2RHPZ
09-20-2005, 02:54 AM
Trawler steamed into germ warfare site and no one said a word
By Ben Fenton
(Filed: 19/09/2005)
Winston Churchill's government was prepared to let Blackpool suffer the Black Death rather than admit experimenting with germ warfare, a survivor of a test that went awry said yesterday.
Derek Bellerby was a crewman on the trawler Carella from Fleetwood, Lancs, which in Sept 1952 was the focus of panicked signals from the Admiralty after she accidentally sailed through the site of an experiment with pneumonic and bubonic plague germs.
A decision was taken not to stop the fishermen and give them medical checks, but let them steam on towards their home port and to enjoy shore leave that could have started an epidemic in Britain's most famous seaside resort.
"We knew nothing about it at the time and we sailed home to Fleetwood and I have no doubt that me and my mates went off to have quite a few beers in Blackpool and talk to a few friendly ladies, just like we always did," Mr Bellerby, now 73, but then a 20-year-old fisherman, told The Daily Telegraph.
"It sounds like whoever decided to let us do that rather than tell us what had been going on was ready to let Blackpool get infected with this disease, doesn't it?"
The first detailed examination of the disastrous experiment and the resulting cover-up of Cold War biological weapons research will be broadcast on BBC radio this week after members of the Carella's crew and naval officers who took part in the experiments were tracked down by producer Jolyon Jenkins.
Mr Bellerby, who spent 40 years at sea and retired to Hull, said that before he met Mr Jenkins earlier this year, he had no idea that he and his shipmates had come so close to death.
"After I met the BBC chap I checked my records and I realised that it was on that trip that I had this strange thing where my hair started falling out in clumps."
Telegraph (http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/core/Content/displayPrintable.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/09/19/nplag19.xml&site=5)
By Ben Fenton
(Filed: 19/09/2005)
Winston Churchill's government was prepared to let Blackpool suffer the Black Death rather than admit experimenting with germ warfare, a survivor of a test that went awry said yesterday.
Derek Bellerby was a crewman on the trawler Carella from Fleetwood, Lancs, which in Sept 1952 was the focus of panicked signals from the Admiralty after she accidentally sailed through the site of an experiment with pneumonic and bubonic plague germs.
A decision was taken not to stop the fishermen and give them medical checks, but let them steam on towards their home port and to enjoy shore leave that could have started an epidemic in Britain's most famous seaside resort.
"We knew nothing about it at the time and we sailed home to Fleetwood and I have no doubt that me and my mates went off to have quite a few beers in Blackpool and talk to a few friendly ladies, just like we always did," Mr Bellerby, now 73, but then a 20-year-old fisherman, told The Daily Telegraph.
"It sounds like whoever decided to let us do that rather than tell us what had been going on was ready to let Blackpool get infected with this disease, doesn't it?"
The first detailed examination of the disastrous experiment and the resulting cover-up of Cold War biological weapons research will be broadcast on BBC radio this week after members of the Carella's crew and naval officers who took part in the experiments were tracked down by producer Jolyon Jenkins.
Mr Bellerby, who spent 40 years at sea and retired to Hull, said that before he met Mr Jenkins earlier this year, he had no idea that he and his shipmates had come so close to death.
"After I met the BBC chap I checked my records and I realised that it was on that trip that I had this strange thing where my hair started falling out in clumps."
Telegraph (http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/core/Content/displayPrintable.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/09/19/nplag19.xml&site=5)