
Yarmouth Mercury 22/06/1940:- SAW HUSBAND'S BOAT BLOWN UP. - Yarmouth Woman's Ordeal. - A Yarmouth woman described to the Mercury this week how she saw the mine-sweeper on which her husband was serving blown up by a mine as it was nearing port.
She is Mrs. Albert Victor Roberts, of 16 Row, 11 North Quay. Her husband, who was 30, before the war was a metal dealer with Mr. William Gunn, of Fullers Hill. When war came, Mr. Roberts, who during his career had been a fisherman, joined the mine-sweeping fleet as a seaman cook.
Mrs. Roberts went to the port from which her husband's vessel, the OCEAN SUNLIGHT, was operating eight weeks ago, and took her children with her. "I usually went down to the harbour to meet him when his boat was due in." Mrs. Roberts told a reporter. "On Thursday I went down to the harbour at quarter to eight in the evening and saw his boat approaching. I started to wave and then I saw his boat blown up. It was terrible! My husband was one of the eight men killed. There were five saved.
"Mrs. Roberts said her husband took part in the Dunkirk evacuations and was subjected to bombing and machine gun attacks, but came through unscathed. Mrs. Roberts has three sons and two daughters, all under eight years of age. The OCEAN SUNLIGHT was was a Yarmouth owned boat.
GORLESTON PETTY OFFICER LOST - Petty Officer Charles McCondach, of the OCEAN SUNLIGHT, who was among those lost, was the third son of Mrs. McCondach, of 39 Stadbroke Road, Gorleston. He was 33, and though for the last few years had made his home in Fleetwood, were he worked on trawlers, he was well known in Gorleston for 20 years and used to go to Church Road School.
Most of his working life was spent at sea and at the outbreak of war joined the Royal Naval Reserve. He served in other boats, and, by coincidence, was transferred to a Yarmouth boat, the OCEAN SUNLIGHT, early in the year, shortly after he had been home on leave. His last leave a few weeks ago was spent in with his sister at Tonbridge, Kent. He was unmarried.
WINTERTON SKIPPER. - Skipper Reginald J. Crane, of the OCEAN SUNLIGHT, is in hospital suffering from leg injuries and shock. Skipper Crane is 42 years old and a Winterton man.
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