THE FAMOUS RAID OF AUGUST 29

PART 5 - THEY'RE TRYING TO TOW US AWAY! HA! HA!
The following is taken from the RNI story: “On August 12^th, a nightclub owner, Mr Kees Manders announced that he was the commercial director of RNI. RNI's managing director, Larry Tremaine, denied this and said nothing had been agreed in writing. Kees Manders had been involved with Radio Veronica, Edwin Bollier and Erwin Meister invited him to start a Dutch service from the Mebo II, and offered him a directorship in RNI. Edwin Bollier and Erwin Meister became angry when Kees Manders leaked the story out, and immediately ceased all agreements with Kees Manders”.	Kees Manders
	That story appeared to have died, until ........... At a little before 1:30pm on the afternoon of Saturday, August 29^th, 1970, a salvage tug named "Husky", was spotted approaching the Mebo 2. She was accompanied by a launch, the "Viking". On board the launch, along with a woman and a small child, was the Dutchman named Kees Manders.
In the studio, Andy Archer interrupted his programme to broadcast a series of announcements appealing to listeners to contact the stations offices and advise them of what appeared to be a threatening situation. "seven minutes now away from two o'clock, and we have to apologise to you for interrupting our normal programme schedule with these urgent messages, but as you can probably appreciate, something rather drastic has happened. Or they're trying to make something happen which we won't stand for. We're refusing to allow anybody on
this radio ship, and if you've just joined us, perhaps you'd like to be put in the picture, that a tug has come alongside, along with a person by the name of Kees Manders, who apparently is a well known figure in Holland, and he is trying to take the ship away. Our Captain has only allowed him on board, and nobody else, and that will remain that way. We're not going to let anybody else on board the ship, only Mr Manders, to hear what he's got to say, but Radio North Sea International will stay broadcasting until we receive a definite order from our Head office in Zurich. So if anybody is listening in Zurich, or in London, or in our office in The Hague, in Scheveningen, perhaps they would like to do something, perhaps send a boat out, or perhaps try to make contact with us on the short-wave. . . Well, the situation is. . . none of us are sure what's happening at the moment but this certainly isn't an authorised tug. . . we have no tugs. . . the Mebo is in no need of a tug because we have perfectly good engines. . . The Captain allowed one of the men on board, but he refused to let any more on board, which is his prerogative. . . and this is the way it's going to stay until we receive details or instructions from our head office. So, once more we'd like to make a call to our head office in Zurich, or if anyone is listening in our London office, on in The Hague, perhaps you could try and get a message out to us on the short-wave link. . .
Spangles Muldoon then reported: " It seems they're gonna spray water onto the antenna, which apart from tripping out our transmitter, would give whoever did it a very lethal shock. . . So by all means, spray the aerial with water, if it makes you feel any better ! "
Back to Andy Archer: ". . . and the banging you can hear in the background is that we are taking all security precautions, and locking up the hatches to save anybody from coming down into the studio itself. So once more we must tell you that there's a raid taking place at the moment. . . an un-authorised raid, and we're doing our best to stop everybody coming on board, so all we ask for our friends on the shore. . . to send out help to us. . . " Manders' demands were refused. He returned to his launch issuing a threat to cut the anchor chain and tow the Mebo 2 back to port. Crewmen on board the “Huski” made ready to use a water cannon on the radio mast, but decided against this, presumably having heard the message that in doing so, they would risk electrocution. While Andy Archer and Spangles Muldoon continued to broadcast, others on board armed themselves with knives and petrol bombs, and prepared to repel any boarders. Meanwhile, on land switchboards in London, The Hague, and Zurich were jammed with calls from concerned listeners. Then, just as the situation looked as if it was going to get violent, station owner Erwin Meister arrived on the scene on board a very fast launch. Followed by the Eurotrip tender, and numerous other craft. Suddenly, without warning the “Huski” and “Viking” made off into the mist and were never seen again. Later that same day the van Ness, a frigate of the Royal Dutch Navy stood by, lest the raiders should return.
As the day drew to a close, Managing Director of RNI, Larry Tremaine went on air during Carl Mitchell's show to make a formal statement:	In Hans Knots "November 2004 Report", Larry Tremaine claims to still have the T-Shirt he was wearing in this 1970 photo, in his closet!
"Ladies and Gentlemen, I am very sorry for the inconvenience today that you have had, but unfortunately we have had problems out here. And, I'm glad the disk jockeys have done their part in keeping you informed, and that's what RNI plans to do. . . I'm out here right now with the owner of Radio North Sea International, from Mebo Limited in Zurich Switzerland, and we hope we don't have too many problems. At the moment, the ships have pulled off. But we are sure, as they have told us, that they are coming back. They had brought a child, and a woman, on one of their ships, to kinda deter us from doing anything to them. Although it is our intention. . . [to defend ourselves]. As the owner of the station has said to the Captain of the trip that brought us out here, only the agent from the shipping company in Holland, myself, and the owner Mr Erwin Meister has come out to the Mebo. Many people wanted to come out to come out to help us. We told them they could not come on our ship, we are not interested in any fights, we are not interested in any deaths at sea. This station is not around to make trouble, this station is around to provide you with musical entertainment. This is the reason that we asked that only the shipping agent, Mr Erwin Meister, and myself, Larry Tremaine to come out here to the Mebo 2, to see what the problem was. We have contacted our attorneys, our solicitors in Holland, and we are trying to do our utmost to do the best for you. So please stay tuned. Thank you all very much for lighting up the switchboard at the Grand Hotel. We appreciate that very much. Also thank you very much for lighting up the switchboard in Zurich. As I understand, all the lines were flooded, showing your continued support for Radio Northsea International. We are not saying that at this time, that we do not still need help, because at this time they have pulled away. But we are sure that they are coming back. Mr Manders has no right to take this ship. There has never been a contract signed with him. There are no agreements between him and Radio Northsea International. This I can assure our listeners implicitly, there is no agreement, and there is no reason for this action whatsoever. We are very sorry for all this trouble, we are very sorry to interrupt music like this. But you can understand our involved situation out here. We will protect the Mebo 2, to the utmost. We will not leave this ship, we are prepared for them although we do not want a fight. We do not want any deaths, or anybody hurt at all. It went so far as to tell them, when they planned to put water on the transmitter, the disk jockeys, just by thinking of the people on the ship, and not thinking of themselves, told them not to put water on the transmitter, because it would kill everybody on the tug boat. This we did not have to do, but we did it because we are a music station. We are not around to injure or endanger any lives whatsoever. So please stay tuned, if you wish to help, we want it. But meanwhile, stay with us.
Andy Archer, looking back, vividly recalls the events of that day: They say there’s never a dull moment on a pirate ship, well, I certainly saw a few, although this wasn’t the case at a certain Saturday lunch time when I was taking a post-lunch stroll around the deck and saw a large tug and a small launch heading our way. After being on Caroline when she was towed away, I immediately became suspicious and tried to raise the Captain, I say tried because he had just finished his lunch time drink, namely two bottles of Dutch Gin and was in no fit state really to get out of his bed, however, he did and we all know what happened after this. I must say in all honesty that all the DJ’s on board were rather frightened at first, at the thought of having to defend the ship with cudgels, knives, water cannons and Molotov cocktails, but after a while we realised that we had a tremendous height advantage and not quite so much to fear. I think one of the most amusing incidents to come out of the attempted piracy were our appeals over the air for the listeners to telephone our directors, it resulted in the switchboard at the Grand Hotel being engaged for four hours on all ten lines, and the automatic exchange in Zurich exploding! Perhaps the most heartening sight of the day was to see our little tender ship speeding out towards us with Larry Tremaine sporting a red Mickey Mouse Tee shirt, and the boarding party taking to their heels, or should I say propellers. The scene that followed reminded me of the Dunkirk evacuation with hundreds of small boats coming over to see us, including a small rowing boat with an outboard motor from Radio Veronica. It was pleasing to see that small boat from Veronica; there we were, a rival station, but Veronica’s staff showed that they were just as concerned as everyone else. Later in the afternoon a frigate of the Dutch Royal Navy, the "Van Nes" anchored about a quarter of a mile away to guard us. That evening we all went over to see the warship, and were invited on board where we drank beer with the Captain and crew, we collected over three hundred requests, which Michael Lindsay and myself read out the following morning.