David Ritchie recounts the experience of one Peterhead skipper who opted for decommissioning.
On 19 Feb 2002 the Brighter Dawn (PD 62) slipped her moorings and left her home port of Peterhead for the last time.
Built in Norway in 1974, this was the 26m Brighter Dawn's last trip - to the breaker's yard in Esbjerg in Denmark. Alex Morgan, her skipper for the last 18 years, had decided to apply for and had been awarded a decommissioning grant.
During the trip to Denmark Skipper Morgan spent 36 of the 40 hours in the wheelhouse where he had spent so many hours in solitude through all kinds of weather.
