GO GREEN Get into Vintage...think gifting and collecting too!

circa 1950-60 GAY GIBSON translucent HOUZE black bent glass

• 5 ¾” kidney-shaped Pin Tray Dish Ashtray etc

• gay gibson brilliant gold print on black translucent glass

• The Murder of Gay Gibson

• The Porthole Murder

• Murder Most Foul

Minty estate find. Returns not accepted. Combined shipping available upon buyer request prior to payment.

Eileen Isabella Ronnie 'Gay' Gibson (1926-1947) was a 21-year old actress who was traveling back to England on the Union-Castle Line ship, MV Durban Castle, in October 1947. 'Gay' Gibson was her stage name and she had been on a theatre tour in South Africa with Doreen Mantle. Gibson was returning to London to perform in theatre at the West End. Her presence on board came to the attention of James Camb (born 16 December 1916), a 30-year old steward on the liner. Gibson had been accommodated in cabin 126, B deck, which was in first-class. Camb was seen associating with Gibson, which was against company regulations, and he had been reprimanded over this by a senior officer.

The ship had set sail on 10 October and on the 17th, after a night of dancing, she was escorted home by two friends at 11:30 pm. Some time around 3:00 am the following morning, the duty watchman, a man called Frederick Steer,was awakened by a summons which had been activated from cabin 126. When he arrived at the cabin, he noted that two lights were lit outside Gibson's cabin, one red and one green. One light indicated that the duty steward had been called, whilst the other meant that the duty stewardess had been requested also. Steer thought this strange as usually only one person would be summoned.Steer's knock at the door was answered by Camb who only half-opened the door and informed him that everything was alright.The duty watchman left as he assumed that as a deck steward, Camb had arrived before him to help the passenger. (Maxtone-Graham and others dispute this saying that the duty watchman believed Camb had made good on his boast to sleep with a passenger).

In the morning, the female steward for Gibson's deck, Eileen Field, came to clean her room. She noticed that the bunk was empty, stains on the sheets and the porthole was open. Later, the officer in command of the ship, Captain Patey, interviewed Camb who initially denied any involvement in Gibson's disappearance. When told that the duty watchman saw him at the door, Camb relented and told a story that neither the captain or the ship's doctor could believe. Camb stated that during sexual intercourse, Gibson had died and in a fit of abject panic, because he stood to lose his job and family, Camb pushed Gibson through the porthole. At the time, the ship was 90 miles (140 km) off the coast of West Africa, heading north.Captain Patey ordered the ship to turn around and to scour the water for Gibson's body. Patey also contacted the Union Castle Line offices in London asking for the ship to be met by the police when it arrived in Southampton due to "complications". A return cable was sent to Patey instructing him to "padlock and seal off the room; disturb nothing."

When the ship docked at Cowes Roads in Southampton, police officers were waiting to question Camb who had been confined to his cabin by the ship's crew.Southampton Police were assisted by the Metropolitan Police on the case and forensic evidence was examined at the Metropolitan Police's laboratory at Hendon.This was not uncommon at the time; the Southampton Police Force was quite small and so they asked for help from Scotland Yard. The police in the United Kingdom were involved as even though the murder took place off the coast of West Africa (Portuguese Guinea at the time, now Guinea-Bissau) it was a British ship under British authority, so the prosecution was brought by the British authorities.