Injured man A YACHT AGROUND in Worbarrow Bay was reported to the deputy launching authority of Weymouth lifeboat station at 0006 on Sunday September 24, 1978, and at 0030 the 54ft Arun lifeboat Tony Vandervell, with Coxswain Alfred Pavey in command, slipped her moorings and headed for Worbarrow Bay, about nine miles to the east.

It was an extremely dark night with an overcast sky. The wind was westerly force 3. It was high water and there was a ground swell of eight to ten feet.

Communication with the Coastguardwas established on Channel 0 VHP, and it was learned that there was a very seriously injured man on the cliff at Worbarrow Tout, about eight feet above water level, and that the only possible means of taking him off would be by sea.

Coxswain Pavey decided that the lifeboat's inflatable dinghy would have to be used but first, on arrival at the scene at 0110, he took the lifeboat within a few feet of the rocks where the casualty lay to make a thorough appraisal of the situation which the dinghy would encounter.

The injured man was seen to be lying face down on the rocks. He had a Coastguard strop around him, the line from which was held by Coastguard Gerald Plant, who had made the very difficult and dangerous climb down over the cliffs and was now astride a pinnacle of rock about two feet above the casualty's head.

The yacht, Sartorious, was already smashing up on the rocks below the injured man as Coxswain Pavey took the lifeboat into deeper water to launch the dinghy. Tony Vandervell had only about 100 feet within which to manoeuvre between the shallow ledges.

She rolled heavily as she lay beam-on to the swells in this confined area so that launching the dinghy was only accomplished with difficulty. Coxswain Pavey kept one of his crew on the searchlight and another on the Aldis lamp, illuminating the casualty and the dinghy, while a third crew member was assigned to report constantly on the echo sounder readings.

With Motor Mechanic Derek Sargent as helmsman, Second Coxswain Victor Pitman, a qualified first aider, embarked in the dinghy taking with him the Neil Robertson stretcher. Another survivor had told the Coastguard that the injured man was only semiconscious.

After some difficulty. Motor Mechanic Sargent found a place where he could bring the dinghy in to the rocks near the casualty and Second Coxswain Pitman jumped ashore with the stretcher. He was faced with a 45-degree slope of rock to climb which, even in daylight, would have been hazardous. Meanwhile, Motor Mechanic Sargent lay off in the dinghy and tried to circle clear of rocks. There were nevertheless a number of anxious moments when the skeg struck rocks and the engine stalled, although it always restarted with the first pull.

On reaching the casualty, Second Coxswain Pitman found that the man had three large cuts across his back, which later required 16 stitches, and a head wound which would also have to be stitched. It was also found later that he had six broken ribs. He was a big man, six feet tall and weighing between 14 and 15 stone and the second coxswain had great difficulty in getting the stretcher around him, particularly as it was apparent that he was severelyinjured above the waist, and there were only footholds on the rocks.

Eventually, with the man secured in the stretcher, Vic Pitman passed the stretcher's headrope up to Gerald Plant, who was still holding the strop rope; he then took the rope off the Coastguard strop and secured it to the head ring of the stretcher for lowering down the rock face. Motor Mechanic Sargent brought the dinghy in again to the same place as before while Second Coxswain Pitman, helped by the uninjured yachtsman, worked the casualty slowly round the cliff to a point above the dinghy. With Coastguard Plant paying out the rope, the two men edged the stretcher down to the dinghy's bow level, Motor Mechanic Sargent coming forward to help lift it on board. With Vic Pitman embarked, Derek Sargent took the dinghy back to the lifeboat.

The lifeboat was turned head to swell and it took four men on deck to bring the injured man aboard while Coxswain Pavey manned the searchlight himself so that he could see to keep the boat clear of the rocks.

Such were the difficulties and hazards of the situation that it had taken an hour and a quarter to embark the injured man in the lifeboat. While Second Coxswain Pitman accompanied him on board, Motor Mechanic Sargent, with Crew Member Bernard Wills, took the inflatable dinghy once more inshore to bring the second man out to the lifeboat. He then returned to take off Coastguard Plant, landing him on a nearby beach with the remainder of the Coastguard team; with them was the third member of the yacht's crew, who had originally raised the alarm by a seemingly impossible feat of cliff climbing, and he was ferried out to the lifeboat.

The lifeboat arrived at Weymouth at about 0340.

For this service the thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum were accorded to Second Coxswain Victor J.

Pitman. Framed letters of thanks signed by Major-General Ralph Farrant, chairman of the Institution, were presented to Coxswain Alfred T. Pavey and Motor Mechanic Derek J. Sargent, and vellum service certificates were presented to Emergency Mechanic Eric L. Pavey and Crew Members Bertie Legge, Chris Tett, Bernard R. Wills and Colin E. Pavey. A letter was sent from the RNLI to the chief coastguard complimenting Coastguard Gerald Plant on his part in the service..