I was still with the company in 92 and the Ford contract was taking up more and more of our time. However, forty one years earlier a ship was built in Glasgow and named the ‘MV Maid of Ashton’ and was operated by the Caledonian Steam Packet Company providing ferry services in Scotland.
In seventy three she was sold and her new owners brought her down to London where she was given a new name, the ‘RS Hispaniola’. Initially she was used as a Gentlemens Club but later she became a floating restaurant and moored on Victoria Embankment just upriver from Hungerford Bridge opposite Northumberland Avenue and Whitehall Gardens.
In 92 one of the ‘Suits’ at Fords wanted to earn some brownie points and suggested it would be the ideal location to launch the ‘Special Edition Ford Fiesta Fanfare’ obviously not worrying about the logistics of the job as that could be left to others to sort out, namely Promotor.
We were given a very brief synopsis of Ford’s requirements and told to get on with it. They had already been in contact with the ship’s owners and no doubt enjoyed a (free) slap up meal on board whilst ascertaining it was a suitable venue. Promotor had to work out how to get a ‘Ford Fiesta Fanfare’ on board together with a plinth and a few other bits.
You couldn’t just drive on board as there was only a pedestrian gangway so it would have to be craned and do you know what was involved in closing part of one of the busiest roads in Central London to set up a crane? Don’t even think about it. We had to get the necessary permissions from the police, including the river police, the council and a multitude of others such as the underground and electricity and gas companies. It just wasn’t on.
We thought about it for a while and realised the only way it could be done was to bring the car in on a barge then using a floating crane to hoist it on board. And thats what we did. Still wasn’t going to be easy though and as we hadn’t had the Ford Contract for long nothing must go wrong so Peter and I decided I should handle the operation myself. After talking to various people and companies, many of whom could see nothing but mega bucks for themselves if they were involved, the simplest of ideas was offered to us by a chap who owned his own small barge and worked up and down the Thames every day. He was the dustman and his barge was fitted out with a crane which was used to lift the rubbish off various floating establishments. It turned out his crane had a lifting capacity in excess of the weight of the car and the necessary reach. We were in business.
I’d had the car and other bits loaded onto one of our single car transporters the previous day, so early in the morning I set out for Woolwich and a small quay hidden away at the back of some old warehouses. Here I met our dustman and we loaded the car, using the crane, onto his barge and set off up river. Of course, many years later, I curse that I took so few photos. Just a few of the car on its plinth on the ship with some trumpeters playing a ‘Fanfare’ over it. It was about seven in the morning that we arrived alongside the RS Hispaniola and within an hour we had the plinth on board and the car about to be lifted onto it. I’d had some spreaders specially made which enabled us to hoist the car without damaging the bodywork. Once the job was done I gave the car a polish and that was it until mid afternoon when the dustman returned to collect it and take us back to Woolwich.
One of the best little jobs I was involved with whilst with Promotor.
