Father and son stranded FOUR MINUTES from the time the honorary secretary was alerted, Hastings' 16ftD class inflatable lifeboat was launched, manned by Helmsman Chris Cooper and Crew Members Graham Furness and Steven Martin. It was 1604 on the afternoon of Saturday June 29, 1985, and reports had been received of some people cut off by the tide on Castle Rocks which lie just off Hastings beach, about half a mile to the west of the lifeboat station.

Beyond the harbour arm the lifeboat encountered four foot seas and in the area of the rocks there was a strong flood tide flowing with irregular breaking seas. Although the weather was fine, there was a fresh south-westerly breeze, force 5, blowing.

A man could be seen on the rocks, some 60 yards from the beach and, on another rock, there was a small child about 20 yards further out to sea. A coastguard mobile was already on the scene and suggested by radio that the lifeboat's best approach might be from inshore. Helmsman Chris Cooper decided, however, with only an hour of flood tide, that it would be too shallow to approach from inshore and that the child, to seaward, was in greater need of attention.

The lifeboat was steered to the outer edge of the rocks near to where the child, an 11-year-old boy, was crouching; she was then veered back on the anchor. The strength of the tide swept the lifeboat too far east on the first attempt so the anchor was recovered and the operation repeated further west. As the lifeboat was driven astern, the oars were shipped and, with only a few yards to go to the breaking rocks, the lifeboat was suddenly lifted and dropped by a large sea. The skeg of the engine took the full weight of the boat on an underlying rock and the motor stopped immediately.

Veering more cable, the crew positioned the lifeboat close to the visible rocks; but she could not now be manoeuvred, as her crew presumed that the engine was severely damaged. CrewMember Steven Martin, in overalls and lifejacket, being the tallest and strongest of the three men, immediately decided to enter the water. With the tide rising higher, the boy was calling for help as waves broke heavily over the rock.

Martin first thought he might be able to heave the lifeboat in closer, but soon found this impossible so he walked along the rocks, sometimes up to his chest in water, to get to the child.

Finally, after falling into some deep crevices between the outcrops, he reached the boy who was very frightened, cold (being dressed only in bathing trunks), and with lacerated hands and knees from trying to keep a hold on the rock's rough surface.

Almost immediately a sea washed Steven Martin from the rock, but he managed to regain a hold. Then a second wave swept him off again and although this time he could not get back, he managed to find a hold on the next outcrop a few feet away and indicated to his crew that he was safe.

The time was 1615 when Helmsman Chris Cooper decided that he, being the better swimmer, should enter the water to try to reach the child, leaving Crew Member Graham Furness in charge of the lifeboat. Taking with him a quoit and line for recovery, he swam across the rocks and first helped Steven Martin on to the same rock as the boy. Then he lashed the line around the child, grasped him to his own body and re-entered the sea. Martin shouted to Furness to haul the two back to the lifeboat.

Furness lifted the boy inboard and placed him close up under the canopy while Cooper prepared to swim towards the boy's father who was still on the rock nearer the shore. Before he set off, Furness threw the quoit to Martin, hitting him at the first attempt and with no length of line to spare. Secured to the line, Martin was helped back to the lifeboat while Cooper set off for the second stranded swimmer.

When he reached the man he managed to persuade him he should swim to the beach and so both men set off together, helped by the set of the seas and the wind. By the time he had reached the beach, Cooper had become exhausted and he had to be attended to briefly by waiting ambulancemen.

At 1620, Furness and Martin examined the propeller aboard the lifeboat and decided to try to start the engine. To their surprise it fired at the first attempt; Martin hove up the cable while Furness tended the child who had now become very quiet and was obviously hypothermic. He cradled the boy to his body throughout the return to Hastings beach whilst Martin took the helm. Three minutes later the child was on dry land and in an ambulance on his way to Hastings hospital.

Both crewmen now found they were suffering from delayed shock and were physically tired but, having partly recoveredrecovered the lifeboat, returned to sea within 15 minutes with a third crew member to attend to a windsurfer in difficulties a few hundred yards from the harbour arm. The lifeboat was finally recovered at 1730.

Following this service the thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum were presented to Helmsman Christopher Cooper and Crew Members Graham Furness and Steven Martin..