Page 169 - IT'S A RUM LIFE BOOK TWO "BOSTON 1960 TO 1970"

I needed some help as access was very difficult and enlisted
two of the teenage sons of the Keightley boat building family
who had recently built our new sailing boat “Peregrine”.

Keightley’s also helped by providing me with the space and
facilities to clean the tanks of their accumulated green slimy
coating before I could offer them for sale. The remaining boat
trailer was still around and a steel frame made to enable us to
transport several of these tanks at the same time.
Full details of the origin of the tanks were printed on their
structure; they had been made in 1953 in Chicago for the USAF
for use on Super Sabre fighter jets. They were wing tip
auxiliary fuel tanks and consequently very strong. Their
dimensions were 14 feet long and two feet in circumference at
their widest point; their shape just like a long cigar; very round
at the front and pointed at the rear.
I advertised them in the weekly “Exchange and Mart”
magazine and enquiries came thick and fast; hence my buying
the Rover car to make the collections from the site and bulk
deliveries to clients. All this was now being undertaken at
week-ends and in the evenings; I had no idea how many tanks
were actually on the site, neither did the farmer.

OWNERSHIP
One evening, not too long after I had begun to sell the
tanks, I had two visitors to our home; one was a detective from
the Lincolnshire Police and the other an Australian
businessman. It turned out that the tanks were not in fact
owned by the farmer who had been selling them to me, they
were the property of Mr Archie Marshall an Australian
businessman; Archie was one of my visitors.
My obvious shock at the revelation was evidence sufficient
to convince my visitors that I had not knowingly done anything
illegal. My selling the tanks had come to the notice of Mr

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