Port St Mary Lifeboat Station - Callouts: 8th September2002.

Weather:fine; visibility very good ;Wind: Southerly force 3

Shortly before 2:00 pm Liverpool Coastguard requested the launch of the lifeboats to go to the aid of divers in Bay Stacka near the Chasms. The rigid inflatable boat (RIB) with them had suffered engine failure; with its one occupant, it was being blown ashore at Rhebeog (the west end of Bay Stacka). Lifeboat deputy launching authority and Ex lifeboat coxswain, Johnny Williams, was aboard his lobster boat `Whisky Galore' hauling lobster pots when he had observed the RIB's helmsman waving and shouting for assistance. Once he and his crewman had got all their string of pots aboard they went over and took the RIB in tow into deeper water. The RIB's helmsman informed him that he still had divers in the water and the craft's radio was faulty. So Johnny alerted Liverpool Coastguard and requested the ALB and ILB attend as he had his decks full with lobster pots and rope.

Relief Trent class lifeboat, 14-29 , "Inner Wheel", under the command of coxswain David Richards arrived on scene a little over ten minutes from when the crew was paged. The ILB arrived a few minutes later. Lobster boat `Whisky Galore' let go the tow of the RIB and it was picked up by the ALB.

The ILB was tasked to pick up the first pair of the divers who had just surfaced off the Castles, Bay Stacka. Their gear and the two divers were quickly recovered and brought over to the RIB which they transferred back to. A further three divers surfaced and they were similarly collected by the ILB and transferred back to their RIB. The last two divers were decompressing below the surface when Port Erin's Atlantic class lifeboat arrived to assist. There was little they could do as the final two surfaced and were collected by the ILB. Port Erin's lifeboat returned back to station.

The ALB then towed the 6.6m rib back to Port St Mary from where they had set out. The final two divers taking the trip back with the ILB. Once off the Alfred pier, the ALB transferred the tow to the ILB and it was towed into the IOMYC slip so that the divers could recover their craft to a road trailer. All were in good condition and non the worse for the experience.

The lifeboats were ready again for service by 3:30 pm

Entering Port St Mary :ALB drops the tow of the RIB and divers whilst the ILB comes alongside it in order to tow it to a slipway for recovery. (Copyright photograph - Alex Maddrell, PSM lifeboat Hon Sec.)

Back to Callouts Index

Edited 8-Sept -02