Captain John Ridgway & Sargeant Chay Blyth

Speaker 10:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and you are listening to Desert Island Discs.

Speaker 10:05

This edition of Desert Island Discs was archived without the music.

Speaker 10:09

So although the Castaways choices are introduced, they're not part of this recording.

Speaker 10:15

Full details can be found on the Castaways page on the Desert Island Disc's website.

Speaker 10:20

The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen sixty six.

Speaker 10:24

And the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:27

How'd you do, ladies and gentlemen?

Presenter0:29

One of the great achievements of this decade was the crossing of the Atlantic by two Army men in a twenty foot rowing boat.

Presenter0:36

They're on our desert island this week, Captain John Ridgway and Sergeant Ch. Blythe of the Parachute Regiment.

Presenter0:42

Now, gentlemen, you have four records each, and we spend a coin as to which of you pick first, right?

Presenter0:48

Trebleise, w will you call?

Speaker 20:51

Heads.

Presenter0:52

Exiters

Presenter0:54

Now, Sergeant Blythe, you are a Scot. Where were you born?

Speaker 20:56

I was born in Hoyke, which is in the borders of Scotland in Roxburghshire.

Presenter1:00

Yes. How long have you been in the army?

Speaker 21:03

Eight years.

Presenter1:04

Is music important to you?

Speaker 21:06

I enjoy music, but I think I could do without it.

Speaker 21:09

Came to it.

Presenter1:10

Mm.

Presenter1:11

What's the first record you chose?

Speaker 21:13

The Nuns Chorus.

Presenter1:14

Why do you choose that?

Speaker 21:16

The nuns chorus is also um one of my mother's favourite records. We were we were very close, my mother and I.

Speaker 21:24

And I sort of like listening to it for this particular reason.

Presenter1:27

The Nuns Chorus from Casanova by the Orchestra and Chorus of the Grossenschauspielhausen, Berlin.

Presenter1:34

Captain Ridgeway, where were you born?

Presenter1:36

I was born in Essex.

Captain John Ridgway1:37

Yeah.

Presenter1:38

How much does music

Captain John Ridgway1:38

Sigma deal.

Captain John Ridgway1:40

Um

Captain John Ridgway1:42

I think really that uh in times of uh stress when I need uh more courage.

Captain John Ridgway1:48

I would like to hear exhilarating music very loud.

Captain John Ridgway1:52

Unsettle music. What's the first one you've chosen?

Captain John Ridgway1:55

The first one I've chosen, in fact, is Antarctica.

Captain John Ridgway1:59

Von William. Yes.

Captain John Ridgway2:01

The prelude is read by Sir John Geelgood in that particular

Captain John Ridgway2:05

Peace.

Captain John Ridgway2:07

Um from Prometheus Unbound.

Captain John Ridgway2:09

By Shilly.

Captain John Ridgway2:11

Uh means a great deal to me. I heard it about five years ago.

Captain John Ridgway2:15

Just before I got married, in fact.

Captain John Ridgway2:17

And um I've written it down ever since on various diaries I've kept and I think that it's been a guidepost to me really. It played a large part in

Captain John Ridgway2:28

in my taking the chance to row across the Atlantic.

Captain John Ridgway2:33

And the actual music, the the gap between the very loud parts is about the length of a

Captain John Ridgway2:39

Very big wave.

Captain John Ridgway2:40

And uh

Captain John Ridgway2:41

Middle of an Atlantic storm.

Presenter2:45

The opening passage of the Vaughan Williams Sinfonia Antarctica

Presenter2:49

The London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Belt and the voice of Sir John Gilgood.

Presenter2:55

Now, Captain Ridgeway, the Atlantic had been rowed before, hadn't it?

Captain John Ridgway2:57

But Yeah.

Captain John Ridgway2:59

Yes, this is true, I believe in eighteen ninety-six two Norwegian Americans.

Captain John Ridgway3:04

Um attempted to row from

Captain John Ridgway3:07

I think it was, uh, New York to Land's End.

Captain John Ridgway3:10

And they got across in fifty-five days.

Captain John Ridgway3:13

And uh

Captain John Ridgway3:15

This is such a long time ago, I think it was seventy years ago now, mm that

Captain John Ridgway3:20

The details of this are missed in time and exactly w what they did. I know they were on three ships, so I've been told.

Captain John Ridgway3:27

But it there doesn't seem to be any real record of how they did it.

Captain John Ridgway3:33

Attempt

Captain John Ridgway3:34

Well it was not a a thing that um I'd always wanted to do at all. I'd

Presenter3:34

Well it was not a

Captain John Ridgway3:39

Never even thought of it until

Captain John Ridgway3:41

Uh

Captain John Ridgway3:42

I heard it on the wireless. You heard um David Johnston talking about it. That's right, on um Jack Demanios today.

Presenter3:45

You bugger.

Captain John Ridgway3:48

Mm-hmm.

Captain John Ridgway3:51

Here I saw a chance to do something.

Captain John Ridgway3:55

of the this nature, which I'd always wanted to do all my life, something like go to the Himalayas or the Pearls or something, but today young people just haven't got the money to finance expeditions like this.

Captain John Ridgway4:06

And here was an opportunity.

Captain John Ridgway4:08

which was not going to cost a great deal.

Captain John Ridgway4:10

There.

Presenter4:11

Uh

Captain John Ridgway4:11

And I think 500 pounds.

Presenter4:13

Covered the whole thing.

Presenter4:14

So David Johnston went off and started an attempt with John Hoare in Puffin.

Presenter4:20

And Iel teamed up with Sergeant Blythe and decided to make an independent attempt.

Captain John Ridgway4:22

Decide for me.

Captain John Ridgway4:24

Yeah.

Presenter4:25

Now, Johnson and Hoare had their boats specially built, I believe, did you, Captain Ridgway?

Presenter4:29

M

Captain John Ridgway4:29

So

Presenter4:30

Yeah.

Captain John Ridgway4:30

Um I didn't finally decide to do it until uh sometime in February when I did a sort of military appreciation. Worked out I only had fifty-five days to get to America with a boat, so there was no time then to start getting boats designed or built.

Speaker 14:40

Uh

Captain John Ridgway4:44

And uh

Captain John Ridgway4:46

A friend in Scotland sent me Dana.

Captain John Ridgway4:48

Um thing for lobster pods and said there was a very good boat and I took that boat as a stockboat.

Captain John Ridgway4:55

Uh

Presenter4:55

Why did you resign?

Captain John Ridgway4:55

Yeah. Two stock

Presenter4:56

From Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Captain John Ridgway4:59

Well, again, with only the fifty five days I tried to make the thing as simple as possible. And uh I knew that the other boat, Puffin, was going to start from Cape Cod, so I decided to go from the same place. How long did you think the voyage was going to take, Sergeant Blythe?

Presenter5:14

Uh

Speaker 25:15

Between uh sixty to eighty days, we thought it would

Speaker 25:18

Take about that, but in fact we took provisions for a hundred days.

Presenter5:21

How long in fact did it take?

Speaker 25:23

91 days.

Presenter5:25

Well, now we've discussed all the preparations for the voyage, let's have another record, and it's your turn again, Sergeant Blythe.

Speaker 25:31

Well this time I have chosen the sound of music.

Speaker 25:34

The reason for this is

Speaker 25:36

This in fact was the

Speaker 25:37

The film, the last film I went to with my wife, or indeed the last place I went to with my wife, prior to going on a trip.

Speaker 25:46

I think the film was absolutely marvellous and also um

Speaker 25:49

During the trip about two o'clock in the morning when I was rowing,

Speaker 25:53

I had

Speaker 25:54

j their overture from a sound of music.

Speaker 25:56

So I think it's a good time to play it.

Presenter5:59

The Overture to The Sound of Music from the Film Soundtrack. Now, Sergeant Bright, this was your department. Roughly, how much did you take in the way of stores? How much fresh water?

Speaker 26:08

We took a hundred and twenty gallons of fresh water.

Speaker 26:11

for for the actual trip.

Speaker 26:13

But we also took nine gallons of spare water, which we loaded up.

Speaker 26:18

After we put um 120 gallons in.

Presenter6:21

Yeah. How much food?

Speaker 26:23

We took enough food, as I said, for um

Speaker 26:25

about eighty days plus emergency.

Presenter6:28

Now all this must have made the boat very heavy to pull.

Speaker 26:31

Yes, I should think well over a ton, almost a ton and a half I should think.

Presenter6:35

Good.

Presenter6:36

Now you had no cabin on English Rose three, just a a canvas canopy. With all the buoyancy tanks and stores and so on, was there room to stretch out to sleep fairly comfortably?

Captain John Ridgway6:47

Well, in fact, the boat was twenty foot long, and we had decking coming in from either end, about four feet from either end.

Captain John Ridgway6:55

Which was just uh buoyancy. So that took eight feet, leaving us twelve feet. Then we had two thoughts.

Captain John Ridgway7:01

which would cover most of the twelve feet left.

Captain John Ridgway7:04

And we worked out that we lived in bad weather in a space.

Captain John Ridgway7:09

of about five feet by five feet. And consequently we could never really stretch out. We always had our knees bent up. Yes. And we had only this piece of wet canvas over our head.

Captain John Ridgway7:19

How did you arrange the rowing? Did you both row by day and both sleep by night?

Captain John Ridgway7:24

Well, um again.

Captain John Ridgway7:27

We worked out a plan. Obviously we couldn't set off at uh

Captain John Ridgway7:31

A very high level.

Captain John Ridgway7:33

We got as fat as we could before we started, and thought we'd find down for the first month or so.

Captain John Ridgway7:38

and then try and keep a high peak.

Captain John Ridgway7:40

We rode

Captain John Ridgway7:42

Initially, for the first three weeks

Captain John Ridgway7:44

Twelve hours, both rowing together except for five minute breaks each hour.

Captain John Ridgway7:49

And then we both slipped.

Captain John Ridgway7:51

For Atas

Captain John Ridgway7:53

And then we s did another twelve hours row. After three three weeks of this, we decided to really get stuck in and

Captain John Ridgway7:59

We rode both together for twelve hours, and then for the twelve hours of darkness.

Captain John Ridgway8:04

We went through three two hour periods of sleep and three two hour periods of rowing alternately. So one man was rowing, one man was sleeping. Yeah, so if the weather made it possible, the boat was underway the whole time.

Captain John Ridgway8:16

This is true, it never stopped from the twenty-seventh of July to the third of August, for example.

Presenter8:20

Now you rowed west to east to take advantage of the prevailing winds. In fact, out of the ninety one days that the voyage took, roughly how many days did you have a westerly wind?

Speaker 28:30

I think we're westerly winds most of the time, except probably for about three weeks.

Speaker 28:35

We had

Speaker 28:36

almost a complete week of nothing but easterly winds, which became very depressing.

Presenter8:41

Yes, you're blown back.

Speaker 28:43

and then the rest of the time there's a odd days of Easterlies.

Presenter8:47

Now the boat is of a a cockle shell size. It must have been tossed about to a fantastic degree. Did either of you suffer from sea sickness?

Captain John Ridgway8:54

Yes, I knew I was going to be seasick, therefore I decided that a good idea would be to start in the late part of the day, so that darkness would quickly come and no one would see me being sick, which would be a very bad start. And I was sick I think four times in the first twenty four hours.

Captain John Ridgway9:09

And after that. And then I recovered. It it cleared up, although we did feel sick, both of us, sometimes underneath this wet piece of canvas in very bad weather.

Presenter9:10

And then I recap

Presenter9:16

Uh

Presenter9:17

Uh

Captain John Ridgway9:17

Yeah.

Presenter9:17

Now you went through two hurricanes and quite a number of gales, and there was no question of being able to batten down hatches. All you had between you and the weather was this strip of canvas. Yes. And no way of keeping the water out. You had to pump or bale the whole time in in bad weather.

Speaker 29:32

Yes and

Captain John Ridgway9:33

The canvas in fact only covered just a little bit of the boat, the rest was open, just a bit over our heads.

Captain John Ridgway9:38

And there was no way of drying clothes.

Presenter9:40

Yeah.

Speaker 29:41

We had um we used to have about one day per week when it was good.

Speaker 29:45

And sunny we could even get a sunbath, and we'd get most of our clothes dry. Had it not been for that one day then, we'd no way of getting our clothes dry, I'm afraid.

Presenter9:53

Yes.

Presenter9:54

Well the wet clothes must of course have led to chafing and skin sores and other unpleasantness.

Captain John Ridgway10:02

Uh yes, this was perhaps the worst part of the whole thing, the terrible, um soreness, particularly on our backsides of the the salt water.

Captain John Ridgway10:12

It got worse and worse until we were in continual pain any time we were weren't in pain when we were asleep.

Captain John Ridgway10:18

That's terrible.

Presenter10:20

Uh

Captain John Ridgway10:20

The Another red.

Presenter10:21

It's your turn, Captain Richway.

Captain John Ridgway10:23

Yes, um for this one, in fact I've chosen the noisiest piece of Ternhauser.

Captain John Ridgway10:30

This in fact was my wife's record. When when we got married we lived up in northwest Sutherland for a period. I was out of the army for about six months.

Captain John Ridgway10:37

Working on salmon netting and uh loading fish boxes and such like.

Captain John Ridgway10:43

And when we were depressed we used to listen particularly to this.

Captain John Ridgway10:46

Uh record

Captain John Ridgway10:48

And it's the kind of music, as I've said before.

Captain John Ridgway10:51

Which uh does inspire me. It's very unsubtle and uh it means a lot to me.

Presenter10:58

The closing passage of the Overture to Taunnhuizer.

Presenter11:02

The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Herbert von Carian.

Presenter11:06

Now, Sergeant Blythe, in the hurricane the first hurricane, you had a lot of your food supplies spoiled, didn't you?

Speaker 211:11

Yes, we had the food packed in polystyrene boxes, and some of the lids got cracked.

Speaker 211:17

The water would seep in and gradually fill up the boxes.

Speaker 211:21

The food was then in turn packed in a

Speaker 211:24

and plastic.

Speaker 211:26

and waterproof bags, which weren't waterproof.

Speaker 211:29

and the water used to seep in there and destroy it. We had probably about two days of it, two full days of rations.

Speaker 211:36

Um destroyed of each week's Russians.

Presenter11:39

This puts you on very short rations indeed.

Speaker 211:42

It put us on short rations, yes, we are on low-calorie rations then.

Presenter11:45

to the extent that you both suffered from weakness.

Speaker 211:48

Yes, I think we're worn down after a while.

Presenter11:51

You went through this gruelling ordeal together. On top of grim hardships there must have been countless petty irritations. Were there any quarrels?

Speaker 212:02

No, w we didn't, um, quarrel at all. We would discuss anything rather than quarrel. We had in fact had practice at not not quarrelling by the fact that when we were on canoeing, another sort of

Speaker 212:15

things which you done together. We tried particularly not to quarrel.

Presenter12:20

Now you had your emergency transmitter which could have put out the International May Day Distress Call.

Presenter12:25

Was there any moment when you felt like giving up?

Presenter12:29

Uh

Captain John Ridgway12:29

Um

Captain John Ridgway12:31

I don't think the

Captain John Ridgway12:32

We ever f really felt like giving up. We did discuss the possibility about three hundred miles off Ireland.

Captain John Ridgway12:39

When

Captain John Ridgway12:40

We'd come a long way north, the weather was particularly cold, and we were going through a really fearful storm. Or we had been through it, it was beginning to slacken off a bit, and I felt that I had to at least offer some guide the chance of

Captain John Ridgway12:55

giving up because

Captain John Ridgway12:58

We were approaching Ireland, which is a very bad coast, and it was coming into September, and I was expecting equinoctial gales and so on.

Captain John Ridgway13:06

And I thought that this wasn't really worth dying for.

Captain John Ridgway13:10

And therefore

Captain John Ridgway13:12

My idea was that should he want to give up,

Captain John Ridgway13:16

We should hang about until we met a ship, or until we met the next ship, and then we should get aboard that, if he wanted to.

Captain John Ridgway13:22

Not use the radio at all.

Presenter13:24

Hmm.

Captain John Ridgway13:24

He decided that.

Captain John Ridgway13:26

Having come this far we weren't bloody well going to finish and uh so we went on.

Presenter13:29

Yeah.

Captain John Ridgway13:31

And uh finished laughing.

Presenter13:33

Looking back apart from that time of despair, what was the worst thing about the voyage?

Presenter13:40

Yeah.

Captain John Ridgway13:40

Well

Captain John Ridgway13:42

I think there are two ways of looking at this. There was

Captain John Ridgway13:46

The period of depression.

Captain John Ridgway13:48

Which ensued early on when the navigation went slightly wrong. The sextant was uh

Captain John Ridgway13:54

unscrewed and we found we were either in Vermont or up the Bay of Fundy. However, this was corrected, but at the time this was a very grave blow'cause we'd only just started.

Captain John Ridgway14:05

And then I remember right out in the middle in really bad conditions sometimes.

Captain John Ridgway14:10

I was wondering if we were going to wear out altogether. Each storm seemed to leave us weaker, and we'd recover when the sun came out, and then we'd get weaker. But each storm we'd be a little bit weaker.

Presenter14:20

Yes.

Captain John Ridgway14:21

Yeah.

Presenter14:21

Also Arbite, it's your turn. Turn to choose a record again. What next?

Speaker 214:25

I think I've of The Road in the Miles to Dundee by Andy Stewart.

Presenter14:29

Why did you choose that?

Speaker 214:30

Uh this record is one of my favourites.

Speaker 214:34

And he's always sort of played on Old Years' Night when sort of all Scotsmen celebrate.

Speaker 214:40

And also this is a the song which boosted us.

Speaker 214:43

When we were getting a bit depressed on the seaweed, I used to sing at the top of my voice in the middle of nowhere.

Presenter14:48

Andy Stewart, The Road and the Miles to Dundee.

Presenter14:52

Now you battled your way across.

Presenter14:55

Three thousand miles of water. You landed in the Isle of Aran. This was rather unexpected, wasn't it? Your wives were waiting for you in the Scilly Isles. Yes, this is true.

Captain John Ridgway15:04

We uh did in fact board a a Finnish ship two hundred and fifty miles off Ireland.

Captain John Ridgway15:11

And I boarded it.

Captain John Ridgway15:13

in order to get a message sent to Lloyds, but in fact they didn't send the last part, which was to say that we were in fact going to Ireland, so everybody expected us to land at Land's End, which was considerably south.

Presenter15:26

Mm-hmm.

Captain John Ridgway15:27

And so there was a misunderstanding there. Consequently, when we did arrive.

Captain John Ridgway15:32

Cause all manner of panic.

Presenter15:34

Nobody, of course, was expecting you. In fact, they did send the lifeboat out for you, thinking that you were in distress.

Captain John Ridgway15:39

Yes, this this is true. We saw the um the lighthouse, which is on

Captain John Ridgway15:45

an island, separate island, and I tried to get through a gap between two islands and to get round in the lee of the lighthouse and get aboard the

Captain John Ridgway15:54

The Lighthouse Island.

Captain John Ridgway15:56

We were waved away from there.

Captain John Ridgway15:59

And we had to cross a piece of sea, I suppose about a mile.

Captain John Ridgway16:03

and there was one island in b in the middle, and then the main island of Aran. As we were going across there, the lighthouse keeper went up to the top of his tower and was peering through the murk in this

Captain John Ridgway16:15

Awfully gloomy day th th the gale was now force nine.

Captain John Ridgway16:20

and down through his telescope he saw us.

Captain John Ridgway16:22

And I've been wanting to go to the loo all day.

Captain John Ridgway16:25

And sir, I said to Sam that

Captain John Ridgway16:27

I'll have to go to the otherwise, you know, we're gonna have an awful disaster here. A very peculiar landing. He said, Well,

Captain John Ridgway16:34

If if you're going to, it'll have to be when you're in the lee of the Middle Island.

Captain John Ridgway16:39

And so when we got

Captain John Ridgway16:40

Behind this middle island I stood up to to get our bucket.

Captain John Ridgway16:44

And in the gloom the lighthouse keeper said, Oh, they're in trouble, he's going to bail out and uh he sent off the l the lifeboat, which they turned up.

Captain John Ridgway16:55

Another an odd story that.

Presenter16:57

They do listen to the radio a lot.

Presenter16:59

In the boat, on the crossing?

Speaker 217:01

Initially we didn't listen to it at all. This is because we didn't have the batteries to spare.

Speaker 217:06

And we didn't want to take a chance of it getting wet.

Speaker 217:09

But as time went on we listened to it more and more and in fact the night it a wave hit it we were listening to the B B C overseas service and

Speaker 217:17

We did in fact hear that

Speaker 217:20

Uh we had been reported.

Speaker 217:22

and that we were safe and well, so it's a great morale booster because it we then knew that our wives knew that we were all right.

Captain John Ridgway17:28

Just previous to this we'd had Desert Island Discs of course with General Cootts of the Salvation Army.

Presenter17:34

Had you read?

Captain John Ridgway17:35

Yes, I listened to the whole programme, in fact I can remember some of the records each as.

Presenter17:39

Hmm.

Captain John Ridgway17:39

It was in the dark about nine o'clock one night.

Captain John Ridgway17:42

What did you talk about most of the time apart from day to day trivia?

Captain John Ridgway17:47

Um

Captain John Ridgway17:48

It was really, I think.

Captain John Ridgway17:50

the past of both of us. And uh we got deeper and deeper, of course, as we got into deeper and deeper water. We did in fact talk incessantly tw uh for twelve hours of each day. We never ran out of conversations, it turned out.

Captain John Ridgway18:05

And we never really argued.

Captain John Ridgway18:07

And I think this this was a tremendous help. Had we not talked, as soon as we found we weren't talking.

Captain John Ridgway18:13

Um

Captain John Ridgway18:14

The Roma become more prominent in our minds.

Captain John Ridgway18:18

And life would become a lot harder. It's your turn to choose another record. It's Vorjak's Letter Home from SummerSong.

Captain John Ridgway18:26

It's really dialogue and uh

Captain John Ridgway18:29

It reminds me of many times in my life when I've

Captain John Ridgway18:33

done unexpected things on the spur of the moment, and they've turned out sometimes disastrously and sometimes very memorable indeed. And his attitude here in this letter um appeals to me.

Captain John Ridgway18:46

I think it's a very nice record.

Presenter18:48

Lawrence Naismith as Vojak in Sama Song.

Presenter18:52

Now I don't have to ask the usual questions about how you two would manage on a desert island, because let's face it, English Rose 3 was a very small desert island really in the middle of the ocean.

Presenter19:04

Now a apart from the normal hazards of the elements, you also ran into danger with whales, didn't you, Sergeant Clark?

Speaker 219:10

Yes, they come up alongside, have a look at us, swim round us a couple of times, and then disappear.

Speaker 219:15

It became frightening at first, but we used to get used to them.

Presenter19:18

And with a boat that size, of course, sharks would be a danger as well.

Speaker 219:22

Well, I think we're more frightened of the whales because of the fact that they could overturn us than

Speaker 219:27

than the sharks.

Presenter19:28

It is your turn again. What have you chosen?

Speaker 219:30

Most of them I've chosen uh Tchaikovsky's eighteen twelve.

Speaker 219:34

The reason for it

Speaker 219:36

Because the first time I went abroad for a long time

Speaker 219:39

or rather twelve months was in sixty one when we went to Bahrain.

Speaker 219:43

By this time I was in the corporal's mares.

Speaker 219:45

Unda

Speaker 219:46

Towards the end of the tour there

Speaker 219:49

We were in a tented camp and we used to get very depressed sometimes.

Speaker 219:54

And there

Speaker 219:55

All the corporals used to get together in an evening and after we had a few beers and everybody got under the influence, we used to play this record and

Speaker 220:03

We all used to conduct.

Presenter20:06

That's a good one to conduct.

Presenter20:08

Tchaikovsky's eighteen twelve overture, The Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Antole Dorati.

Presenter20:15

Whose turn is it now? The last record Oh, it's yours, Captain Ridgewood.

Captain John Ridgway20:18

Yes, for this record I've I've chosen the twenty-third sub. I think almost every British child.

Captain John Ridgway20:25

He has it sometime during his childhood.

Captain John Ridgway20:27

Mike remembered at school very

Captain John Ridgway20:30

Very well indeed.

Captain John Ridgway20:32

It's such a simple

Captain John Ridgway20:33

Peace of

Captain John Ridgway20:35

Writing

Captain John Ridgway20:37

That

Captain John Ridgway20:38

It's very easy for me to understand and I I I found that in times of

Captain John Ridgway20:43

Prolonged stress I've almost always come back to lean on this, and recited to myself.

Captain John Ridgway20:48

or attempted to sing it somewhat tunelessly.

Presenter20:50

The Tremann setting of the twenty third Psalm

Presenter20:53

The Glasgow Orpheus Choir.

Presenter20:56

Now if you could take

Presenter20:57

Each of you, just one of the discs you've chosen, which would it be?

Presenter21:02

Sergeant Blood.

Speaker 221:03

I think I would probably take the son of music.

Presenter21:05

Mhm. Captain Ridgway? I think I'd probably take the Antarctica. And one luxury for each of you.

Presenter21:12

Sergeant Blair.

Speaker 221:13

I think probably I'd take a shaving kit with me.

Presenter21:16

Plenty of soap and spare blade.

Presenter21:18

What about you, Captain Ritter?

Presenter21:20

Uh

Captain John Ridgway21:20

Uh I'd use his soap and blades all right. But I'd like to have um one of those very comfortable leather arm chairs that you see nowadays. Yes. So that I could sit down and work out how to get off the island. And one book each.

Captain John Ridgway21:34

Well

Captain John Ridgway21:35

I think I would really like an anthology of poems, English poems. Uh

Speaker 221:40

Uh

Captain John Ridgway21:40

Yeah. Largely Shelley and Tennyson.

Captain John Ridgway21:43

Sergeant Blythe?

Speaker 221:44

I think probably um a very big dictionary. Every time I go to the dictionary I find it

Speaker 221:49

Instead of looking up one word, I end up looking up a dozen. I can't put it down any hint.

Presenter21:53

Yeah.

Presenter21:54

Right, well, thank you, Captain John Ridgway and Sergeant J. Blythe, for letting us hear your desert island discs. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Speaker 222:00

Thank you, H. Goodbye.

Presenter22:01

Goodbye to what

Speaker 222:02

But