ALAN WHALLEY'S WORLD

AN eagerly-anticipated gentle river cruise turned into a panic of epic proportions for family-group passengers during an unforgettable summer season sail across the Mersey.

Among those on board, along with her two small children and her mother, was Joan Dooley who relives that heart-stopping crossing from Liverpool to New Brighton back in 1966.

Joan, from Eastwood Avenue, Newton-le-Willows, picks up on our Royal Iris theme which has surged through my ocean of nostalgia for several weeks past.

"I clearly remember my one-and-only trip on that particular ferry," says Joan, who must still feel sea-sick whenever she looks back on that day trip of 31 years ago.

Along with her mother, Joan arranged to take her two children to New Brighton, then a booming fun-filled resort, as a special treat. Joan's son was five and her daughter three at the time - "just at an age when they enjoyed seeing the river and the ships."

They stepped aboard the famous Royal Iris at Liverpool Pier Head unaware of the horrors that lay ahead. The sea was become increasingly choppy as the family stepped aboard, and a gale was threatening to get up.

"That crossing turned into a nightmare," Joan recalls, "the ferry was tossed from side to side and end to end."

The few passengers (about 60 of them) who had decided to brave the bad weather omens found themselves clutching to their seats, around the ferry dance floor, for support.

Joan looked towards the windows. "One minute I could see nothing but sea - and the next I was looking up into the sky."

Throughout it all, her daughter was having a fine old time, sliding about the bucking dance floor, though her little brother felt too queasy to join her!

"On reaching New Brighton," says Joan, "we were told that the ferry would not be returning to Liverpool." The green-faced passengers were issued with tickets to catch a bus to Wallasey for an alternative ferry to the city.

Getting off the Royal Iris at New Brighton was a truly traumatic experience. Two men stood on either side of the ferry exit, with two others positioned on the landing stage.

"They had to time just when the heaving boat and landing stage were closest together," explains Joan, "then we were pushed off, one by one."

They landed into the arms of the two men on the landing stage, braced to catch the shaken passengers. "I was praying for things to go right," adds Joan, "and fortunately they did and no-one was injured."

Joan believes that this was one of the last sailings of this kind to New Brighton. "I never heard of any after that particular day."

Yet despite that one-off scare, Joan retains very fond memories of her own childhood ferry trips of the more pleasant, flat-calm kind.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.