Peter Watts was 14-years-old when he lost his mother, father, brother and sister in the boating disaster that killed 15 people on the Mawddach Estuary in Gwynedd on 22 July, 1966. Sixty years later, a memorial recalling all 15 names has been unveiled, giving Peter another chance to return to the place where the tragedy unfolded.
"It's something you don't get over - you learn to live with it."
Peter said the loss has remained with him for life after his entire family died in the sinking of the Prince of Wales pleasure boat. He travelled back from the village he grew up in, near Milton Keynes, to the picturesque estuary for the 60th anniversary ceremony.
He recalled that he had not wanted to take the trip again because he had been on the boat before on previous holidays.
"We'd been on holidays in previous years and I'd been on this boat trip [before] and I didn't want to go again," Peter recalled.
Peter was 14 at the time, old enough to spend the day on his own in the seaside town of Barmouth, where the family was staying in a boarding house. The rest of the family queued to board the Prince of Wales for the eight mile (13km) trip down the estuary to the George III Hotel at Penmaenpool.
The disaster happened when the tide pushed the ferry boat into the Penmaenpool toll bridge across the estuary, flinging the 42 passengers into the water as the vessel was wrecked on the bridge. Local people, including the hotel owner and staff and the toll bridge keeper, ran to help and managed to pull 27 people to safety.
Peter's brother and sister were among the 15 who died, along with two other children. His mother Doreen and father Frederick George also died in the tragedy.
The tragedy led to changes in the law on the number of passengers boats such as the Prince of Wales could carry.
Peter said he spent hours waiting for his family to return after the trip.
"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.
He went to the harbour after hearing people talk about a boat that had sunk.
"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 took him back, and his aunt and uncle drove up to be with him. The next morning the family went to Dolgellau hospital, where three bodies had been found; Peter said his mother was still missing at that stage.
"The next morning we went to Dolgellau to the hospital, where they had found three of them - my mother was still missing," he said.
He added that his father could swim, but an uncle who identified him said he had suffered a severe blow to the head.
"My father could swim, but my uncle who identified him said he had had a nasty blow on his head."
It was another three days before Peter's mother's body was found.
Peter's parents Doreen and Frederick George, seen here on their wedding day, died in the tragedy.
An official inquiry later found the boat was carrying six more passengers than the maximum 36 permitted under its certification. There should also have been two crew members, one on the engine and one on the rudder, but there was only skipper Edward Llewelyn, 73 at the time.
Llewelyn was found by a Board of Trade inquiry to have acted negligently. The boat was also short of lifebelts and buoyancy apparatus was stowed away.
He was ordered to pay £100 towards the inquiry costs, and no prosecutions were ever brought. However, the inquiry did lead to changes in the law governing insurance and the number of passengers boats could carry.
The tragedy led to changes in the law on the number of passengers boats such as the Prince of Wales could carry.
The events left a deep mark on Peter and drew him back to Barmouth and the estuary whenever he could.
"If I've ever been anywhere near Wales, even when I've been going to Holyhead, when we went to Ireland, I'd come round this way," he said.
On the 60th anniversary of the disaster, a special memorial and plaque were unveiled by Dolgellau Town Council to remember those who died.
Peter said the names on the memorial mattered most to him.
"Those 15 people - I didn't want them to be forgotten. Having their names there - that's what I wanted," said Peter.
This picture of Peter's brother and sister, David, 10, and Angela, nine, was taken only a few weeks before the disaster.
A new memorial to the tragedy names each of the victims, including Peter's family.
