Birth year recorded
The Ronald Dodsley crew note records his birth year as 1933 and his age as twenty-eight at the time of the disaster.
Crew biography · Survivor · Mate
Ronald Dodsley
Ronald Dodsley was the mate of Arctic Viking, the deck officer junior to the skipper. He survived the capsize and gave important evidence about the ship's final behaviour, the raft, and the conditions that overwhelmed her.
Life and work
The mate aboard Arctic Viking
The Arctic Viking Obsidian research vault records Ronald Dodsley as mate aboard Arctic Viking H452. He was twenty-eight at the time of the disaster. A newspaper report of the Ministry of Transport inquiry gives his address as 103 Hemswell Avenue, Greatfield Estate, Hull.
The mate was the deck officer immediately below the skipper. Dodsley therefore stood close to the working command of the vessel: watches, deck routine, weather observations and the practical handling of the trawler at sea.
His own crew note is brief and says he was also described as an engineer. The main crew lists and inquiry reporting name him as mate, so this page uses that role while keeping the role-note uncertainty visible.
Back to crewHe told the inquiry that the water which struck the vessel was the most fantastic he had seen in thirteen years as a fisherman. Summary from newspaper reporting of Ronald Dodsley's inquiry evidence
18 October 1961
On the bridge as the sea came aboard
Dodsley was on the bridge during the final sequence. Newspaper reporting of his evidence says that, until the waves struck, he had noticed nothing out of the ordinary and felt no sense of emergency. When water went under the whaleback and down a hatch, the trawler heeled over on her port side.
As the ship went over, Dodsley supported himself by hanging on to the spokes of the wheel. This places him beside the wheelhouse struggle also described by David Cressey, who was ordered to hold her hard to starboard as the vessel failed to recover.
Dodsley's evidence mattered because he was both a senior survivor and a working mate. His account helped the inquiry reconstruct not only what he saw, but what the ship felt like to those who had sailed her.
Raft and rescue
Surviving with the missing in sight
After the capsize, Dodsley reached the life raft with other survivors. One of the most painful parts of his reported evidence concerns Dennis Lound. From the raft, Dodsley saw D. Lound waving in the water. The men could not reach him, and by the time they had shipped out the oars, he had disappeared.
Later reporting on the rescue records that Mr R. Dodsley helped push survivors up from the dinghy as the Polish vessel Derkacz brought them aboard in mountainous seas. The same account described a wave lifting the emptied dinghy onto Derkacz's deck.
That detail shows the physical danger continuing even after the raft was found. Rescue was not an instant ending. It was another operation in extreme weather, dependent on exhausted survivors and the skill of the Polish crew.
Inquiry evidence
A witness the court trusted
The Ministry of Transport inquiry treated Dodsley's evidence seriously. In the formal report, the court described the mate as a placid and honest witness. His evidence was especially important on the question of whether fish and ice might have shifted and contributed to the capsize.
Asked whether there was any chance of the fish shifting, Dodsley answered that he did not think so, explaining that each pound was divided several times by boards. The court was impressed by that evidence and accepted that, under conditions he could contemplate, he was right.
The later Waddy court case also returned to Dodsley's experience aboard Arctic Viking. He said he had made about six trips in her and agreed that, during his 11-3 watch, he noticed a slight list to port. He did not regard it as exceptional, though it was more than when the vessel left Hull.
Record trail
What the surviving notes preserve
Mate aboard Arctic Viking
The crew lists record him as mate. His own note adds that he was also described as engineer.
Survives the capsize
Dodsley survived the loss of Arctic Viking and was rescued with thirteen other men by Derkacz.
Inquiry evidence
He gave evidence at the Ministry of Transport inquiry at Hull Guildhall, including evidence on the final seas, hatches and fish stowage.
Waddy court case
His experience of the vessel and evidence about list to port were reported again during the later damages claim.
Sources used include the Arctic Viking Obsidian research vault note for Ronald Dodsley, the combined and MOC crew lists, newspaper reports including "I Learned How To Swim That Morning" and "Proud To Know The Men He Saved", the Ministry of Transport Inquiry report, and Waddy court-case reporting. Where the record is incomplete, the page avoids inventing detail.