THE photograph of the Orient Line tanker Garonne in Number Two Dry-dock featured in the Christmas edition on the Packet rekindled some memories for retired Falmouth harbour master Captain David Banks - who served with P&O Lines when he went to sea.

David told me that he paid off the Garonne in Falmouth during late 1962 and went on leave for some weeks before re-joining the ship again here in 1963 for her forthcoming voyage to the Persian Gulf. He served as second officer on the tanker for several voyages.

Garonne is the English version of Gironde, an estuary on the Atlantic coast of France, and the name was used for Orient Line’s first tanker because it was the name of their first (second-hand) steamer acquired in 1878.

Over in Santa Barbara, California, Patrick Hickey is closely following developments surrounding the project to turn Dean Quarry into a super quarry to ship stone for the Swansea Tidal Lagoon.

Patrick writes: “My late grandfather Mr LG Tom (1888-1958) from Newquay, Cornwall, used to own Dean Quarry in the 1940s and early 1950s. I am therefore writing to you in the hope that you may be able to provide further information. To the best of my knowledge my grandfather had quarries at Delabole and at Stepper Point (Padstow) in the 1920s and 1930s and I believe he was involved in providing stone for RAF runways at St Eval in the late 30s and perhaps for the construction of RAF St Mawgan by the Americans during WWII.

"During the 1930s my grandfather and his family lived at Well Park House, Saltash, and at that time he owned and operated Plymouth Coasters Limited but he based himself at Saltash in order to operate coasters out of Plymouth for transporting stone from Dean Quarry.”