Oil rig aground ST PETER PORT SIGNALS STATION received an 'all ships' warning at about 1900 on Wednesday, February 1, 1978, saying that, at 1850, Orion had parted from the German tug Seefalke in position 49°39'N, 03°08'w, and was drifting.

The honorary secretary of the lifeboat station was informed and he alerted the crew who assembled in the boathouse.

The St John Ambulance mobile radar was despatched to Pleinmont Point to plot bearings and positions. The honorary secretary and Coxswain John Petit went to the Port Signals Station to monitor the situation on VHP and plot the casualty.

Strong efforts were being made to reconnect the tow and it was expected for a long time that they would succeed.

The rate of drift of the casualty, which was an oil rig being towed from Rotterdam to Brazil, had been given as 1 V: knots, and it was not clear whether she would pass north or south of Guernsey. By about 2040, however, it had become apparent from Decca positions given by the tug that the rig had been drifting much faster, and VHF/DF bearings confirmed that she was in fact heading for the north west shore. Coxswain Petit therefore decided to intercept her by passing round the north end of the island, and he went to the boathouse.

At 2100 the 52ft Barnett relief lifeboat The John Gellatly Hyndman, on temporary duty at St Peter Port, slipped from her moorings in the harbour with Coxswain Petit in command.

The wind was west north west, strong gale to storm force 9 to 10, the night was dark, visibility was fair with rain showers, and the tide was at half flood.

The lifeboat steamed at her full speed of 9 knots and encountered high seas as soon as she was clear of the lee of the north end of the island. The numerous lights of the oil rig were sighted about 6'/2 miles ahead at about 2205.

The four legs and platform of Orion were mounted on a tanker hull, with the legs extending to about 250 feetabove the waterline. The wind was now gusting to violent storm, force 11, and driving the rig before it at 6 knots. The fore and aft line of the hull was in line with the wind, stern to the wind, and leaving such a wake that she appeared to be under way. At 2230 her skipper asked how long it would be before he was aground and, on being told 'half an hour' replied that he wished to evacuate the rig.

The lifeboat fell in astern of her at 2235 but it was ten minutes before she was able to make radio contact with the casualty to inform her that the lifeboat was now on her port quarter ready to take off survivors. Meanwhile Coxswain Petit feared that the rig would strike the rocks of the North West Grunes and capsize. She in fact just missed them but the tug Seefalke, only 200 yards on the lifeboat's port beam, did touch them. The coxswain took the lifeboat in for as close a look as possible at means of getting the crew off the rig and experienced loss of control at a critical moment when both engines stalled as he put them astern.

Fortunately, Assistant Mechanic Robert Vowles restarted them immediately, which was in time to prevent the lifeboat from over-running the low stern of the tanker hull, over which seas were washing completely at times.

When the lifeboat was finally able to advise Orion of her presence on her quarter the skipper replied that he would lower a scrambling net from his helicopter landing platform, which projected about 50 feet clear of the port side of the hull. It was supported beneath by numerous struts, and, from its outboard end, about 30 feet above the waterline, the scrambling net was lowered. This net was designed for use from the platform when raised in its usual position up the legs of the rig.

Now 60 feet of it trailed in the sea, beside the lifeboat, threatening her propellers.

Two men crawled out across the platform and began to descend on the inside of the scrambling net, presenting the lifeboat with a seemingly impossible manoeuvring problem to get at them. Coxswain Petit, with only a 3 knot advantage over the casualty but with very little time left to effect a rescue, closed the net as it fortuitously twisted sideways so that four lifeboatmen could drag one man aboard. As they did so, the net caught on the lifeboat's anchor fluke and guardrails just as the lifeboat dipped into a trough.

The net snapped taut catapulting the other man into the sea. The fouled net swung the lifeboat in towards the tanker hull. Fortunately a lifeboatman managed to free the net and the coxswain was able to go full ahead and hard-a-port to avoid hitting the casualty's side. At the same moment, however, the lifeboat lifted on a wave, her mast hit the underside of the platform, breaking off at its base and crashing on top of the starboard side of thewheelhouse, missing everyone on deck. The MF aerials stopped the radar scanner, breaking its belt drive and damaging its forward fairing so that filled with water. The net tangled in the DF loop as it passed aft, carrying the loop away.

Coxswain Petit stopped the lifeboat as soon as she was clear, going astern while the crew threw a line to the man in the water and dragged him aboard with great difficulty. Fortunately he was not a big man. The rig had drifted on and the lifeboat now saw it bounce over an offshore rock and then run hard aground a minute later, remaining level. It was just after 2300.

There was no means of identifying the exact position at this time and the lifeboat crew in fact thought the rig was half a mile further south than it eventually proved to be. It was not until police car lights on shore illuminated some familiar landmarks that Coxswain Petit was able to establish the exact position among the rocks of this most hazardous lee shore. He could see, however, that with the casualty now apparently aground on a fairly even keel, the immediate danger to the crew was over. When, therefore, St Peter Port Signals Station reported that a Sea King helicopter was expecting to arrive at 2340, Coxswain Petit advised Orion not to attempt more evacuation by sea.

The lifeboat's VHF was still working and she used it to report the rig's exact location. She then received instructions to guide the helicopters in with parachute flares and this was duly done at about 2350.

It was impossible for the helicopters to land on the platform and the lifeboat stood by for three more hours while most hazardous series of lifts was carried out by the Sea Kings. Their rotor blades were seemingly within a few feet of the rig's legs in the gusting winds, while the winchmen swung the width of the platform. The survivors could not stand but had to crawl out on to the platform, as the casualty had developed a 9 degree list before once more becoming steady.

At 0245. after they had taken 25 survivors off, the helicopters decided that lifting conditions had become so dangerous that, with Orion now safely jammed into the rocks, the evacuation of the remaining six men should be deferred until conditions improved.

The lifeboat then departed for St Peter Port with her two survivors.

Her VHF now failed, so that she was without any radio communications or radar for the difficult passage out from shore and around the north coast.

Communication with St Peter Port was faintly re-established at 0350, using jury-rigged MF aerial, and hospital transport was requested on arrival for the man who had been in the water.

The lifeboat landed her survivors about 0420 and returned to her moorings at 0430.For this service the silver medal for gallantry has been awarded to Coxswain John H. Petit. The thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum have been accorded to Deputy Coxswain Lloyd de Mouilpied, Motor Mechanic Eric C. Pattimore, Assistant Mechanic Robert Vowles and Crew Members Michael Scales, Robert Hamon, John Webster and John Robilliard..