LIFEBOAT MAGAZINE ARCHIVE

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Sand Star

ARM SEVERED Swanage, Dorset. At 8.45 p.m. on 9th June, 1965, while the assistant honorary secretary, coxswain and other members of the life-boat crew were preparing for the local Ladies Guild fair to be held on the roth June, the coxswain's grand-daughter brought a message from the coastguard saying that a man was injured on board the motor vessel Sand Star and the life-boat was required. The maroons were fired and at 8.54 the lifeboat R.L.P. was launched wrth a police constable on board, in light variable airs and a smooth sea. The tide was ebbing.

A doctor was not immediately available but he was later ferried out. The lifeboat reached the vessel at nine o'clock and the second coxswain, a member of the crew and the police constable rendered first-aid to the Sand Star's second engineer. His right arm had been severed above the elbow. The second coxswain administered morphia and the man was strapped to a Neil Robertson stretcher and was lowered into the lifeboat.

The doctor reached the scene at this stage and examined the injured man who was then taken to the life-boat's slipway, arriving at 9.22, and rushed to hospital. The second engineer's wife sent a letter of appreciation to the coxswain and crew of the life-boat expressing her grateful thanks for the help given to her husband, who was reported to be making a good recovery..