Before coming to Canada in 1954, I worked for a
year fishing with my elder brother George on his fishing boat Mon
Rêve. At the same time, my dad, who was approaching
retirement, was working at the Whitstable Oyster Company as
skipper of the Thomas Ford.
Mon Rêve at the harbour 3 years later - in 1957
On the occasion of the town's Blessing of the
Water Ceremony, dad had been assigned the task of recruiting
fishing boats to attend the event on the water. He asked us to
take part and handed us a huge sack of flags with which to
decorate the boat. He had found them in a loft at the Oyster
Company.
George was very anxious to get a day's work in
and, so, we briefly attended the ceremony without the flags and
put the bag down below where they were forgotten. Some months later, we were chartered by a local
lawyer to take him and his staff out into the estuary to greet our
new Queen and Prince Phillip who were returning from a world tour
on the royal yacht Britannia.
The sea was not the smoothest and, by the time, we
had reached the forts, they were all feeling rather green. As luck
would have it, we had timed it right and positioned ourselves in
the appropriate channel when we saw them approaching from the
North Foreland. We were the only boat out there and had it all to
ourselves.
We headed up so that they would overtake us close
by. First, they were preceded by 3 destroyers. Then came
Britannia. We were very close . The Queen did not appear as
she was probably preparing for London but we did see Prince
Phillip, who had been brought to the rail, and he gave us a wave. By then, the lawyer was feeling well enough to say
"We should raise a flag".
Well, we didn't have a flag but, then, I
remembered the big sack. I hurried below and dragged it up
through the narrow forward hatch. At first, all I could pull out of the sack was
bunting - a string of tiny pennants. I stuck my arm deeper and got
hold of something bigger. I pulled away and found a corner which I
attached to the halyard. I started to haul it up whilst still
helping it out of the bag.
The thing was going to be huge - the full height
of the mast of the Mon Rêve. It was red at
first.... then some yellow... and finally some black. Yes!.... as it unfurled past the wheelhouse, it
revealed itself as a massive German flag.
Boy!... was I glad those destroyers had gone past.
John Harman
Sidney
British Columbia
Canada
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