Foundation Dinner Hythe & District Rotary Club’s Foundation Dinner in the 13th
century Domus at Beaulieu raised around £1500 for the Rotary Foundation. Among the guests was Crystal Clashing from Antigua in the
Caribbean, who is currently studying at Portsmouth University as part of
the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship scheme. Crystal spoke about the
wonderful opportunity that the scholarship has afforded her and told of her
plans to put what she has learned to good use when she returns to her home
in Antigua. Guest speaker was marine engineer and consultant Eddie Neylon,
who gave a fascinating talk about his involvement in the attempts to rescue
the crew of the Russian submarine Kursk K141 after she sank in the Barents
Sea in August 2000. He told of the obstacles put in the way of the
specialist rescue teams and the frustrations that he and his highly trained
team felt when they were delayed in getting on with the task that they were
well equipped to deal with. He expressed his extreme sorrow that all 118
young submariners lost their lives.
But, he commented, lessons were learned from the tragedy as, when a
smaller Russian submarine got into difficulties, the Russian authorities
called in the British experts promptly and they rescued all 7 crew members. The very successful dinner at the Domus was hosted by Hythe
Rotary Club’s President-Elect John Samuels and compered by Foundation
Committee Chairman Ian Aldous, with a delicious meal prepared by a group
from Hythe & District Inner Wheel.
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Guest speaker Eddie Neylon (left) with Hythe Rotary President-Elect
John Samuels