Prince of Wales boat tragedy that killed 15 remembered 60 years on

“This happened in the morning, at about 11 in the morning, and I was just waiting hours and hours for them to come back – and they didn’t come back,” said Peter.

“I went down to the harbour and I heard two people talking about a boat that had sunk. I asked them what was going on, and they said what it was, and I said ‘My family is on it’ – and they said ‘Go to the police station’.

“I sat in there for what seemed ever and a day, and they took the details.”

The guest house owners came to take him back, while his aunt and uncle drove up to be with him.

“The next morning we went to Dolgellau to the hospital, where they had found three of them – my mother was still missing,” he said.

“My father could swim, but my uncle who identified him said he had had a nasty blow on his head.”

It would be another three days before his mother’s body was found.