Richard Fidler

Yep.

Family were a bit sceptical about you.

They thought your family were a bit too rough as guts for them.

So where did you take Joni on your first date?

Now, Pizza Hut in the 70s was a different institution.

I have memories of this.

Yeah.

They had that ad, you know, the pizza goes round and round while you're having a beer.

Like, it was a bit more... There was a tablecloth in those days and Dad could have a beer at the table.

So that was at the upper end of fast food in those days.

So you fell in love quite quickly, and you had all kinds of plans for her 17th birthday.

You were, what, 17, 18?

She was 17?

What did you have in mind for her 17th birthday, Mick?

So you went down to Hobart to join this vessel you'd been rostered on, the Blythe Star.

Yeah.

What kind of a ship was the Blythe Star?

What was the task, the voyage you were supposed to be going on?

So when you arrived at the wharf in Hobart, what scene greeted you there that night when you saw the Blythe Star for the first time?

The ship was in complete darkness.