Captain Frank Craske
My
brother, Francis Christian Craske, was born on 11 October 1939 at The Bottle and
Glass public house, Northorpe Lane, Donington, which was managed by his parents,
Francis and Ann Craske. I followed on 8 August 1942. Soon after this our father
was conscripted into the Royal Navy and the rest of the family moved to
Sheringham, Norfolk, where his seafaring family had lived for generations.
Frank grew up by the sea and became a Sea Scout before joining the Air Training
Corps at Paston (North Walsham Grammar School, where Nelson was a former pupil).
For a form prize at school he chose ‘Flags, Funnels and Hull Colours’ and was
also given ‘Ship Recognition – Merchant Ships’ from his Dad, an auxiliary
coastguard. It was his natural choice of career.
Frank left Paston on his sixteenth birthday, before taking his ‘O’ levels, much
to the dismay of the Headmaster who wrote to my parents, as a result of which he
joined the Prince of Wales Sea Training School in Dover in January 1956, until
22 April 1956. He joined the Port Victor as a deck boy in May 1956. He was
awarded the HRH Prince of Wales Certificate which he received at the Mansion
House from the Minister of Transport the following year on his return to the UK.
He
progressed rapidly through the various ranks, mainly on foreign going ships,
until 1961 when he decided to concentrate on home trade. He obtained his Home
Trade Master’s Certificate in June 1963 and eventually became Commodore Master
of P&O Tankships.
Unfortunately he suffered a brain haemorrhage in 1994 but made a good recovery
from the operation at Middlesbrough Hospital. Medical retirement thus followed
and he was unable to continue at sea.
Frank never married and was always a caring and
considerate son to his parents, visiting them each leave and making sure they
were not in need of anything. In 1973 he bought a house in Kessingland, Suffolk,
where he lived quietly with his rescued border collie, Sally. He always loved
flowers and birds and spent a great deal of time in his garden growing plants
which would provide the birds with food during the winter and also attract
butterflies. My husband and I spent several holidays with him on The Broads and
another in the cottage where we grew up. He kept in touch with many colleagues
from sea.
He became ill in May and his health gradually deteriorated until his death from
cancer in Southwold Community Hospital on 10 December 2005, aged 66. His ashes
were scattered at sea by Lowestoft Lifeboat.
Ann Dennis