Gazette and Alnwick featured as cruise ship crosses Equator

The Gazette is well-known in north Northumberland and other parts of the county, but it's not usually mentioned in the middle of the Atlantic.
The court of King Neptune carrying out the sentence on Alan Tait.The court of King Neptune carrying out the sentence on Alan Tait.
The court of King Neptune carrying out the sentence on Alan Tait.

But readers from Rothbury got a pleasant surprise towards the end of last month when the Gazette and Alnwick were featured as a Fred Olsen ship crossed the Equator.

They were on the MV Boudicca travelling from Ascension Island in the middle of the South Atlantic to Dakar, the capital of Senegal, in West Africa, when cruise director Alan Tait made a speech as MC at the ceremony.

Alan Tait at the British Night aboard the cruise ship.Alan Tait at the British Night aboard the cruise ship.
Alan Tait at the British Night aboard the cruise ship.
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He said that he did not need advice about when was a propitious time to cross as he got all the information he needed from the pages of the Northumberland Gazette.

For his presumption, he was tried and convicted at Neptune’s court and thrown in the pool.

Later the same day, he was hosting a British Evening and taught the passengers a new version of Maybe It’s Because I’m a Londoner, which ran ‘Maybe it’s because I’m a Northerner, that I love Alnwick so’.

He even managed to work in a line about the joys of drinking a certain Newcastle Brown Ale, which the ship has on draught.

Alan Tait at the British Night aboard the cruise ship.Alan Tait at the British Night aboard the cruise ship.
Alan Tait at the British Night aboard the cruise ship.
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The ship is not due to return to Southampton until next Thursday.

Alan has worked for Fred Olsen, a UK-based, Norwegian-owned cruise shipping line, for about 20 years.

His dad, Terry Tait, lives in Rothbury and will jointly present a pie and pea supper with entertainment in the village’s Jubilee Hall on Saturday, April 14, along with Jack Wilkinson.