Mystery of the stolen bank flags is solved
IN 1982-3 I was on a 32ft yacht called Humming Top. We called into St Peter Port on our way to the Med, along with hundreds of other yachts from outside the Med, heading there for the summer. It was a bank holiday and the Midland Bank had two flags flying from the roof, the St George’s Cross and the Midland Bank house flag (yellow flag with black dots in a circle and a griffin in the centre). Myself and the other deckhand, Alistair, who was English, had been drinking at the Yacht Club and came back to our yacht in the early hours.
Alistair then decided he wanted the St George’s Cross flag as a souvenir. He stumbled up the street and left me watching. I tried to talk him out of it but he was not listening. I thought he would eventually give up because the building was maybe four levels high. He disappeared up the road and after a while I saw the flag come down. Nothing happened for quite a while. I started to worry. Eventually I gave up waiting and went to take a look, I thought he may have fallen off the roof or been arrested. Once on the main street I could see further down the road and saw that there was scaffolding up the front of the building. Sure enough, it was very easy to access the top. Once I was on the top level it was a matter of going from roof to roof until I was at the flag poles. When I got there Alistair was sitting on the roof trying to chew through the flag lanyard. He was doing this because he had no knowledge of how to undo sister clips which is what most flags have as a fastener. I was pretty annoyed by this because they take seconds to undo.
I unclipped the flag and then decided I would have the house flag as my souvenir. We went back to the Humming Top and eventually crashed out.
The next morning we saw a bobby on the roof, with his notepad out, scratching his head. We thought it was hilarious. Unfortunately for us, the skipper of our boat was very straight-laced and had a different opinion.
We sailed that morning even though we were supposed to stay another day. We were the only vessel that did because the weather was terrible out there. Our punishment was getting pummelled for six days going across the Bay of Biscay to La Coruna in Spain.
I was hired to get the yacht to Bodrum in Turkey, but ended up jumping ship in Gibraltar and joining another yacht.
But that’s another story.
I eventually returned home to New Zealand and continued my seafaring career. I still have that house flag, which was the start of my collection of flags. I have quite a few now. I presume your paper ran a story on this back in 1982 or 1983? Maybe you would like to close the case now?
ANTHONY PETTIFER