Eleven rescued ON THE MORNING OF Monday, November 1, 1976, the uss Sellers, a guided missile destroyer, arrived in Jersey waters to pay a courtesy visit. It was originally intended that she should anchor in St Aubin's Bay but as the wind was freshening from the south west she was diverted to Bouley Bay on the north coast of the island. Sellers had only one serviceable ship's boat, a 25' whaleboat, so the States of Jersey fast launch, the 40' Duchess of Normandy, was chartered to help ferry libertymen to and from the jetty at Bouley Bay during her visit.

On the evening of Tuesday, November 2, Duchess of Normandy crewed by Graeme Mercier, her coxswain, Graeme Marett and Jean Rivoallen, began ferrying libertymen back to the ship at 2300. There was a moderate to fresh westerly breeze and a swell.

On the second trip the wind hadveered to west by north and strengthened to force 6 to 7, near gale. The coxswain therefore decided that this would be his last trip, as he considered that it was dangerous to try to put libertymen on the ship in these conditions. He returned to the shelter of the jetty at Bouley Bay and picked up a mooring, intending to go ashore.

In the meanwhile the ship's whaleboat was continuing to ferry the libertymen back to the ship, so Graeme Mercier decided he and his crew had better remain aboard; he was not happy about the conditions in which the whaleboat was working. He also took into consideration the safety of Duchess of Normandy; it was not unknown for moorings to part in Bouley Bay.

At 0204, November 3, uss Sellers radioed Duchess of Normandy asking for help as her whaleboat had been swamped close to the ship and a number of men were in the water. Graeme Mercier immediately called Jersey radio and asked for the lifeboat and any other possible assistance to go to the ship in Bouley Bay. At the same time he cast off and went back to Sellers.

When he reached the ship he found several men holding on to ropes hanging from the stern. He got one aboard, but was assured by Sellers that they could look after the remaining men on the ropes and he was asked to go to the rescue of more men who were with the whaleboat, which was drifting fast to leeward.

Graeme Mercier set off to search for the whaleboat and, on his way, found a lone man clutching a lifejacket. He was got on board the Duchess in a state of exhaustion. After further search the whaleboat was spotted; she was completely waterlogged but upright. Nine men were standing in the well. All were embarked in Duchess of Normandy but in the process one man was injured.

Graeme Mercier subsequently learnt that eight men had scrambled up the side of the destroyer and there were thus a total of 19 survivors. However, the coxswain of the whaleboat thought there had been 20 men aboard in all.

By 0218 Duchess of Normandy had returned to the jetty at Bouley Bay and landed the 11 survivors, several of whom needed medical treatment; an ambulance had been called.

A few minutes later, having cast off from the jetty, Graeme Mercier locatedthe whaleboat which had drifted further to leeward to within about 100' from the cliffs near the Cote du Nord hotel.

His crew managed to get a grapnel into the whaleboat and they towed her clear of the cliffs and back to the shelter of Bouley Bay to check inside the hull for the possible missing American sailor: there was no one on board, so Duchess of Normandy continued to search along the cliff face.

As some of the libertymen had been given leave until 0630 it was not possible to check the entire ship's complement until the muster at 0700. By 0730 it was confirmed that there was no missing man.

During the night both the Jersey and Guernsey lifeboats, the St Catherines ILB, the States of Jersey Fire Service inshore boat and two privately owned boats had been searching for the missing man. The search was called off at 0735.

In addition to the search and rescue operations, Graeme Mercier also acted as a radio link between uss Sellers and Jersey radio.

For this service the thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum have been accorded to Graeme Mercier and vellum service certificates have been presented to Graeme Marett and Jean Rivoallen..