Guernsey ferry passengers go on strike

This week in Guernsey
Guernsey abolished the death penalty for murder this week in 1964, one year ahead of the mainland. The abolition came after a two hour debate in the States, at the end of which 34 voted in favour of its scrapping, and 19 voted to retain the penalty. At the time, Guernsey hadn’t executed anyone in the previous 110 years, since the hanging of John Tapner had gone horribly wrong.
If you need something to watch during lockdown, consider Guernsey-set film The Sea Devils, starring Rock Hudson, which opened in cinemas this week in 1953. Based loosely on the plot of Victor Hugo’s Toilers of the Sea, it was set at a time when England and France were at war, and a Guernsey fisherman rescued a beautiful woman, who turned out to be a secret agent…
Guernsey ferry passengers staged a sit-in this week in 1976, refusing to leave Sealink’s Earl Godwin, which was stranded at Weymouth. The Channel Islands had been cut off from the outside world by a ship stewards’ strike, and the 700 passengers were protesting the inconvenience, one month after an engine failure had left the same ferry stuck in the very same port.
The first ever Muratti football match took place this week in 1905 at Springfield Stadium on Jersey. Guernsey beat Alderney 6-0 in the semi, and went on to beat Jersey 1-0 in the final.
A pair of murder suspects stole a boat from St Peter Port this week in 1979, with sufficient fuel to sail 600 miles. Interpol and the French coastguard joined the search for the pair, who were accused of murdering a Thames Water engineer in woodland near Dunsfold. They were eventually found beached on a sandbank, sent back to the mainland to stand trial, and jailed for life.
The Priaulx Library opened for the first time this week in 1899 after Osmond de Beauvoir Priaulx left his books and his home, Candie House, to the people of Guernsey. His ashes are now in an urn on display in the library.
A 30ft yacht disappeared on its way to Guernsey this week in 1947. When it eventually turned up several days later, the 24-year-old solo sailor was surprised that anyone had been worried about him. He’d assumed that as the war was by then over he hadn’t needed to tell anyone - even friends or family - what he was up to or where he was going.
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