Lone fisherman rescued after boat sank off Anvil Point


A lone fisherman was rescued off Anvil Point in the early hours of this morning after his trawler started taking on water and quickly sank.

HM Coastguard picked up a Mayday call from the boat, which was around half a mile southwest of Anvil Point, on the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset, at 2.10am this morning and within minutes had broadcast a Mayday to nearby vessels. Two RNLI lifeboats from Swanage were sent. 

This Mayday was picked up by those onboard a pleasure vessel in the area, who also reported spotting red flares. Thanks to this, they were able to get on scene very quickly and spotted the man, whose boat had sunk rapidly, in the water.  

They remained with the fisherman until a lifeboat arrived at 2.37am He was taken from the water by the lifeboat back to Swanage, where he was met by South West Ambulance Service. 

Duty controller for HM Coastguard Dai Jones said: ‘There is no doubt in my mind that this fisherman kept his head and did all the right things.

“When his vessel began taking on water he immediately put out the Mayday call which we picked up. The flares which he set off meant the vessel which came to his aid could pinpoint where he was sinking within minutes.

“He had his lifejacket on, and the lights on that lifejacket made it easy for him to be spotted in the water. All of his actions gave him the best possible chance of survival and, remarkably, within 25 minutes of making that Mayday call, he was safely onboard the lifeboat.

“He was cold and in a state of shock but otherwise unharmed. Had he not acted in the way he did, things may have ended differently.

Popular posts from this blog

Label your kit at the coast

Image
Kayaks. Canoes. Paddleboards. What do they all have in common? They’re quite often found on the coastline or drifting out to sea. And if we don’t know who they belong to, we can spend time searching for an owner when they’re home safe and sound. So please help us to help you. Label your kit so that if you do get separated from it, and it turns up somewhere, we can get hold of you. In recent weeks, our Coastguard Rescue Teams have found numerous items such as kayaks and canoes drifting out at sea or abandoned near the shoreline. Unfortunately, some of the items we have found have not had their owners’ contact details written on them nor been reported as missing to the Coastguard. As a result, it makes it difficult for us to find out who it belongs to and also means we can never be completely sure if someone is safe or in the worst case, in trouble at sea. This can place a huge strain on our resources especially during the busy summer period when we have to call upon our Coastgua
Read more

A short history of HM Coastguard

Image
Today HM Coastguard is a world leader in maritime search and rescue. Looking back almost 200 years, the goods, which now travel by road, were carried by hundreds of small ships. Year in year out dozens of ships and hundreds of lives were lost within sight of the coast. Public shock and dismay at the tragedies drove forward the creation of national life saving organisations. Though it’s beginnings lie in those decades HM Coastguard originated not to meet the dangers of the seas but to combat a threat to the country’s economy and security – smuggling. As soon as medieval taxes were charged on imports and exports, people began smuggling. By 1743 th e estimate was that half the tea drunk in Britain was illegally imported and shows that smuggling was highly profitable. Smugglers have often been romanticised but the reality was brutal. Local people lived in fear, with violent reprisals on informers and the murder of revenue officers, while corruption enabled smugglers to evade harsh p
Read more

BOSCASTLE FLOODS: TEN YEARS ON

Image
Boscastle Flooding 16 th August 2004 The storms of Monday 16 August 2004 saw three weeks worth of rain fall in one day. The resulting water began to be funnelled down the valleys surrounding Boscastle and soon the steep roads became rivers. By the time that the water reached the picturesque village, it had picked up enough momentum to become a raging torrent, sweeping into buildings, washing cars away and felling huge trees. Graham King runs the Witches Museum in Boscastle and was also the station officer for the Boscastle Coastguard Rescue Team at the time of the floods: “ My museum is situated next to the harbour near the river ,” says Graham “ and I can see the coastguard equipment store from there. Initially I was concerned that the vehicle and equipment were going to become stranded but I soon began to realise how quickly the situation was deteriorating and called Falmouth Coastguard ” From that point on the villagers and tourists stranded in flood waters were he
Read more