In 1977, the ship was partly equipped as a floating radio station in the harbour of Belfast (Northern Ireland) under the guise of a film lighting ship, which did not arouse much interest from the authorities. The preparations included a horizontal t-antenna and two FM-transmitters each capable of 1 kW. Bob Noakes, Dick Palmer, Robbie Dale and Chris Cary were involved with preparing the project which was constantly suffering from a lack of money. In April 1978, the vessel left Belfast harbour heading for Portugal. The crew realized that the vessel was far to small. So they tried to return to Belfast. But after suffering from problems with the steering wheel the boat was towed in to St. Mary (Scilly Islands). Three months later it was sold to George and Jean Russell living on the Isle of Guernsey. Together with friends and their children they wanted to make the holiday of their life in 1979 and went to, believe it or not, Portugal. During the trip they had lots of problems with the weather and finally ran aground the beach of Esphino (Portugal). They got heavily in problems with the authorities there and had to pay enormous amounts of tax for illegally bringing goods to Portugal. After 18 weeks staying in the country, as they were not allowed to leave, they left it illegally. Still the ‘Salamander’ as the ‘Deep Diver’ was renamed, can be found on the beach of Esphino. The ship has still one of the two original aerialmasts, used as ship mast.
Planned offshore radio station: Sunshine Radio with programmes for British tourists
Planned Location: International waters off the Mediterranean coast