AT THE ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL last May the gold medal for outstanding gallantry was presented to Coxswain Michael Scales of St Peter Port, Guernsey, and the silver medal to Coxswain/Mechanic Alexander ' Alastair' Gilchrist of Campbeltown and Coxswain/Mechanic Maurice Hutchens of Sennen Cove. In broad outline, the three services for which these medals were awarded, and which are summarised briefly below, had much in common. All were to commercial vessels, merchant or fishing; all were performed in winds ranging from strong gale to hurricane and in violent seas; all three coxswains were faced with taking off a number of people in these very difficult conditions with the additional complication that most of the survivors were foreign speaking; all three worked with other shipping or SAR helicopters. However, every service is unique, each presenting different problems to which answers must be found, and found without delay, if life is to be saved; but if something of the experience gained on service in extreme conditions can be told, and thus shared, the telling may help others in the future.

So, the morning after they had received their awards. Coxswain Scales, Coxswain Gilchrist and Coxswain Hutchens met with Cdr George Cooper, deputy chief of operations, to talk over their experiences in the storms of 1981.

The two merchant vessels, Bonita and Tungufoss, were listing badly when they were reached respectively by St Peter Port's Arun lifeboat and Sennen Cove's Rother, so that unusual means had to be used to rescue their crews . . . and that is where the discussion began . . .

Cdr George Cooper, deputy chief of operations: Mike, tell us how you found Bonita and how you approached her.

Coxswain Michael Scales, St Peter Port: It was dusk when we reached Bonita.

The light was fading very fast. I could see that her port bilge keel was out of the water, but I didn't know whereabouts in the ship her people were. So we took the Arun down her windward side, which was high out of the water with her bilges up, round her stern and along her leeward side to midships, to her bridge; the wing of the bridge was actually in the water. By this time I was up on the Arun's flying bridge; I had the crew stationed round the deck, with Peter Bisson next to me to help with communications and to handle the searchlight. At first we couldn't see anyone but eventually we saw someone peering out of the wheelhouse window.

Thinking we could probably get the people off the wing bridge, I stuck the lifeboat's nose across the deck, but I quickly abandoned that approach. One of Bonita's two masts could have come crashing down on top of us on the roll and there was debris in the water; the liferaft off the wing of the bridge was in the water, too. I thought, ' we lose an engine, we've had it'. But that was the lee side.

We pulled away a little bit and I went round to the other side of the ship, the windward side where her bilge keel was out of the water. The seas were now very heavy. There was a pilot ladder hanging from the midship boatdeck with a chap halfway down it; but this ladder fell short of the water by about 30 feet and the man would have had to climb over the bilge keel. If he had dropped in the water he would have gone right under, with the suction, and we could not have got anywhere near him. So I decided it would have to be the after end, where we could take them off, penny for penny.

The chap went back up the ladder and now we could see the people underneath the midship lifeboat, which was still in her davits. By shouting and pointing and with messages from Robert Vowles, our mechanic, to the captain of Bonita, who had a portable VHP, we indicated that they should get down to the after end.

Cooper: Did you have any problems with communication, as you were talking to an Ecuadorian vessel? Scales: No. The Danish ship Charlottenborg, which was standing by, was in communication with Bonita's captain all the time and was relaying information.

And the captain himself spoke English.

Starting to make his way aft, one man tried walking on the inside of the rails, but he fell and I think broke his leg. All they could do was lash him to a hatch so that he would not be swept overboard.

In the end, he was the last one off. We couldn't get him, but eventually, while a helicopter was on her way to try and lift him off, he slipped into the sea and the French tug Abeille Languedoc picked him up. Of course, four people had been taken off Bonita by a naval helicopter before we arrived, and another naval helicopter succeeded in taking off one more man while I took the lifeboat up to windward to give the crew a short rest . . . .but that was later, after we had got 16 survivors on board.

Anyway, to go back, Bonita's people started on the long trek down towards the stern, walking on the outside of the hull, outside the rail. When the first group was on the stern I made my first run in. Bonita was laying beam on to the wind. We were running, stern to sea, and I just took the port quarter in.

As she went by two chaps jumped aboard. I remember passing Bonita's propeller and then a third chap jumped, probably just as we left; he may have tried to stop himself but gravity took over and he dived head first into the stanchions and actually into the wheelhouse side. He eventually died as a result of his injuries.

That presented me with a major problem so, while the injured man was being cared for and taken below, I pulled aft, did a circle around and had a think about it. Another thing—there were ropes hanging off Bonita. After that first run in I realised that I could not take my stern that close to the ship without risking losing my engines.

I and the second coxswain, Peter Bougourd, who was on the bow, had a little bit of a conflab and I told him I was going to try running in bow on to the ship and see if I could just jump them aboard like that. By this time the swell was increasing.

Cooper: How much were the ship and the lifeboat moving in relation to one another? Scales: We were both going up and down at the same time, but with the swells breaking and the ship listing and rolling, we were falling at an angle from the quarter on her high side right down past the bottom of her rudder.

Coxswain/Mechanic Maurice Hutchens, Sennen Cove: That's very similar to our job, with Tungufoss.

Scales: It was an actual height of 50 feet.

Cooper: You did a remarkable rescue, but you made it look so simple. Had it been done by a lesser seaman there might have been quite a bit of damage done to the lifeboat. At what stage did you consider using the heaving line technique? Scales: On the first run in bow on we were picked up by a wave and we did a nose dive in towards the transom. So I realised that, with the rise and fall, we could not get that close without the risk of crushing someone, should they fall between the ship and the lifeboat. And within six feet of the rudder it was all white water; they couldn't jump in the water there without being attached to the lifeboat. So I thought the only way was to get a line up to them.

Cooper: Did you have difficulty getting the line across? Scales: Yes. With that force of wind, it was just being blown away. I had to get within about six foot of the vessel and even then it was only the sheer physical effort of the second coxswain which got the heaving line across to the people.

Cooper: When they eventually caught the line, did you tell them to secure it round themselves or just to hang on? Scales: We didn't have time for them to tie it round; it was just a matter of getting in there, contact and pull away enough for them to jump. Having something in their hands gave them the confidence to jump in the water. And I had to control the lifeboat so that we were not picked up by the waves and driven into the stern of the ship; it was a matter of holding her off just enough so that the people could jump in the water without getting crushed, then coming astern and, as soon as they hit the water, giving her a little bit of a burst aft.

Cooper: The system you used obviously works. You rescued 29 people that way.

And Bonita eventually sank, didn't she? Scales: Yes, early the next day.

Cooper: How do Mike's experiences compare with yours, Maurice, when you took your Rother lifeboat out to Tung ufoss? Hutchens: I don't know the tonnage of the vessel you were working with, Mike? Scales: Between six and seven thousand tons gross.

Hutchens: Tungufoss was around five hundred tons gross; a small Icelandic coaster. The situation was very similar, by what Mike was saying. She was listing very severely to port. When we came on scene there was a Sea King helicopter there which had already picked up three of them, but the winchman had had a lot of buffeting around and I think he had been injured. Like Mike, we went around the vessel; probably it was instinct to go round to see what the situation was. We finished up to windward.

I thought I would make a run in to her stern, similar to Mike, and hope somebody would come off. Her stern was a triangular shape in the water; as far as I could see, it was one of those cut off transoms. She had two liferafts already inflated and in the water on the ends of their painters. We tried a couple of runs in, but got tangled up with the liferafts. So then we came in bow up into the wind. A chap jumped into one of the liferafts. They appeared to be a very well disciplined crew. They let the liferaft drift back to leeward and then we went in and picked the man out of the raft: a dead simple job. You could see that they were doing it quite naturally.

They knew that if they let the raft drift off there was a safety margin between them and the ship. We took off two more blokes that way; no bother at all.

The fourth and fifth blokes tried to jump but they just could not get into the raft. They slid down the rope a third of the way and dropped into the water.

They were immediately sucked away with all the turmoil under the coaster's stern and we had to go and search for them. They were right under my bow somewhere; I didn't know exactly where. The crew, second coxswain, mechanic, everybody, was up forward looking and they directed me. And the helicopter crew, without any conversation, kept their light on the area; there was something wrong with their radio and we could only talk to them through the Coastguard. That illumination was very important because the casualty's lights had failed; probably, because of her list, she had got water into her machinery.

Cooper: So you were working with a well-disciplined crew, and you had perfect understanding with the helicopter, with no communication? Hutchens: We did. The pilot, he was very young, anticipated what we were doing all the time. We picked these two chaps out of the water, not without some difficulty, I might add. They were heavy. Picking them up off the fore end of a boat is not easy so we brought them back to the break in the fo'c'sle, one on either side. My crew reached down to pull them up, but they were lively chaps and by no means in distress. And the whole crew had their life jackets on. The Icelandic people proved that night that they were extremely well disciplined. I give them full credit for that.

Scales: Part of Bonita's crew, the Norwegians, were well disciplined but some of the Ecuadorians were not wearing lifejackets. That created a big problem.

Cooper: Alastair, how did you find the crew of Erlo Hills? Coxswain/Mechanic Alexander Gilchrist, Campbeltown: There was a British skipper but the 12 Spaniards in the crew were taking their orders from the Spanish fishing skipper. They didn't really look like seamen, and they were frightened.

Cooper: Erlo Hills' position wasn't known, was it? You had to search for her? Gilchrist: The first information I had was that Erlo Hills was ashore to the west of the Mull of Kintyre, so I just carried on away south. As we were rounding Davarr Light, maybe three miles out, the Coastguards at Clyde told me that they thought the trawler must be on Sanda Island. I went away down, searched Paterson's Rock and then down round the Boiler Reef, past the lighthouse and round the bottom end of Sanda, but there was no boat to be seen. Then I had a funny feeling that maybe if there was a boat ashore it would be to the west. So I hauled the Arun round and started heading west.

Just after that, Ceol Mor, a wee coaster about 380 tons coming back from the Irish Republic through the Sound of Rathlin, saw the trawler. Then we knew exactly where she was. Clyde Coastguard stopped working us and Belfast Coastguard took over. We just kept on running and we got there about half past nine.

There's a place called Doon Bay. It's not really a bay. It's more like a kind of hole with a reef going to the north and a wee reef going to the south, like a crab's claws. Erlo Hills was on the south end of the reef. Ceol Mor was lying off and she asked us to try to get a tow rope from the trawler to her. I knew right away that the people were not going to come off because the rocket brigade was at the top of the cliffs and there were people further back, up in the hills, but there was no attempt to get ashore. So I went away in, up to her stern—her bow was aground but she had a couple of fathoms at the stern— got the tow rope and passed it to the coaster. Ceol Mor started the tow but she could not get her head up into the weather at all; she was pushing up across the sea all the time.

Cooper: Northerly wind? Gilchrist: Aye, it was a northerly wind.

Be about force 9. Ceol Mor's master asked us to come round his side and up across his bow to get a rope and pull his head up into the wind. We had two goes at it. We bust our nylon rope and the whole boat was shaking. I realised it just wasn't going to do and I would probably strain the lifeboat. So Ceol Mor's master said, 'OK. Slip the lifeboat tow'. And he slackened off the tow to the trawler, steamed in a circle, right round, right over the top of his tow rope, right up the side of the reef—it was collosal—and shouted to the trawler, 'Right! Full astern now!' And the two of them just went off like that.

Ceol Mor towed her maybe three quarters of a mile, slipped the tow and then waited about ten minutes. The trawler seemed slightly down by the head and there was a trail of oil coming from her bow, but otherwise she looked OK. So Ceol Mor said that she was carrying on to Cairnryan to get bunkers and would pass information on the radio. Erlo Hills said she would get under way for Campbeltown, to a yard there, and asked if we would stand by.

The trawler started to pull in the tow, but all the time she was drifting further and further into the shore again. I was just going to give her a call and tell her she was getting too close when we saw smoke coming from her funnel. But she started to steam round in circles, getting closer in all the time. Her engine had completely stopped, and I think her rudder had come right round and her propeller had gone into it. I said, 'Maybe you had better come off now,' but they replied, 'No, we want a tow.' She was pretty close to the shore, so the only option was to run up to her, turn the lifeboat round, go astern right up to her stern and get a tow over quickly.

The first time we got the tow on and I put her ahead, maybe I was a bit too quick, because I could see the shore and I was not exactly sure what was underneath us. It was a lee shore. Anyway, I gave her stick too quickly and instead of veering out the tow from the trawler, they made it fast, and it pulled through.

So they pulled in the tow and I got round again and rattled the lifeboat up astern to them. We got the tow over. I went slow ahead and away she came.

Once I had got clear, I could not get the lifeboat up into the wind at all.

When I crossed the sea she was rolling pretty badly, but she felt OK. But after a while, the trawler would drop down the back of a wave and the tow start to snatch and pull the Arun away by the stern. It was none too good. So as soon as I thought the trawler was far enough out, we slipped the tow and called Ceol Mor to ask if she would come back. I don't think we would have been able to tow the trawler to Campbeltown anyway; she was about 350 tons gross.

Cooper: Had you thought of towing her to the south of Rathlin Island? Gilchrist: I thought about that too, right enough, but I was afraid if I got down round the bottom end, into the tide race in the Sound of Rathlin, the chances were I would not be able to manage on my own and the trawler might drift ashore. We were safe where we were; the two of us had plenty of sea room.

Ceol Mor agreed to come back; it took her maybe an hour. We asked if the trawler crew would like to come off, but they refused again. And they would not accept a tow then, either. Whatever we said, they were now determined to wait for a Spanish ship which they said would take them in tow. After about a couple of hours the master of Ceol Mor said, 'I'm running badly short of fuel. I am going to try to go for Campbeltown,' and away he went.

The trawler was speaking by radio to Spain, she was speaking to the Channel Islands and all over the place. Eventually it was decided that they would take a tow. There was no other ship in the vicinity except Ceol Mor, so I radioed her. 'Could you come back?' Her master said if he came back he could only tow the trawler into Church Bay.

'That'll do,' I said, so back he came.

By this time the wind must have been about force 10 and we were starting to get into Macdonnell Race. The wind was northerly and the race was going north. I tried to get a fix on the Decca Navigator later on and I thought it must be broken because we had drifted two miles in 20 minutes. That is six knots.

We tried four times to get the tow rope alongside Ceol Mor. It meant getting close alongside the trawler, coming down to Ceol Mor and manoeuvring my stern up into the stern of the coaster, which was light ship. Her stern would come up and her propeller come out of the water. After a while I was worried that the bite, the slack, of the tow would maybe get washed round her prop and we would drift under her stern. It was no use. We then tried firing a couple of rocket lines, but they both broke.

By now Ceol Mor was so short of fuel she had to leave. So I told the trawler we were going to take off her crew. And they agreed. All our fenders were out.

We fendered our shoulder and starboard side and approached. Her people were all in the wheelhouse by this time.

One of them came out and started to go for the stern, which had a kind of tumblehome effect. I swung the lifeboat's bow round to try to get a shoulder in but as the lifeboat came up he got frightened and moved clear. So I swung back round and came up at the waist of the trawler, into her starboard side. One or two of the crew began to come out and as we rose up beside the trawler the boys would pull them off.

Maybe a couple of them would jump from the poop of the trawler on to the deck of the lifeboat. After about 20 minutes we got the whole lot of them off.

Cooper: Had they put liferafts over the side, like Tungufoss, do you think you would have been able to effect as easier recovery? Gilchrist: I think so. There would have been less damage to the boat and I think we could have got the men more easily.

Cooper: What about you, Mike? Would liferafts have helped with Bonita? Scales: We were going to use the Y class inflatable dinghy originally but we realised that with the swell running up the deck of the ship, the amount of water and its force, there was no way that the people would have been able to get into either their liferaft, off the bridge deck, or even into our dinghy, had we veered her down.

Cooper: What if they had put liferafts over from the stern? Scales: No, they wouldn't have been able to get into them. While we were doing a circle around for a run in, one of the swells carried away a man who was waiting for the heaving line. The wave just picked him off and he was lost; he wasn't wearing a lifejacket. Getting close to the water to get into the liferaft they would have been swept away.

There was so much suction down the side of the vessel, because of her size.

Gilchrist: The trawler was smaller than either of your two merchant vessels and it was easier.

Scales: We had another problem. During the course of the rescue the wind shifted, went round to the north west and increased. Therefore the side which had been sheltered and which was close to the water, was then to windward.

Hutchens: With this liferaft manoeuvre, of course, you get a law of diminishing returns. We started off with 11 crew on Tungufoss. The naval helicopter had already taken off three by the time we got there. Three men were able to jump into the liferaft, one at a time, because the rest of the crew pulled it in. But by the time the three of them had come off, and there were three in the helicopter, the five that were left, with the increasing angle of heel, didn't have the strength to haul the liferaft in.

-Cooper: But, from listening to you all talking, there is something to be said, in a disciplined environment, for using liferafts to recover the people, rather than going alongside the casualty? Gilchrist: Aye, in certain circumstances.

There is less danger of people getting hurt. Erlo Hills' crew had to clamber on to the rail of the trawler first of all, before they could get on to the lifeboat, which was dropping down the side of their boat and coming up. Some would lose their nerve and they had to be snatched off as the lifeboat was coming up. But with the liferaft you have got them clear.

Hutchens: Preferably the men should get into the liferaft one at a time.

Gilchrist: If there could be two ropes from the liferaft, one tethered to the ship and another roping the liferaft in, and if you could keep station you could pull it across. You would have more control.

Cooper: In other words, using a liferaft but with the breeches buoy rig? Gilchrist: That idea. It wouldn't have done in Mike's situation, of course, with the wind shifting, but for me, and maybe Maurice, the wind was steady from one quarter.

Hutchens: The trouble was we had limited time. We could see the vessel going down as well as increasing her list; she was disappearing. It was pretty horrific to see this vessel going out of sight with the people still there. The last two we got away came from the stern.

They slid down the transom top, which would normally be horizontal. That was the most difficult job and that was where we sustained a little damage to our stem and to the planking, trying to station the lifeboat against her stern; her movement was pretty violent.

The last man off, the skipper . . . if it hadn't been for the helicopter I have got an awful feeling he would have been sucked under with her. You know, there is a lot of suction with these vessels.

Cooper: Tungufoss eventually went down as the skipper was picked off? Hutchens: He was left standing in the water on the boat deck and the lifting strop came straight in his mouth. He just grabbed it and away he went.

Tungufoss was under the water by the time he was up 50 feet. We were steaming in over her because I thought at least we would be in there, in the turmoil, so that if he came off we could have a stab at getting him.

Cooper: This was taking place without any communication with the helicopter at all? Hutchens: None whatsoever. We had such a ... I don't know what it was . . . an understanding. It was nothing conscious on my part, I can assure you, He was right there. That boy flying the helicopter was above us all the time.

Nick Houghton is a very skilful pilot.

Scales: Getting together with the helicopter crews, perhaps after an exercise, is very useful. It is surprising how much our brains are thinking alike. We are on the same wavelength.

Hutchens: Talking to Nick Houghton afterwards, he said, 'The greatest problem I had was to know whether I should keep the light on.' I told him, 7 can assure you, from the lifeboatman's point of view, any illumination, even if you just struck a match, would be better than putting the light out.' The more light you have at sea, the better off you are. Then you can see what you are doing. When Tungufoss's lights went out, the helicopter lights made a terrific difference.

Scales: We had a naval helicopter overhead . . . the same sort of thing . . . illumination.

Also at the back of my mind was the thought that if people did break away from the ship and go down her side, then at least the helicopter could track them.

Gilchrist: That's true, even point them out to you and illuminate them.

Cooper: So, in bad weather, with a merchant ship that is listing and where there is a good chance of wreckage in the water, the approach is difficult. Do you think it is best to stand off the ship, keep clear of the wreckage and either use the liferaft method or Mike's method with the heaving line or, if nothing else, perhaps encourage the survivors to jump into the water? Hutchens: It depends on the circumstances.

Whether the ship is going to sink or whether she is just listing. Some vessels with a list can continue steaming.

Scales: Also, if you are in control of the situation, it is important not to get too many people in the water at once. With the heaving line sometimes two at a time were jumping in and, once or twice, one of them broke away from the line as I was pulling away. I had to keep an eye on the bloke in the water and also watch what was going on down the side. I couldn't use my engine on that side while the man on the rope was being dragged along to the cutaway to be brought aboard. All the time I was waiting for the first possible moment I could use the other propeller to go and pick up the man in the water. The great thing was the number of crew we had.

Cooper: You carried extra hands? Scales: We had eight crew, which is my standard callout. We could not have done that job with less crew. They were physically shattered after V/2 hours, the time it took to get the 29 people off.

Hutchens: I would rather take three extra hands than go short.

Cooper: How did your boats handle? Alastair, you haven't had your Arun very long. Were you happy with her? Gilchrist: Oh aye. The boat herself was the best of tools. There was no question of doing a job badly because you hadn't the right tools. The Arun is a good boat and you have got so much at your fingertips, so much at your disposal.

Scales: The boat was the least of my worries. I didn't even think about it.

With an Arun you have complete control of the vessel and you just worry about your crew and the survivors. The boat will do whatever you ask of her.

Cooper: Maurice, you have a Rother, a slightly smaller and less powerful boat.

How did she perform? Hutchens: As a small boat, I am quite happy with our Rother, though I should like a bit more power and I should like a bit more weight. We are a westerly station and when, in bad weather with a south-westerly or a north-westerly wind, we are punching a head sea, I should like to have a heavier boat. Our previous 41ft Watson was an excellent sea boat but I wouldn't swap her for a Rother. After you have had a Rother for a while it gives you a great feeling of confidence that she is a self-righter.

Cooper: Well, gentlemen, I think the discussion is drawing to a close. Thank you all for taking part. It has been most interesting. Is there anything else you would like to add? Gilchrist: Just to say, when we bring survivors ashore, how much is done for them by the Shipwrecked Mariners' Society . . .

Hutchens: . . . and by the National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen. And, of course, at the end of the day, we were very pleased to come back from Tungufoss with seven men on board. It made us feel good. It is what it is all about.

Cooper: And a last word from me . . . It is well to remember again that all the manoeuvres described in such a matter-of-fact way were carried out in winds up to strong gale, storm or hurricane and wild seas as high as 50 feet; also that the people from the two listing merchant vessels were taken off in the hours of darkness. For Sennen Cove's Rother lifeboat, the service started with a hazardous launch and both St Peter Port and Campbeltown Arun lifeboats were laid over a number of times during the passages to or from the casualty..