172- The Tramp

Tired of the everyday grind, ever dream of a life of romantic adventure, want to get away from it all, we offer you... escape! Escape! Designed to free you from the four walls of today for a half hour of high adventure!

You are standing on the bridge of a tramp steamer, A ship captain sailing through the vast emptiness of the ocean, while on the deck below you, the crew, a desperate gang of cutthroats and murderers are waiting for a signal that will give them your ship and bring you your death.

Listen now as escape brings you Antony Ellis's exciting story, The Tramp. A stinker. You can smell a rotten carcass of me.

What a stinker. You'll say like a ruddy ace, Tack, you know that art. These were what we've been looking for, Gaudy. Eight knots with the wind behind her. If she don't blow up. I don't like it.

There were six thousand tons of the ugliest tramp I'd ever seen. The paint was scaling off her plates, and you could see the patches of rust. In the fog and mystery loomed over as dark in the night.

We stood on the Liverpool dock, Gaudy, Winkle Jones and me, and we sized her up. Yes, that's what we've been looking for, alright. Where's she band? Baron Kea, we ne... When you find out that the pub a bit ago she short-ended on crew too.

What's the cargo? What we've been waiting for. Scrap. Go! Skipper's name is Blee. He should be easy, drinks too much all the time, you know the con. He was in the pub too. I still say she's too bloody slow.