LARRY WEBB
Larry Webb was a Fleet Air Arm helicopter pilot when I first came across him. Later he owned an earth moving company based in St Albans, Herts, that amongst other things, blasted the M5 out of the cliffs around Avonmouth. I went from being his RN engineer on choppers to being one of his low loader drivers.
I well remember being buzzed by him in his private helicopter, as I made my way up the A4 from Avonmouth (pre M4) with a dodgy load of a navvy’s caravan. He called me into his office. I expected a bollocking, but he commended me for my initiative and said that as long as what I did with the rig didn’t interfere with legitimate work, he wasn’t bothered.
In 1971, he took his luxury cruiser, Laguna, across to Cherbourg, but holed it on a submerged war-time wreck in the wrong harbour entrance. The boat was lifted out before it sank. I was sent over the channel to pick it up, with a junior office boy as a driver’s mate, cos he could speak a bit of schoolboy French.
We loaded the boat in Cherbourg docks, but the load was too high at 17ft to fit on the Cherbourg ferry, so we were faced with an overland trip around to Le Havre. The police wouldn’t let us move without ■■■■■■, which meant we had to stay in Cherbourg for a week while a French haulage firm sorted out the paperwork. Living in the boat on the back of the trailer was bliss! Especially as Larry had fully stocked the bar. We thought we had better drink it all otherwise we might have a problem at customs. The parties with local girls was great! There was an early tape stereo system installed.
Eventually we got away under ■■■■■■. Because the load was high it was a slow run. My ‘driver’s mate’, was on the boat’s flying bridge. If he saw cables that were too low he would sound the boat’s fog horn. I would stop. He would then pass the cables over the top of the boat using a piece of wood while I crept forward, as many of them were live!
At one point we came across a new road bridge that was too low to get under. We had to take the rig up a site haul road, over the bridge, and back down the other side.
Eventually we got to the ferry, and after a smooth crossing on the upper deck arrived in Portsmouth, where customs impounded us.
There were a few bottles of booze left that we couldn’t drink, so we hid them in the toilet, which stank as it hadn’t been emptied for weeks. We thought the customs man wouldn’t look there, but he did. He found the bottles. He set them out on the galley table and inspected them. We thought we were in deep crap. Then he said, “You have been silly boys! All this stuff was bought in UK, so there is no duty due on it!”
The cruiser was unloaded in a Southampton boatyard. The trip still brings back great memories as it was the precursor of the luxury sleeper cab, having an ocean going cruiser with a bar and two double berths on the trailer to sleep in overnight. The girls loved it, French or English.
Sadly, a few years later, Larry, his wife and his son, were killed when he flew his helicopter into the sea in thick fog on his way back from France where he had gone for a meal. His daughter, who was unwell and didn’t go on the trip inherited the firm. She sold it to Bovis. That’s when I left.
Images can be found on slideshow at:
picasaweb.google.com/irishcanald … 7282046194
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